Chapter 182 Closure Over Dinner

Chapter 182 Closure Over Dinner

Looks like I made up that whole "deeply devoted, silently suffering" image of Michael in my head for nothing.

Time slowly passed.

I'd originally planned to go grocery shopping with Emily and cook a meal myself, as a way to celebrate the divorce. Since the divorce didn't actually go through, Emily instead ordered a steak set, saying it was from the best-rated restaurant in the area.

We chatted while eating.

Emily was scrolling through her phone quickly and couldn't help but exclaim, "Oh my god, did this mother and daughter really go this crazy at City Hall?"

"What happened?"

I wasn't paying close attention, and Emily just shoved the phone right in front of me.

That afternoon at City Hall, Thalia and Jane had a fierce public confrontation—pulling and hitting each other, completely out of control, leaving the scene a mess, with blood even showing up. People online had been talking about it non-stop all day.

Something felt off to me. Normally, with a scandal this damaging to a wealthy family, the Spencer family would definitely use their resources to kill the story and take down related content, not let it keep trending. But this time, the public discussion seemed completely out of the Spencer family's control.

The topic about Jane and Daniel's entanglement was firmly at the top of the trending list. Right behind it, in second place, was the public brawl between Thalia and Jane at City Hall. Among the top ten trending topics that day, seven or eight were related to the Spencer family scandal.

I could clearly see that some topics had already been throttled and suppressed by the Spencer family, but new leaks kept popping up, impossible to fully contain. In all of Silverlight City, almost no one dared to openly go against the Spencer family, so this kind of backlash was unusual.

I opened the comments section, and the whole thing had turned into a battleground.

[This plot is too absurd. A stepfather and stepdaughter's private entanglement—even screenwriters wouldn't dare write this.]

[Reality is way more explosive than fiction. This is the ultimate real-life messy rich family drama.]

[The Spencer family's private life is way too chaotic. Each one more absurd than the last—completely blowing my mind.]

[Don't just blindly jump on the bandwagon. Chances are the woman seduced him first, and her stepfather just slipped up for a moment.]

[Can someone give a full timeline? At first I felt sorry for the mother, but now it looks like everyone's guilty of something.]

[The Spencer family is urgently trying to suppress the buzz—the on-site video is about to be taken down! I still have three unreleased clips. Paid sharing, first come first served!]

Looking at all these varied comments, I found it both funny and ridiculous. But that comment about selling unreleased videos made me suspicious. Did all the guests at the Foster family's birthday banquet that night secretly record footage in the backyard?

Curious, Emily clicked on the paid link someone shared. Once she opened it, it turned out the so-called exclusive private video was just some old adult content from some foreign actress.

I was speechless. I hadn't expected someone would use the wealthy family's buzz to drive traffic and profit off it.

Emily, on the other hand, seemed amused. She saved the video to her cloud drive, switched back to the trending page, and couldn't help but say, "Eleanor, you're really bold. Those two were fighting so viciously, and you could just calmly stand there and watch."

"I had nothing to hide, so there was no need to dodge."

I took a bite of steak and said softly, "No one knows how long I held back, just waiting for this day."

The steak at this Western restaurant was excellent—the medium-well meat tender and juicy. I felt completely at ease and joked with a smile.

"Maybe we could ride this wave of buzz too. Getting schemed against by a rich family and then fighting back against all odds—that's a pretty compelling storyline. We could just go live and start selling stuff. Who knows, in a few months we might make what most people save in a lifetime."

Emily glanced at me sideways, smiling slyly. "Looking at you now, this time you didn't lose out at all—you actually gained a lot of confidence."

"Of course."

I said with a light, cheerful tone, my eyes curving into a smile. "Before Thalia and Jane started fighting, I was the first one to slap Jane three times. It felt so satisfying!"

I smiled with my eyes crinkling.

Just then, my phone suddenly rang. I glanced at the caller ID, flipped the phone face down on the table, and kept eating.

"Your phone's ringing—why aren't you picking up?"

Emily was eating a cheese-covered pizza, cheese stretching at the corner of her mouth. Not wanting to waste any, she was slowly licking it clean bit by bit.

I raised an eyebrow and asked back, "Should I answer it?"

Emily paused for a moment, then guessed casually, "It's probably William, right? Maybe he's changed his mind and wants to go finalize the divorce with you tomorrow."

I shook my head gently and held the phone up in front of her.

The caller ID clearly showed: Michael.

"This guy just won't leave me alone, no matter what."

The moment she saw the name, Emily's whole energy drained, full of helplessness and annoyance. "I already blocked every single one of his contacts, but he just kept switching numbers to call—and now he's actually calling your phone directly."

"Some things really need to be said face to face."

I comforted her gently.

Michael used to be constantly in the tabloids at Silverlight University, known as one of Silverlight City's most notorious playboys. But he wasn't a bad person—he'd never crossed the line or hurt anyone. He was just impulsive and stubborn, and once he set his mind on something, he wouldn't easily let it go—pretty common among rich kids.

"Fine."

Emily hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded, picked up the phone, and walked to the balcony to take the call.

Her voice came through in fragments, and I could roughly guess what Michael wanted. He simply couldn't understand Emily's determination. He kept compromising and giving in, putting in every effort, yet he could never get her to come back to him. He insisted on talking in person, even if it was just to say goodbye one last time.

Before long, Emily walked back into the living room, looking a bit dazed. She sat back down, took a moment to calm herself, then said quietly to me, "Eleanor, come out with me for a bit."

I had just finished my last piece of steak, wiped my mouth, and asked, "You agreed to meet him?"

"Yeah."

Emily sighed softly, looked up at the ceiling, and murmured, "Some things just need to be said face to face, in the end. It's a way to give him closure, and also let me truly let go."

As she spoke, she stood up and started clearing away the takeout containers on the table, her tone a little helpless. "He's too immature—like a kid who never grew up. He wouldn't listen to a single word I said on the phone, insisting on meeting in person. Honestly, there's nothing to say in person that I haven't already said on the phone."

I said, "In the past, when communication wasn't easy and people were far apart, they could only rely on letters to convey their feelings. But some heartfelt words carry so much more weight when spoken face to face—far more than any letter full of words could ever convey."