All Chapters of Side Chick Era… Over: Chapter 2441 - Chapter 2450

Tears welled up in Audrey's eyes. "Shayla, I know no matter how I explain myself, you won't believe me, but... our fishing village was so remote, cut off from the outside world. I honestly never saw any of those missing-person notices or the news coverage."Shayla's gaze settled on Audrey's face. This woman really did have a certain kind of prettiness to her. After coming back from the village with Richard, she'd been kept and pampered like a treasure locked away for so long that barely a trace of the countryside remained on her; she'd adapted remarkably fast."You claim you didn't see any of it back then," Shayla said. "I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, just this once. But you've seen it now. And now that you have, I'd think a pure, kindhearted woman like you would already know what she ought to do."Audrey bit her lip unconsciously and said quietly, "Shayla, Richard and I truly love each other... I know you two have history, but the past is the past. If Richard had chosen yo

Shayla was reading in her room when the door was suddenly kicked open.She looked at the furious man standing there and said evenly, "For a man with a woman he loves, barging into another woman's room without knocking is hardly polite."Richard had no patience left to hear her out. He grabbed her chin, his eyes carrying a chill that seemed to seep into the air itself. "Was that news, that trending post, your doing?"Shayla didn't so much as blink. "It wasn't me."Richard looked down at her, loathing thick in his gaze. "And here I thought you were never afraid of anything. Turns out you're the type to do something and then not own up to it."With obvious distaste, Shayla brushed his hand off her chin, picked up a disinfectant wipe from the side table, and slowly wiped down her jaw. She scoffed. "Was it me hiding under your bed, secretly recording you two? Or did I drug you both and force you into bed together? Richard, I warned you not to provoke me. If the two of you would rathe

Silence fell over the room. No one spoke up for Richard. His choice had cost every one of them, and even the shareholders on his own side had no interest in taking his side now.As Richard scanned the faces around the table, it finally hit him why Shayla had said that even as the head of the Kalen Group, he couldn't simply do as he pleased. He was still bound by these shareholders, whether he liked it or not.A stray thought crossed his mind. How had Shayla managed to hold the company together alone all these years? How had she gotten shareholders this obsessed with their own interests to line up behind her decisions?With Audrey still in these people's hands, Richard couldn't afford to fight them head-on. He softened his tone. "What happened was a mistake." He drew a deep breath. "I never intended to divorce Shayla."One of Shayla's shareholders shot back, "You don't intend to divorce her, yet you keep a mistress on the side and flaunt her right in front of the real wife's face.

The instant his memory returned, Richard tore up the divorce agreement, cut Audrey off completely, and sent her away, refusing to see her again. The speed of that turnaround was almost jaw-dropping.But Audrey already knew it had all been foreshadowed. Richard's memory returning was simply the perfect excuse to cover up how far his feelings for Shayla had already shifted. Audrey didn't feel hurt or heartbroken over it. Men were all the same, wanting to have it both ways. He'd only ever been a tool for her to climb the social ladder in the first place. So what if Richard's feelings for Shayla had started stirring? Would Shayla even want a man that Audrey had already had her hands on?Richard hadn't stopped to think that after treating Shayla the way he had while pretending to have amnesia, there was little chance she'd forgive him. Of course, Shayla might never forgive Richard, but from a long-term, practical standpoint, he was still her best option. They had three children togeth

And after that...Richard had forced himself on her. That was when she'd gotten pregnant with Sharon.Shayla refused to let herself dwell on that period of captivity. It was simply too horrible to revisit. Even now, having long since made peace with the past, she could think back on that recording of Audrey and Richard without feeling a thing. But every time she thought back on being held captive like that, the same revulsion rose up in her all over again. If she hadn't eventually played along and pretended to have accepted her fate, she never would have found a way out.She'd once seen the child Audrey bore Richard as a mark of shame. But looking back on it now, she realized that deep down, she herself had still been consumed with resentment and bitterness at the time. That was exactly why she'd found it so hard to accept that child's existence. But then, who at that age, having suffered such injustice and mistreatment, could possibly accept it all with calm grace? It had tak