Natalie tried to explain, \u201cHe\u2019s had a bit too much to drink, so he\u2019s not in his right mind currently. He\u2026 He\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her words sounded feeble, even to her own ears. In truth, what she really wanted to say was, Jeffrey Foster, you deserve the beating! Serves you right!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, she managed to swallow the words, as she knew that it would only fuel the flames and escalate the situation. Nothing good would come from pissing off Jeffrey.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stephen let out a pained moan, his lips already turning blue from the lack of air.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJeffrey! If you don\u2019t let up, he\u2019ll really choke to death!\u201d Natalie cried anxiously.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Seeing as Jeffrey had no intention of loosening his hold, Natalie threw all caution to the wind. She hurried over to grab his arm and pulled as hard as she could. Her nails dug into his flesh, leaving deep crescent marks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still, it was all in vain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
UN\u00a0<\/p>\n
Panic had tears gathering in her eyes. \u201cJeffrey, I only have this one brother, and he\u2019s the only family I have left! Do you want to turn me into a loner, with no kin left in this world?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even back when Stephen was a mess\u2013squandering the family\u2019s money, indulging himself, and even repeatedly asking her for money\u2013she still hadn\u2019t given up on him. All she had felt was the bitter frustration of wanting him to do better. She had simply tried to limit their\u00a0<\/p>\n
contact.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now that Stephen had changed his ways and was taking his work with Johnson and Chandler seriously, naturally, she had even more reason to protect him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Besides, he had only attacked Jeffrey because he felt indignant on her behalf.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tears shimmered in Natalie\u2019s eyes, and Jeffrey could only stare.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As far as he could remember, he had hardly ever seen her cry before. She was always gentle and soft, with a faint smile curling her lips. She was elegant and poised. Even when she was in low spirits, she had always hidden it well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, at that moment, her tears\u2026 They were akin to daggers stabbing deep into his heart.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jeffrey slowly loosened his hold.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stephen gasped as air rushed back into his lungs, the tense expression on his face relaxing. His legs went weak before he fell to his knees with a thump. The clation of surviving a close brush with death coursed through him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 97\u00a0<\/p>\n
2\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSteph, Steph!\u201d Natalie crouched beside him and asked worriedly, \u201cYou okay?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coughing violently, Stephen waved a hand at her to show that he was fine. He slowly recovered from nearly choking to death.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just as he was about to say something, a pair of shoes appeared in his sight. Abigail had come over. She first shot Stephen and Natalie a glance before hurrying over to Jeffrey.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJeff, you\u2019re hurt!\u201d She lifted a hand to stroke the bruise near his mouth tenderly. \u201cSeriously, why is that Stephen guy always so aggressive? This looks like it\u2019ll take several days to fade\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes he have anger issues or something? Last time, he smashed a wine bottle on my cousin\u2019s head, and this time, he assaulted you. Thankfully, there\u2019s nothing around here that he could have picked up to use as a weapon. Otherwise\u2026 Well, I can\u2019t even bear to think of what might have happened.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jeffrey\u2019s eyes glinted dangerously as he growled, \u201cAs if he would dare.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cActually, I wouldn\u2019t put it past him to have the guts to do that. After all, he knows that Natalie will handle his messes for him, and that\u2019s why he\u2019s so lawless.\u201d Then, Abigail turned to look at Stephen on the ground. She had a vicious look in her eyes. \u201cJeff, you shouldn\u2019t let him off the hook!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Natalie instantly retorted, \u201cAbigail, stop fanning the flames!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Did Abigail think this situation wasn\u2019t messed up enough?\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, Abigail merely replied, \u201cI\u2019m just stating the truth, Natalie. Don\u2019t you think you\u2019re being a little too obvious in playing favorites?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMe? Playing favorites?\u201d Natalie pointed a finger at herself, her expression twisting in\u00a0<\/p>\n
confusion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah!\u201d Abigail nodded. \u201cWhen Stephen first attacked Jeff and had the upper hand, why didn\u2019t you rush over to stop him? You just stood there and did nothing but watch as he pummeled Jeff. It was only later, when Jeff retaliated and had Stephen in a chokehold, that you\u00a0<\/p>\n
immediately came running over.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was on purpose, wasn\u2019t it? You just wanted to see Jeff get beaten up! Maybe you were even the one who instigated things and sent Stephen after Jeff!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 98\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Divorced While Pregnant The Ex-Husband\u2019s Collapse 97 Natalie tried to explain, \u201cHe\u2019s had a bit too much to drink, so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-divorced-upgraded-and-married-rich"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20071\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}