‘Let’s wait and see,’ I said, giving her a smug little smile. ‘You really don’t know him at all.’
Genevieve gritted her teeth. ‘Well, I’ll be waiting then,’ she said. She simply couldn’t believe Ashton actually cared this much about me.
Her tone then changed, turning into a condescending attack. ‘Mirabelle, I don’t get what you’re thinking. What’s the point of marrying a man who doesn’t love you?’
My face was completely blank. ‘And how exactly do you know he doesn’t love me? If he doesn’t, then why did he marry me? Do you think he loves you? If he did, why didn’t he marry you instead? And don’t give me that line about him being forced. Do you really think Ashton is the kind of man who lets people push him around?’
Genevieve wasn’t about to give up. ‘You know how loyal he is, don’t you? You know the real reason he married you better than I do, surely? He only married you because you helped his company get through that crisis.’ She was desperate to get a rise out of me.
‘Are you delusional? Did he tell you that himself?’
‘Yes, he told me himself,’ Genevieve insisted, though her voice lacked conviction.
I scoffed. ‘Oh, please. You really think I’ll believe a word you’re saying? I’m not falling for your tricks, so don’t even bother trying. I’m telling you now, I’m never going to divorce him. The only way we’ll split is if he decides he doesn’t want me, so you should focus your efforts on him instead.’
I wanted to see what this so-called childhood sweetheart of Ashton’s would do, and how he would deal with her.
I also needed to know what was really going through his mind.
When Ashton dealt with women he disliked, like Rowan Hale and Lea, he could be ruthless, cutting them off without a second thought and using his power to suppress them.
But Genevieve had made her intentions clear from the moment she first appeared, and yet, even though he’d threatened to make her family disappear from Skyline, she was still here, with enough free time to go shopping.
I wanted to know what made Genevieve different in his eyes.
‘Fine then, just you wait,’ Genevieve said, full of misplaced confidence. ‘Don’t come crying to me later.’
I just looked at her, sneering. ‘I have no idea where you get that confidence from.’
Pink Hair whispered something to Genevieve, then gave me a cold glare.
Ashton arrived with his assistant. It wasn’t Dominic, but another man I didn’t recognise.
‘You came.’ I knew he would. All the anger I had felt towards him this morning seemed to vanish as soon as I saw him.
Ashton nodded, his eyes soft as he looked at me.
‘Ash, what are you doing here?’ Genevieve asked, clutching her fists as she slowly walked over to him. Her face was pale. ‘Aren’t you supposed to be busy?’
‘My wife’s business is more important,’ Ashton said flatly. ‘What’s all this about?’
‘I was looking at that bracelet over there,’ I said, pointing towards Pink Hair. ‘And that woman snatched it from me. I saw it first, so why should she just get to take it? I have to have that bracelet.’
‘You like it?’ Ashton asked, glancing at the bracelet clutched in Pink Hair’s hand.
‘Not really, not at first,’ I admitted. ‘But since she wants to fight me for it, I’m not going to let her have it.’
Ashton turned to his assistant. ‘Harry, how’s it going?’
The assistant, who looked a bit like a professor and had a Bluetooth earpiece in his ear, replied, ‘Just reached out to their corporate headquarters. A sale is possible.’
‘Good. Go ahead and handle it,’ Ashton instructed. ‘When the sale concludes, transfer ownership to my wife.’
Ashton’s voice wasn’t loud, but it carried an authority that everyone in the shop could hear. They all stared at him, their faces full of shock.
‘What the...?’ Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on NovєlFіre.net
‘Did he just say he’s buying the entire shop?’
Everyone looked at Ashton in disbelief, especially Genevieve. Her eyebrows were knitted together and her face was sheet white as she walked over to him. ‘Ash, are you insane? You want to buy Verris & Co? And everything in it?’
‘Is there a problem with that?’ Ashton asked, his own eyebrows tightening in a cold expression.
‘Is there a problem? Don’t you know how much money that’s going to cost?’ Genevieve must have thought he’d lost his mind. ‘Verris & Co. is a huge chain. You want to buy all of it?’
‘Of course it matters! That’s going to be hundreds of millions! Your money doesn’t fall from a tree, you know. You worked hard for it. You... you’re going to spend all that for this woman?’
‘Genevieve, that’s my business.’
The look on his face was enough to silence Genevieve. Whatever she was about to say died on her lips.
She rounded on me. ‘Are you just going to let him do this? Do you have any idea how hard he works? He works himself into the ground, pulling all-nighters, skipping meals, and now he’s probably got stomach problems and God knows what else. And for what? So you can just throw his money away?’