Second in Silence Chapter 05

Second in Silence Chapter 05

Charles was in disbelief. His eyes flashed with fury as if he wanted to leap off the stage and devour me whole.

However, before he could act, Emily clung to him.

“What do we do now? The wedding’s a disaster!”

I ended the call with a click and walked away, unfazed by the many curious eyes that followed me. My three years with the Wallaces had steeled my nerves.

I left the wedding behind and made a beeline for the airport, sending a quick thank-you text to a certain someone along the way.

The reply on my phone popped up in no time.

[Don’t worry about it, but the Wallaces might come after you for this. You should probably skip town for a while.]

I took the advice to heart.

[Got it. I’m all set.]

The guy on the other end? He was the one who grilled Charles in the Wallace family’s study.

He was Charles’s friend, and I was the one who saved his sister’s life.

Thanks to that connection, when I knocked on his door, hoping against hope for a favor, he had said yes right off the bat.

After I sent another quick thanks, I pocketed my phone and headed into the airport, suitcase in tow.

When word got out that I was cutting ties with the Wallaces, my friend, who owned a cosmetics business in Victoria City, did not waste a second in offering me a job.

I barely made it out of the airport when Olivia Jones spotted me and latched on like a lifeline.

We got some looks, but I could not shake her off. Olivia was like a limpet.

“Seriously, do you have any idea how long I’ve waited for you? Three years! I thought I’d be waiting forever!

“What were you thinking, ditching a gold mine to moon over some guy? You’ve been head over heels for three years, acting like a total doormat. Are you out of your mind? You could’ve been rolling in dough by now!

“I told you, guys are just speed bumps on the road to riches!”

Her words buzzed around me, but I just grinned.

I kept the real reason I quit the game to myself.

Margaret could not stand that life.

I gave Olivia a reassuring pat. “Trust me, it’s not happening again.”

Olivia looked at me, half-believing, half-doubtful. “So, what made you see the light?”

I spilled the beans about Charles’s antics.

Olivia’s face was a mix of shock and fury, her hands planted firmly on her hips as she launched into a tirade that seemed to last forever.

“This man deserves a good whipping and to be strung up. That’d straighten him out!”

Olivia did not expect me to dive into the job right away.

She gave me three days to get my bearings.

Throughout those days, my phone buzzed nonstop with updates about the Wallace family drama.

The Wallaces had become the butt of every joke in Jubilee City.

Charles had tried to squash the rumors with a quick denial, but he could not stop people from being nosy and loving a juicy piece of gossip. The story just kept spreading.

Margaret, ever since the wedding fiasco, had suffered a stroke.

Then, she was bedridden, unable to rise. Her face was twisted and lopsided, and she was utterly dependent on others for care.

The whispers in the shadows grew darker. Some were convinced that Charles was dead, taken out by Jeffrey and Emily in a sinister plot.

With the older brother out of the picture, all the riches would fall into their laps, right?

The rumors spiraled out of control, even tanking the company’s stock.

Charles had to face the music and call a press conference, insisting it was all a setup.

They had even gone to the cops, promising to spare no expense in hunting down the rumor-mongers.

Things started to settle down, but those in the know still knew about it.

Most bets were on the story being true.

The suspicion that Jeffrey had a hand in Charles’s supposed death? It was almost a given.

Who would want to deal with a guy calculating enough to take out his own brother?

The hit to the Wallace Group was huge, and Charles was running around like a headless chicken.