Without thinking further, she put her hand on Ernest's arm after getting his point and stood beside him with her face slightly blushed. The crowd who was watching them all moved to the side and a wide pathway was formed. They had expressed their deference and fear towards Ernest from the bottom of their heart.
Seeing Florence holding Ernest's arm, Isabel was filled with jealousy and hatred that could not be held back. Due to inferior family background, she had always degraded Florence. In her thought, someone of lower class like her should live in the gutter all her life. Yet she was actually now married to Ernest who was many times nobler than her husband! No, how could she marry someone better than hers?
"Florence, why do you marry Mr. Hawkins all of a sudden? Didn't you just get a room with someone at the Style Hotel during the night few days ago? Oh, could it be that was not your boyfriend…" As she said, she pretended to be surprised and covered her mouth, as if she had accidentally exposed a huge secret.
Florence froze and she quickly turned around, looking at Isabel with a doubtful look. She was shocked that she actually knew about what happened at the Style Hotel. Ernest was moved and he stared at Florence with thought. She had been there too last night?
"Ms. Hopkins, do mind your words. Do you know what punishment would you get if you defame Mr. Hawkins' fiancée and tarnish the Hawkins' reputation?" Timothy stepped forward from Ernest's back and criticized fiercely and strongly. Mr. Hawkins' engagement banquet was today and many people were watching. No accident or ruining of reputation was allowed to happen.
With a drastic change in expression, Grayson tugged Isabel's arm and reminded her, "Don't talk nonsense." Isabel was slightly scared, but she could not swallow her grievance when she looked at Florence. "I don't want to tell that actually, but since the Hawkins' is a family with huge background, marrying a depraved woman without knowing the truth would only then further harm the Hawkins' reputation."
She flung Grayson's hand away and took out a photo from her purse. "This is the proof that Florence has gotten a room with someone." She initially wanted to give it to Grayson to let him have a look to completely destroy Florence's image in Grayson's heart, yet she did not expect that she had to use it at that kind of circumstance.
There was a man and a woman in the photo, and the man was putting his arm over the woman's shoulder intimately while they headed into a room. The woman shown was exactly Florence. A commotion was instantly stirred among the crowd and the people were all looking at Florence with rage and contempt. It was a great honor to marry Mr. Hawkins yet she had derailed before the marriage? What an ungrateful person. Judgmental stares were shot towards Florence like knives that pierced her. She felt uncomfortable and frowned, feeling utmost uneasy.
Yet she had no memory of what had happened that night at all, and the room shown by the photo was not the same room she had escaped from that night. Could it be something else was ongoing before she had sex with the man? "This photo could not justify anything. You and I never get along and it's already not the first time you set tricks on me. Who knows whether you've edited the picture or not?" Florence did not dare to go after the matter anymore and she straight away denied it. It was impossible for her to admit no matter it was true or false.
Feeling confident, Isabel handed the photo to Ernest politely. "Mr. Hawkins, you'll know whether the photo is edited or not after you take it back and run a round of examination on it. Plus, my university classmates all know that Tobias Palmer has been courting Florence. They have chemistry with each other but their relationship is always ambiguous." The man in the photo was exactly Tobias. Her bridesmaid quickly chimed in, "Yeah, everyone in University A basically knows about that." They were steadfast to destroy her reputation.
The engagement banquet was going to start and it was too late to do a photo-editing examination. Even if they did do it, Florence's would still be given discriminative look during the banquet. Florence held Ernest's arm tightly and anxiously, feeling a little frustrated. She had more or less harmed the Hawkins' name by having caused that kind of trouble. And since he did not have any feeling to her in the first place, would he straight away abandon her?