Chapter 6

At the dress salon, the manager was leading Sarah into the fitting room when Alice received a call from a wealthy lady wanting to discuss the details of tomorrow's donated auction items, so she went out to the car to get the documents.

Sarah entered the fitting room alone. The sales associate brought the gown and left. Sarah took the gown into the fitting room and removed her white cashmere coat and jeans.

After putting on the strapless gown, she suddenly heard a ripping sound from the back.

The back of the dress had split open. Had she gained weight recently?

A custom-made gown shouldn't have such poor quality.

As she was wondering, the door handle of the fitting room was suddenly grabbed and twisted.

She was startled.

Fortunately, she had locked the door when she came in, so the person outside couldn't open it.

"Alice, is that you?" she asked in a soft voice, but apart from the violent twisting of the handle, there was no response.

She started panicking. "Who's there?"

"How useless can you be? If you can't open the door, just kick it down!" A familiar voice suddenly said.

"You guys get ready to take pictures. I'm kicking the door," said a male voice. The sound of camera shutters instantly followed.

Sarah saw a dark shadow closing in on the frosted glass door, seemingly about to kick it in. Meanwhile, the tear in the back of her gown kept growing bigger. The dress slipped down from her chest, leaving her in an extremely embarrassing state. If the media captured nude photos of her...

Her reputation would be utterly ruined.

Everything happened in seconds. She cried out in panic, "Alice! Manager! Someone help..."

The person's foot struck the door before anyone could get there.

Bang!

Camera flashes illuminated the empty fitting room.

"Where is she?" One of them quickly noticed something was wrong and exclaimed.

Sarah walked out from the adjacent fitting room and stood at the doorway, her expression cold. "I've already called the cops. None of you is getting away!"

Her purse was in the fitting room, her phone inside. She was just bluffing.

Her gaze was icy as she looked at the group of paparazzi who turned around in shock. Her eyes landed on Haley's face, which had gone completely pale.

Haley stared at Sarah in disbelief, scanning her from head to toe. An oversized, dark gray, checked men's suit jacket that reached her knees completely concealed her excellent figure. Beneath the suit jacket were a pair of beautiful long, straight legs, barefoot on the cold floor.

"Sarah, there must be a misunderstanding. I'm here to help a friend catch a cheater."

Haley shot a look at the reporters, who immediately chimed in, "That's right, Mrs. Ferrell, we're here to catch a cheater."

At that moment, footsteps came from the entrance. Jack approached them slowly, a custom-made black cashmere coat accentuating his noble bearing.

Behind him were a confused Alice and the store manager and sales associates.

Alice was holding documents and her phone, having just finished a call. Seeing Sarah in such a state, she asked anxiously, "Ms. Langdon, what happened to you?"

Sarah patted her hand reassuringly. Even a subordinate who had only worked for her for a few months was concerned for her, while her husband remained expressionless, his gaze sweeping past her without any reaction.

"Jack, thank goodness you're here. I think there's a misunderstanding. I came to help a friend catch a cheater. I didn't know it was Sarah changing in there."

Haley immediately went up to Jack and clung to his arm, complaining pitifully. "If you don't believe me, I'll call my friend right now. She can confirm it."

Jack's expression was indifferent. "It's just a misunderstanding."

"A misunderstanding?"

Just because Haley claimed she was innocent, he dismissed it all as a misunderstanding to protect her.

Sarah had nearly lost her dignity.

Confirm? Haley's so-called friend would only help her.

Sarah clenched her fists. "My gown split open at the back after I put it on, tearing all the way to the waist. Then, someone kicked the door in, and a bunch of reporters instantly snapped photos. You call this a misunderstanding? This is clearly a setup."

"Jack, it really was a misunderstanding! How could I do something like this to Sarah?" Haley argued.

The man's thin lips parted as he unhurriedly said, "I believe you."

"Pull up the security footage!" Sarah looked at the manager.

Sarah wasn't someone the manager could offend, but Jack was the head of an influential family in Seaview. If he stomped his foot, the whole city would tremble. She couldn't afford to offend him either.

Seeing Jack favoring Haley, the manager was at a loss.

Haley burst into pitiful tears. "Sarah, I didn't do it. How can you not believe me? I'm your own sister. Why would I harm you?"

Her sister? She had quite the nerve to say that!

"If you didn't do it, what are you afraid of?" Sarah scoffed. "Are you afraid the truth will come out?"

"I..." Haley's face drained of color. As she floundered, her hand was gently held and comforted by Jack.

After comforting Haley, Jack turned to Sarah. The tenderness in his eyes turned to indifference. He instructed his assistant Kyle, "Look into it."

Kyle respectfully asked the manager to lead the way.

A few minutes later, Kyle returned. "Mr. Ferrell, the manager said the store's surveillance system undergoes maintenance every Wednesday afternoon, so there's no footage."

"That's impossible," Sarah's face went pale. As she murmured in disbelief, Jack's impatient voice reached her ears.

"Happy now?"

His tone was reprimanding her for being unreasonable.

Without waiting for Sarah's reply, he led Haley out of the store.

When he spoke to her, his voice was gentle, as if he was whispering to a lover.

"Why are you going around catching cheaters? You must have too much free time on your hands. I need to find something to keep you busy."

"Jack..." Haley cooed, pressing against his arm.

Seeing this, Sarah raised her voice and said, "I never once said I was in the fitting room. I only said I called the cops on her, and she immediately started explaining. If it wasn't premeditated, how did she know I was in there?"

Their footsteps halted abruptly. Haley looked at Jack in panic, biting her lip. "Jack... I..."

His voice softened even more as he comforted Haley. "There's no need to explain. I know you're not a bad person. Someone must have led you astray."

Jack's cold gaze turned to the reporters behind them. "Break their legs and drive them out of Seaview."

"Jack!" Haley watched in shock as the terrified reporters screamed for help but were gagged and dragged away by his bodyguards.

Haley completely panicked now.

Sarah was equally stunned. Who was he really standing up for?

She saw Jack's hand gently rest on Haley's as he said softly, "Your reputation matters more."

Haley beamed, casting a smug glance back at Sarah.

Watching Jack's cold departing figure, Sarah's eyes stung.

He wasn't standing up for her, he was covering for Haley.

A man of his experience and intelligence in the business world couldn't possibly fail to see that Haley had set her up.

He simply didn't care about the truth or about her dignity.

As for the surveillance footage…

Sarah confronted the manager.

"Mrs. Ferrell, I'm innocent, I swear. Your gown was sent back to the manufacturer for alterations and was just returned this morning. We would never dare to tamper with a gown worth tens of thousands."

"What about the surveillance footage?" Sarah asked the manager.

A luxury gown boutique would never perform surveillance maintenance on a workday!

The manager couldn't afford to offend Mr. Ferrell, but she also couldn't deceive Mrs. Ferrell.

She hesitated for a few seconds, then told the truth. "Mr. Ferrell's men deleted it. I'm sorry, Mrs. Ferrell. My position is too low to intervene.

"We'll refund the full cost of the gown and let you choose another. I hope you can let this matter go."

Not only was Jack aware of what Haley had done, he had also erased the evidence for her.

The cold from the floor crept upward along Sarah's bare feet.

He wasn't worth being heartbroken over, but her heart felt so cold.

She walked out of the dress salon and urgently called Nancy, wanting to know when the divorce would be finalized. She couldn't wait another second.

A few seconds later, the call was answered.