His Secret Wife Was My Best Friend Chapter 09

His Secret Wife Was My Best Friend Chapter 09 The Recording

Gareth hurried downstairs and found Ms. Wren, the assistant who was usually at Cecily’s side, facing Mrs. Sutton.

She had just handed over Cecily’s resignation. Seeing Gareth, she acknowledged him with a curt nod.

She had never treated him like that when he and Cecily were happy together.

He had no patience to dwell on it. “Where did Cecily go?”

Ms. Wren shook her head. “I don’t know. Before she left, Ms. Sutton asked me to give her mother this letter. She also wanted everyone to see some security footage.”

She turned on the living room projector and played a video from her phone.

Only a few moments in, Daphne, who had remained silent until then, clenched her fingers and went deathly pale.

“Gareth, stop them. Finding Cecily is more important.”

He realized what was coming and hurried in front of Mrs. Sutton.

“Mrs. Sutton, this can wait…”

“Whatever you have to say can wait until we’ve watched it,” she snapped.

Gareth fell awkwardly silent and stood aside, his expression dark.

The footage clearly showed the Solstice diamond being brought through the exhibition. Daphne suddenly lunged at it. In the confusion that followed, she blamed Cecily, and Gareth took her side without asking a single question.

“Well. Well…”

Before the recording ended, Mrs. Sutton was shaking with rage.

She stood and slapped Gareth, then pointed at him and began shouting.

“I always thought you were the one young man in your generation worth taking seriously. I trusted you with my daughter, and you used that trust to hurt her.

“Do you honestly think I have no idea why Cecily canceled the wedding?”

Daphne rushed in front of him, crying. “Please don’t hit him, Mrs. Sutton. It’s my fault. Hit me instead.”

Mrs. Sutton laughed coldly. “How considerate of you to identify yourself. Saves me the trouble of finding out who he’s sleeping with.”

She granted Daphne’s wish, slapping her repeatedly across both cheeks as she shouted.

“You conniving little tramp! After everything my daughter did for you. I always told her she had terrible taste in friends, and now you’ve proved me right. You’re rotten through and through.”

Gareth tried to intervene. Mrs. Sutton threw them both out, then did the same to his bewildered parents when they arrived to ask what had happened.

The drizzle had become a downpour. The Hollises and Daphne stood outside, soaked to the skin.

Gareth glanced at Daphne, unable to suppress a flicker of anger.

He blamed her for deliberately causing trouble at the exhibition and forcing him to defend her against Cecily. Without that, he told himself, none of the disasters that followed would have happened.

Inside the house, Mrs. Sutton was angrily ordering Ms. Wren to email her daughter.

“Ask her why she couldn’t talk this through instead of running away.”

To Mrs. Sutton, Gareth having one affair or two hardly mattered. What she wanted was the Hollis and Sutton families building a stronger business together.

But Cecily had made the rupture public by disappearing on her wedding day. She

had put the families on opposing sides and forced her mother to choose.

Ms. Wren felt for Cecily, but she didn’t dare object. She sent a brief email explaining what had happened.

A short reply arrived soon afterward.

Ms. Wren read it, then carefully relayed Cecily’s message.

“She says she never wants to see Gareth again, so marrying him is out of the question. If you think he’s such a catch, your own husband has passed away. You’re welcome to marry him yourself.

“She also asked me to remind you that Gareth is already legally married. He was never free to marry her, and he’s not free to marry you either.”

Mrs. Sutton was speechless.