Chapter 180
When Matty saw Carter, he thoughtfully turned to Sharon and said, “Sharon, I’m going to rest now. Come find me when you’re done talking.”
Sharon nodded. “Alright, go ahead.”
She wasn’t leaving without her mother’s necklace. Whether Carter and Kelly would actually honor the bet-that was another matter entirely.
But it didn’t really matter. People like them-shameless and slippery-she’d already anticipated their tricks. The internet might have a short memory, but if it came to it… she had no problem making them go viral again.
“You play the violin?” Carter’s voice was calm and even, but there was something in it she couldn’t quite place.
“I do,” Sharon answered plainly.
He stared at her, his gaze steady. “Why didn’t you ever say anything?”
She gave a faint, slightly bitter smile. “Did you ever ask? After I gave birth, I said I wanted to go back to work. But you told me it wasn’t safe to leave our son with strangers, that I should just stay home and raise him. You didn’t even ask what kind of work I used to do.”
Carter went quiet.
She was right. He had never asked because he hadn’t cared to.
And now, the realization hit him-just how little he actually knew about her.
Sharon didn’t waste time. “The rankings and scores are out. Per our agreement, Kelly needs to return my mother’s necklace. Don’t tell me you’re planning to go back on your word?”
Technically, she should be confronting Kelly directly-it had been their bet.
But the man standing in front of her was Kelly’s biggest protector. Without him, Kelly wouldn’t have dared to cause this much
chaos.
The cruelest part? He was her husband.
Carter’s expression darkened. “You really do think the worst of me.”
Sharon met his eyes. “You’re the one who always assumed the worst of me. Every time Kelly so much as frowned, you accused me of bullying her.”
He had no answer for that. Silence stretched between them.
Finally, he said, “I’ll take you to her.”
Sharon didn’t object. Quietly, she sent Wendy a message.
Kelly had Nate, Theo, Madeline-and Carter himself, who might already be planning something.
She couldn’t go in alone. She needed backup.
Wendy saw the message and stood immediately.
“Xavier,” she said briskly, “Sharon’s ready to collect on that bet with Kelly and Nate. Let’s go enjoy the show.”
A sly smile tugged at her lips. “We need to record this moment. Oh, and…” She glanced around, then leaned in toward Xavier and lowered her voice. “Sharon told me there were plenty of people watching when that bet was made. I bet a lot of them are
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going to want to see how it ends.”
Xavier caught on right away. A smirk played at the corner of his mouth. “Then let’s invite the whole crowd.”
One thing was clear-Sharon wasn’t backing down.
The Biggs family and Kelly were about to be thoroughly humiliated. And publicly, no less.
Xavier was all for it. He liked people like Sharon-people who never forgot a score, and never left a grudge unsettled.
Elsewhere, in another lounge, the atmosphere was suffocating.
No one spoke. Everyone sat in silence-except for Denise, who was muttering to herself like she was starting to come undone.
The rest all wore the same stiff, cold expressions. Humiliated.
The more they had looked down on Sharon before, the harder this slap landed.
Trying to cut through the tension, Nate finally broke the silence.
“Kelly… don’t let it get to you. Sharon just got lucky. She had that famous violin, Shaluna-that’s the only reason she won. Total fluke. And besides, you only lost by 0.1 points.”
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