Chapter 169
The room buzzed with whispers and gossip.
Serena snapped, “You’re already a mother of two! Can you try not to be so shameless? Because of you, the Fordham family is practically the laughingstock of all of Portside Circle!”
The crowd grew even more incredulous at the news.
“Wait, she’s got two kids? She looks way too young for that!”
“Kids or not, she still cheated. Ugh, who knows how filthy she really is.”
“Completely lacking in decency–disgusting.”
Venomous judgment slithered through the air, subtle and unmistakable.
Celestine finished the last sip of her soup as if none of it touched her.
She glanced toward the entrance, where two more figures hurried in.
A spark of amusement lit her eyes. “Well, now everyone’s here.”
“Celestine, what the hell are you doing?” Chester’s voice was dark, his expression stormy. “Even if you’re unhappy, you can’t just go off with some random guy! Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?”
The moment Serena sent him those photos, he’d had a sinking feeling. And sure enough–Celestine, cheating with another man. While pregnant, no less. The audacity.
Joanna, worried sick after hearing what happened, insisted on coming along–partly to keep Celestine from doing anything reckless, and partly because she needed to apologize, properly and face–to–face.
Chester’s resolve wavered at her insistence, so he brought her.
Joanna clung to Chester, who was teetering at the edge of losing his temper. “Chester, maybe it’s just a misunderstanding. Don’t jump to conclusions. You’ve been spending all your free time with me these days–Celly must feel lonely.”
She turned to Celestine, her face drawn with guilt. “Celly, I’ve been bedridden these past few days…”
Her eyes shimmered with unshed tears, a single drop trembling at the corner. Even a stranger would have felt a pang of pity.
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“That thing I did, it was reckless. I just wanted to help you and Raymond work things out. I… I owe you an apology.”
“You don’t owe her anything!” Chester wrapped a protective arm around Joanna’s slender shoulders, glaring coldly at Celestine. “Joanna only meant well. You dont deserve her guilt, not after everything you’ve done.”
After the incident, Chester had briefly doubted Joanna’s true intentions. But seeing her now, sobbing delicately, explaining herself with such vulnerability–suddenly none of it seemed to matter.
She just loved him too much.
And all he could offer her was money; nothing else. For that, Chester felt a deep, gnawing guilt.
But Celestine? He had given her the title of Mrs. Fordham, given her two children, given her a lifetime of comfort and security. How could she still want more? How could she keep pushing his limits, again and again?
The stares from the crowd only grew more intense.
Celestine calmly finished the last bite of her steak. The way Chester spoke, you’d think she was some irredeemable criminal. No one ever bothered to ask what came before–all they ever did was rush to judge, over and over.
She was so tired of it.
Setting down her knife and fork, she let her weary gaze drift past the four people before her, landing on the woman who’d hurled the nastiest insult moments ago.
“Look closely. That’s my husband, over there, and his friend. Do you see anything wrong with this picture?”
The woman, an impeccably dressed socialite in her forties or fifties, blinked in surprise.
And then it dawned on her; the supposed “husband” was standing there in full view, arms wrapped around another woman, right in front of his wife.
That, she realized, was even more outrageous than cheating in secret.
