I pressed my lips together and said, “Don’t be crazy. Ms. Zimmer is a very talented woman.”
“What the h*ll?” Nora burst out. “Scarlett, what’s gotten into you? What do you mean by that? Are you going to give your man up to her just because she’s a ‘very talented woman’?”
Ashton was still there, so I knew she was doing this on purpose. Thus, I decided to ignore her question.
She clucked her tongue at my silence and said, “Did you two have an argument or something?”
After a pause, she looked at Ashton and said without even blinking, “Did you cheat on Scarlett?”
Ashton’s gaze darkened, and he looked at me. I thought he would get angry, but he seemed to calm down instead and replied, “I don’t sh*t where I eat.”
Simply put, he wouldn’t lay an eye on another woman.
Nora chuckled and nudged me with her elbow. “You better hang on tight to this guy. There aren’t many like him in this day and age.”
I was starting to feel awkward when the waiter jogged toward us and said, “Is the lady in the bathroom a friend of yours? She tripped and fell. It’s rather serious, so you should take a look.”
“She tripped?” Nora immediately went to the bathroom.
I fell silent since it was now just me and Ashton at the table. After a while, I looked at him and said, “You should go check on her.”
He frowned and looked at me. “Are you sure about that?”
I was taken aback by the sudden question before nodding. “Yeah. She might be in trouble.”
He scoffed coldly before suddenly getting up and walking toward the bathroom.
I followed him and spotted Nora helping Rachel out of the bathroom. It really did look rather serious.
Nora saw us and said, “I think she may have twisted or fractured something. She’ll probably need to go to the hospital.”
Rachel’s eyes looked red as if she were trying not to cry. I was surprised, but calmed down and said to Ashton, “You should send her to the hospital. Nora and I are busy, so we won’t be able to make it.”
Nora looked at me, obviously getting annoyed by my attitude. She then frowned and said, “It’s fine. I’ll send her to the hospital.”
“It’s okay. It’s not that bad. I can go on my own,” Rachel piped up. Her voice was quivering, and it sounded as if she were minutes away from sobbing.
Ashton looked at me, and I reached out to tug Nora’s sleeve. “You have to go to the office with me later, remember? Let Mr. Fuller send her instead.”
Nora’s frown was slowly deepening. “Mr. Fuller?” she asked as she glanced at Ashton.
Ashton looked away from me and carried Rachel before walking away wordlessly.
“Sh*t!” Nora cursed. She looked at me as if she were about to cry for my sake. “What’s wrong with you? That’s your husband! Why are you pushing him away?”
I didn’t know how to reply and simply said, “We have nothing to do with each other anymore. Come on. Let’s go to Murphy Corporation.”
“What do you mean? Are you blind? Didn’t you see how he looked at you? Why are you just pushing him away like that? If he did something wrong, just tell him! Stop doing this psychological cold-shoulder stuff. Scarlett, I’m disappointed in you.”
After her angry rant, she walked off without even waiting for me.
I was surprised and finally realized that she was genuinely mad at me. Quickly, I caught up to her and tugged at her arm. “Nora, this is my own problem. You don’t have to worry so much about it.”
She stopped and turned to look at me. Her shiny eyes betrayed her disappointment. “Yes, it’s your problem. But do you know why I’m so mad? Since the first time we met in Venria and ran away together, I could tell you were incredibly smart.
“After that, while we lived in the forest together and you saved me from Abe, I realized you were kind and chivalrous too. I felt like we had similar values and was determined to become good friends with you once we returned to the country. I’m angry now because you’re so different from who I thought you were. I’m not even angry at you; I’m angry at myself. Have you ever treated me as a friend all this while?”
I shook my head. “That’s not the case!”
She scoffed. “Not the case? Scarlett, you’ve never genuinely reached out to anyone. You’ve never loved Ashton, and you’ve never treated any of us as friends. To put it simply, you just treated us like minor characters in your journey of life.”
I was stunned by her rant, and she continued, “You don’t know what friendship means at all. To you, as long as you can hold a conversation with them, then they’re your friend. You even put Tessa at the same level as me, even though she’s despicable. As for Ashton, if you truly love him, there’s no way you could miss the way he’s always looking at you. It’s like he’s constantly tuned into you. Just now, he was silently declining to take responsibility for Rachel, but you forced him too anyway. He keeps stepping back to let you do whatever you want, yet you take it all for granted. Do you actually think what you’re doing is right?”
