After Seven Empty Chairs, I Took My Daughter and Left Chapter 13

After Seven Empty Chairs, I Took My Daughter and Left Chapter 13

The smile on Sloane’s face cooled instantly. She sat up in his lap, her tone carrying incredulous anger.

“I thought you’d be overjoyed that we’re finally together. Ava? Isn’t she just your backup option for when I wasn’t around? Now that I’m back, you’re mine. Why are you still bothering with someone so unimportant?”

“When did Ava and I get divorced?” Noah’s voice had also hardened. He stared at Sloane stubbornly. The question was a thorn lodged too deeply to ignore. “What exactly were you talking about at the party yesterday?”

“How would I know?” Sloane sounded even more wounded than he did, her eyes instantly reddening. “She texted me and said you two were already divorced. She even showed me a photo of the court-issued divorce judgment. I thought… I thought you couldn’t wait to be with me, so you had already finalized things with her.”

“A divorce judgment?” Noah shot to his feet. Shock and humiliation washed over him. “I divorced her? How could I not know?”

He had been informed of his own divorce? Like a joke?

It wasn’t that he felt nothing for Ava. Over the years, when he had been exhausted by family matters and his career, Ava had managed everything flawlessly. He had only thought that since Sloane had just returned to Boston and had suffered so much, she needed him to spend more time with her. And just for that, Ava was going to take revenge on him like this?

Seeing Noah’s face darken, Sloane immediately realized she had gone too far. Without thinking, she pushed all the blame onto Ava.

“She forced me!” Sloane’s voice broke with tears. “She threatened me. She said if I didn’t help you make our relationship public, she would tell the media everything about us and brand me a mistress. She said she’d ruin me in Boston.”

“She really said that?” Noah’s brows drew tight. He couldn’t believe that Ava, always gentle, always concerned with the bigger picture, always the picture of an East Coast lady, would do such a thing.

“You don’t believe me?” Sloane abruptly raised her head. Tears trembled in her eyes, her gaze filled with hurt. She glared at him, turned, and faced away, her shoulders shaking slightly.

Seeing Sloane’s angry back, Noah’s heart softened at once. He stepped forward, gently hugged her from behind, and coaxed her in a softer voice.

“It’s not that I don’t believe you. I just… I just didn’t expect her to treat you like this. Weren’t you two good friends before?”

“Good friends?” Sloane turned as if she had heard an enormous joke and wiped hard at her tears. “She was never my friend! She’s been jealous of me since college. If she hadn’t begged me back then, I never would have introduced you to her.”

“She begged you?” Noah was swept away by this version of events and completely forgot his original question.

“Of course!” Now that her tactic had worked, Sloane spared no effort in smearing Ava. “Back then, she was the one who introduced that low-class drummer Zack to me at the charity dinner. Then she forced me to introduce you to her and set you two up. She said if I didn’t, she would manipulate Zack into breaking up with me.”

Tears shone in Sloane’s eyes, making her look innocent and pitiful.

“I was too naive then. She fooled me completely. I thought she really had my best interests at heart… Noah, I was deceived by her back then. That’s why I didn’t recognize my own heart…”