Chapter 20
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Chapter 20
“Wealthy families truly do have the wildest stories. Compared to that, my dad just having an affair is so weak,” Xyla said with a sigh.
Lucy questioned, “Are you alright in the head?”
Xyla waved it off. “I’ll tell you another day.”
Then, she turned back to Scarlet and asked, “So, you agreed?”
Scarlet smiled. Technically, it should have been a bitter smile, yet it was so faint that it carried a calm demeanor. It was as if she had already made peace with fate.
Unlike young women from wealthy families like Xyla, Scarlet had lost her parents’ protection at a very young age. She had grown up stumbling through hardship, and all she ever wanted was a safe, uneventful life.
If she had a choice, she would never have stepped into that muddy mess. Back then, she had wanted to refuse. However, Justine was already irritated from being pressured by Emily.
With a sharp tone, Justine stated, “Scarlet, we raised you and paid for your education. Now, the family needs you. You don’t have the right to refuse.”
Xyla, pampered since childhood, couldn’t care less about any of that. She scoffed, “So what? People need to be a little selfish. Screw gratitude and all that nonsense. If you want to repay it, fine. If you don’t, tell them to get lost!
“I mean, you’re just too kind. They tell you to repay a favor, and you actually do it. If my parents died because of someone else, and they still expected gratitude, I’d scam them out of 100 million dollars! Otherwise, what good am I?”
That was too naive. Scamming the Cooper family? Even if Scarlet somehow got the money, she would still need to be alive to spend it.
At that moment, Scarlet only felt tired, and she was mentally exhausted. She brushed it off casually. “Alright. Next time.”
There wouldn’t be a next time.
Seeing that Scarlet was in low spirits, Lucy stopped arguing with Xyla and pulled Scarlet away to eat. At the dining table, when Scarlet mentioned that she had already brought up divorce with William, the piece of meat Lucy was holding fell straight off her fork.
“You’ve finally come to your senses! Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting for this day?” Lucy exclaimed.
Scarlet smiled. “Why does it feel like the whole world wants us to get divorced?”
“Who else besides me?” Lucy questioned.
“Justine, Shaun, and the others. Even the media and himself,” Scarlet said, pausing before mentioning William.
William had probably wanted a divorce for a long time. Even though Lucy had always hoped Scarlet would leave him, hearing that still made her heart tighten.
Lucy wanted the divorce because she saw how Scarlet had been living for the past few years. Others didn’t know, but she did. If no one felt sorry for Scarlet, she did.
“William is just handsome and rich. What’s so great about him? Divorce is the right move. I’ll take you out to meet some college men!” Lucy waved her hand.
Lucy asked, “Do you know what’s harder than diamonds in this world?”
Scarlet was a little distracted, so she failed to stop Lucy in time. Then, Lucy’s voice completely drowned out the restaurant’s violin music. Lucy shouted, “A young man’s dick!”
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Chapter 20
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The violin’s final note went off-key. A waiter holding a tray froze, mouth hanging open. At the next table, a woman in a white dress, who looked innocent and gentle all evening, spat out a mouthful of water straight onto her blind date’s face.
Bathed in the stares coming from all directions, Scarlet no longer had the emotional bandwidth to be sad. She raised a hand to cover her forehead, blocking those looks. Feeling speechless, she said, “Thank you for the comfort. I’m not sad at all now.”
After all, dying of secondhand embarrassment was far more urgent. On the other hand, Lucy didn’t care about the gazes at all. She glared right back at them. With a smug expression, she said, “It works, doesn’t it?”
By the time they finished eating, it was already late. Scarlet and Lucy weren’t headed in the same direction, so they parted ways at the restaurant entrance. Scarlet hailed a cab and headed back to the villa at Wolke Bay.
As the night deepened, the car passed through the streams of lights. After a while, the bustling cityscape outside the window gradually gave way to quieter, more secluded scenery.
Scarlet glanced out the window. The night sky held only a few stars, and in the distance, the faint outline of the northern suburban mountains was visible.
Her gaze lingered there for a long time. Truthfully, she hadn’t expected to fall in love with William in the beginning. Even though they had grown up under the same roof, she had never liked him. In fact, she had found him a little annoying.
To this day, Scarlet still didn’t like eating watermelon because every time she saw one, it reminded her of her bowl cut. Back when William was in school, he was reckless and unruly. He dated and fought. He did it all. Once, he beat up the school bully so badly that the guy ended up getting hospitalized. The school demanded that he call his parents in.
With bruises on his face, he stood there with his hands in his pockets. As arrogant as ever, he said, “My parents are busy. They don’t have the time for such trivial stuff. If you have something to say, just say it to me. I can take responsibility for
myself.”
As such, the teacher called Scarlet instead. They didn’t dare to do much to William, but with Scarlet, they were far less gentle. Their tone was harsh and severe, insisting that she contact someone from the Cooper family immediately.
With no other choice, Scarlet called Justine. Justine assumed she had caused trouble at school and scolded her thoroughly. So, growing up, she always saw William as frivolous, heartless, and a troublemaker.
For someone like Scarlet, who only wanted a quiet life and to avoid trouble at all costs, William was trouble incarnate. There was no love between them at the start.
After the wedding, they were distant. On their wedding night, they slept in separate rooms. Since he couldn’t take time off work, there was no honeymoon either.
Gradually, as time passed, they became more familiar with each other. They stopped feeling like strangers sharing a rental. After they got married, William was nothing like the boy in Scarlet’s memories. He was gentle, always smiling, and very good at coaxing people. If he wanted to, he could make one genuinely happy.
After winter set in, William finally freed up some time and suggested they go on their honeymoon. He booked a trip to Icemere. However, on the day of departure, a sudden blizzard hit, and all flights were canceled.
They ended up staying temporarily at a villa in the northern suburbs, planning to wait for the flight the next day. Unexpectedly, overnight snowfall blocked all the roads, trapping them there.
That winter, the snow fell heavily. Scarlet stayed with William in a secluded mountain villa. Snowflakes flew everywhere
outside the window, but it was warm inside. Day and night, it was just the two of them.
That was where they first slept together. She still remembered that when she was bored one afternoon and leaned against the window, staring at the snow outside, he walked up behind her and followed her gaze.
He asked, “Do you want to build a snowman?”
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Chapter 20
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Scarlet didn’t know whether William had read her mind or simply wanted to play himself. Either way, they were perfectly in sync. Since her parents’ death, it had been many years since anyone had built a snowman with her.
That afternoon, she had a lot of fun. He built one next to hers, deliberately making his taller and bigger. Her mild perfectionism found the mismatch uncomfortable, but he said, “If I’m not a bit taller than you, how can I be your husband?” Upon hearing that, she was stunned. Then, he placed two black grapes on her snowman’s head for eyes. His own snowman got two raisins instead. He stated, “I’m tall, and you have big eyes. Is that fair?”
Scarlet muttered, “My eyes aren’t that big.”
William laughed. “Not big? They’ve practically charmed me to death.”
She turned to look at him. Snow had settled on his eyelashes. His brown eyes curved gently, filled with warmth. Amused, he warned with a smile, “Scarlet, stop staring. If you keep looking at me like that, I’m going to blush.”
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