He said this in a kind tone, looking at her intently.
Ashlyn could do little but sneer. “No, thank you. I think you need more help than I do.”
Her hand came up as she pointed a finger at her head. “There’s something really wrong with you.”
Not waiting for a reply, Ashlyn turned around and began to walk away.
Gordon knew Ashlyn was angry with him by her strong reaction. He continued to look at her as she walked away, barely holding in his anger. Before she was gone completely, he couldn’t help but give the last warning. “Devin is heartless, Ashlyn.”
Ashlyn did not have any outward reaction to his words. She kept walking and quickly vanished around the corner of the corridor.
Gordon looked at Lowell.
There was nothing Lowell dared to say. If he could have hidden behind the wall, he would have.
Gordon’s mood had been terrible lately. He had wanted to skip the dinner party altogether but decided to go at the last moment. It was an accident that he met Ashlyn in the corridor.
“I’m not going into the dinner party. Go without me.”
Gordon left and began walking the same way Ashlyn had gone.
Ashlyn made it into the elevator and watched the doors close in front of her. She thought about Gordon’s hypocritical statement.
It was ironic to hear Gordon say that Devin was heartless. He was no better.
The elevator quickly reached the first floor. The doors slid open.
Devin stood there in front of her. It was amazing that in one day, she ran into both Gordon and Devin.
“What a coincidence to see you here, Ashlyn.” Devin addressed her before she could react.
Ashlyn smiled and replied. “Indeed, it is.”
She nodded politely and stepped out of the elevator.
There was no reason for her to say anything to Gordon. With Devin, however, a brief greeting should be enough.
“Ashlyn,” Devin said as she moved past him.
Ashlyn stopped and couldn’t believe how the day had unraveled. Both Gordon and Devin wanted to talk to her.
Ashlyn didn’t want to ignore Devin’s words the way she had with Gordon. They were still friends, after all.
Ashlyn turned around and looked at Devin.
She smiled faintly. “Is there anything else?”
Devin looked at Ashlyn, smiling.
He paused for a few seconds before saying, “I don’t have a new girlfriend.”
And he didn’t have ex-girlfriends, either.
“You’re not supposed to be telling me this,” Ashlyn said, meeting his gaze.
They looked at each other in silence, neither wanting to be the first to surrender.
Finally, Ashlyn gave up and said, “I need to leave.”
“Okay,” Devin said. He stood there, looking at Ashlyn the same way as before.
Ashlyn didn’t know what to say and instead, looked at Talia, who thought that Ashlyn was trying to tell her something. “Miss Ramos?” she said quizzically.
Ashlyn was embarrassed. She shook her head and said, “Nothing.” Then, she continued on her way out.
Before Talia followed Ashlyn out, she looked at Devin, only to find that he was still looking at Ashlyn. She looked at Ashlyn, who managed to cover quite some distance, and hurried to catch up with her.
Devin stood still, watching Ashlyn’s retreating back until she disappeared out of sight. He then turned to look at the man not far away. “Do you love peeping?”
Gordon’s face darkened at these words and he walked up to Devin. “What are you up to, Devin?”
Devin looked at Gordon with a sneer as he said, “Did I do anything?”
Gordon didn’t want to waste his time talking nonsense with Devin. “You are free to do whatever you want except for hurting Ashlyn! You are naive if you think taking revenge on me by playing with Ashlyn’s feelings is a good idea.”
Devin clicked his tongue. He smiled, but his eyes were cold. “You’re going to be thirty this year, aren’t you, Gordon?” he asked, amused.
“So what?”
Gordon and Devin were of the same age. If Devin wanted to point out that Gordon was old, he needed to take a look at himself.
“You’re thirty years old. Why are you still so childish? Do you think I’m still playing the same trick with you? The fact that I’m pursuing Ashlyn has nothing to do with you,” Devin said, enunciating each word.
But Gordon didn’t believe it. They had been opponents for many years and he knew well the kind of man Devin was. “I won’t buy it. If you do something bad to Ashlyn, I won’t let you go.”
Devin’s amusement increased at this. “If my memory serves me right, it has been eight months since you and Ashlyn divorced, hasn’t it?”
Devin’s words were like a knife stabbing at Gordon’s heart.
But what he said next made Gordon even more desperate. “As an ex-husband, you are in no position to poke your nose into what happens between Ashlyn and me. And this is the last time that I’ll tell you this, Gordon, that I’m serious about Ashlyn. I want to marry her and be with her until death does us apart.”
The expression on Gordon’s face shifted slightly, but he soon came to his senses. He suppressed his emotions and sneered, “The story of a playboy turning his life around only exists in novels. You’d better behave yourself!”
Then, Gordon turned around, intending to walk out of the hotel.
But he had barely taken a few steps when Devin’s voice sounded from behind him.
“Gordon, I have loved Ashlyn for many years.”
Gordon paused for a moment. But he didn’t turn around to look at Devin’s face to check if he was being serious.
Gordon and Devin had been opponents for so many years, so they knew each other quite well. If he were to turn around and see the expression on Devin’s face, he would know Devin meant what he said.
But he resisted the temptation to turn around.
Instead, Gordon resumed walking and left the hotel as fast as he could. Frankly, even he could not explain to himself why he didn’t turn around to look at Devin. He just had the gut feeling that he shouldn’t. And he followed his gut without thinking twice.
It was night. The lights in Bluepond were bright and could be seen from afar. And there were quite a number of people milling around too.
When he finally brought his car to a halt, Gordon looked around and found that he was in the suburbs. He had not intended to come here, but now that he was here, it didn’t look so bad.
The environment was very quiet. There were no sounds, except that of other cars driving past him on the road.
It was already dark, so Gordon simply decided to drive over to an open space in front of a small restaurant nearby. Then he rolled down the windows, put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it.
As the smoke swirled, the words of Ashlyn and Devin intertwined, and Gordon suddenly became panic.
But the feeling of restlessness did not last long. When he finished smoking, his mind became calm and everything returned to normal.
He could see now that seeing troubles where there were none was the most stupid and unnecessary thing anyone could do.
After getting rid of the cigarette butt, Gordon started his car and left the suburbs, heading straight back to the city.
The online frenzy concerning Devin’s new girlfriend had died down by now, but not before it spread among the upper class like wildfire. Prior to this, the fact that Devin was chasing Ashlyn had been the main topic of discussion. Though he tried his best to keep a low profile, it was still clear to them that Devin had not given up on chasing Betty.
But now, Devin got himself a new girlfriend.
This latest news was more interesting to them than anything else.
When Nathaniel first got wind of this news, he did not feel very happy. For a long time, he had been prejudiced against Ashlyn. As a result, he was unwilling to let her marry into the Jones family. After Ashlyn divorced Gordon, his opinion of her still didn’t change, not one bit. Instead, he felt she had been very troublesome.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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