Chapter 11
He shot a furious glare at Clarinda and tried again and again,
unwilling to give up even as tears rolled down his face. “No!
They won’t have another child!”
He said loudly and fiercely, as if trying to convince himself.
But call after call went unanswered.
Clarinda smiled, “See? I didn’t lie, did I? They already don’t want
you anymore.”
She wasn’t lying at all.
Given how intimate Corbin and Adrienne had been last night,
maybe she was already pregnant.
“You’re lying!”
Leonel cried, fiercely wiping his tears with his sleeves, though
his tears kept falling uncontrollably.
Clarinda picked up her glass of water and walked calmly into
the living room to sit down.
As she turned on her phone, a message from Cecily popped up,
Chapter 11
It was a piece of forwarded entertainment news.
Just then, Sarah walked out of the kitchen with the milk.
Hearing Leonel’s desperate cries, she asked, “What happened?
Why is he crying so miserably?”
Clarinda turned her phone screen toward Sarah. “Perhaps he’s
seen the news and is upset that his mommy is a homewrecker.””
Sarah gaped at the headline and the large photo below.
Corbin Alden, the CEO of the Alden Group, was caught making
out with a mysterious woman at a bar late at night!
Though Leonel was still crying, Sarah–now distracted by the
news–could hardly pay him any mind. She studied Clarinda’s
expression and asked tentatively, “Mrs. Alden … are you alright?
People say all kinds of things online. Maybe the photo is fake.
Perhaps you should wait and ask Mr. Alden in person when he
returns.”
Clarinda nodded faintly before lowering her head to slowly sip
her milk.
The photos weren’t fake.
She had seen it all with her own eyes last night.
Chapter 11
Asking Corbin would be pointless.
Only then did Sarah notice how terribly swollen Clarinda’s eyes
were.
After hesitating for a moment, she slipped back to her room and
called Matilda Blackwell, Corbin’s mother. “Yes, Mrs. Matilda
Alden. I’m afraid Mrs. Clarinda Alden saw the news earlier. She
skipped lunch, and her eyes are red and swollen from crying…”
Those in the Alden’s mansion rarely paid attention to
entertainment gossip.
The news came as a shock to everyone.
Corbin and his sister–in–law?
The Alden family’s reputation was practically down the drain!
Stacey passed out from anger.
The entire mansion descended into chaos.
In contrast, Clarinda remained surprisingly composed.
She finished her milk unhurriedly and made her way upstairs
under Sarah’s sympathetic gaze, pausing only to offer a swollen-
eyed blink in acknowledgement.
n
Chapter 11
The moment she closed her bedroom door, her phone rang–it
was a video call from Cecily.
“It wasn’t me!” Cecily said immediately, raising her hand in
protest.
“Look at the angle of the photo–you can tell it’s not from me,
right?”
“Yes,” Clarinda replied calmly as she walked into the bathroom.
She put Cecily on speaker, placed the phone on the counter, and
took a pair of cooling eye masks from the mini–fridge. “You
wouldn’t have released them so quickly. You’d have tried to
blackmail Corbin first.”
Earlier, while still downstairs, she had looked into it.
The news had broken late last night, but it only began trending
explosively two hours ago.
The way it spread felt organic.
”
It was likely the work of one of Corbin’s business rivals.
Cecily chuckled, her voice tinged with confidence. “What are
you talking about? I’m a lawyer, OK? I don’t do extortion.”
talkin
“Yeah, yeah,” Clarinda echoed perfunctorily.
Chapter 11
“You only charge ‘reasonable fees‘ for managing marital affair
photos.”
“You’re full of nonsense.” Cecily burst into laughter.
After a pause, she grew more puzzled. “Who was behind it
anyway? They spilled everything so eagerly. Will it mess up
your plans? And what’s their motive, really?”
She joked lightly, “Jealousy? Does Adrienne have another
admirer?”
“I don’t think so.”
Clarinda shook her head and put on a facial mask, her voice
muffled. “Well, I don’t know. And honestly, I don’t care–as long
as it doesn’t affect me.”
If she had been the one to personally expose or confront
Adrienne and Corbin, she would have come across as insensible.
But now, with the scandal breaking so publicly, everything had
changed.
She was now seen by everyone as the victim.
***
That evening, the dining table was laden with Clarinda’s
Chapter 11
favorite dishes, all prepared thoughtfully by Sarah.
Yet, still queasy from her hangover, Clarinda had little appetite.
After just a few bites, she pushed her plate away.
Sighing, Sarah comforted her, “Mrs. Clarinda Alden, please don’t
be too upset. Madam Alden was so angry that she was
hospitalized. She will definitely set things right for you. And
Mrs. Matilda Alden asked me to reassure you. She plans to visit
once Madam Alden is feeling a bit better.”
“Madam Alden is hospitalized?”
Clarinda frowned. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“Everyone’s a bit ashamed to face you…”
While gathering the plates, Sarah said, “Besides, you already
seem so heartbroken. We didn’t want to make it worse.”
Clarinda didn’t say anything.
Heartbroken?
She was a bit stunned.
It wasn’t as though she had just found out about Corbin and
Adrienne. Why would she be heartbroken?
Chapter 11
Sarah mistook her silence for bitterness.
After all, most women who married into wealthy families were
expected to endure such humiliations quietly.
Meeting Sarah’s sympathetic gaze, Clarinda chose not to explain.
Whatever the reality might be, on the surface, she was still
Corbin’s wife.
Now that her husband’s affair was trending, she was, in
everyone’s eyes, meant to be the most heartbroken one.
She glanced at the time and stood up. “I’ll go to the hospital to
visit Madam Alden.”
As she reached the entryway, the courtyard gates swung open,
and the familiar black Maybach pulled slowly inside.
Lateefa Khanam is a spirited writer who finds freedom in horse riding. She cherishes her mare and the newborn foal, calling them her little happy family.
