Chapter 184 A Curious Train of Thought

Chapter 184 A Curious Train of Thought

He grabbed my arm and gave it a gentle tug, pulling me over to the railing.

A faint mix of tobacco and cool cologne drifted to my nose.

I played along with his movement, keeping my head down and watching what was happening below, when I clearly noticed William's footsteps come to a sudden stop.

A second later, Alvin's teasing, flippant voice broke the silence.

"Well, if it isn't Mr. Spencer. What's the matter—got a thing for watching couples' private moments?"

William stayed quiet for a long moment, neither responding nor walking away.

His gaze dropped to my shoes, studying them, and he spoke in a low voice. "These shoes look familiar to me."

"Do they?" Alvin curved his lips into a light smile, his tone deliberately provocative. "What, did a pair like that turn up under your bed too?"

William ignored the jab entirely. His voice was low and calm. "My wife happens to own the exact same custom pair as your girlfriend."

My heart sank.

Those shoes were a gift William had personally helped me pick out the eve of my birthday last year—one of the rare times he'd actually put thought into something for me.

I had mentioned to him once, offhandedly, that they were a limited custom design from an overseas designer, and almost nobody in Silverlight City had a pair.

A strange panic stirred inside me.

I hadn't done anything wrong, yet I felt guilty for no reason—like someone hiding a secret, terrified of being found out.

"Happens to?"

Alvin lit a cigarette and leaned lazily against the railing, his tone casual. "From what I hear, your marriage has been dead in everything but name for a long time. You've kept it hidden for years because you two don't get along, and you're about to file for divorce soon."

"And now you see a similar pair of shoes and you're getting sentimental? Drop the devoted husband act. Get the divorce done already—it's what Jade wants too."

"If you're so worried about where Jade ends up, you could always marry her yourself. You two would actually make a decent match."

Having his private life exposed in public, William's voice went completely cold.

"I wouldn't dare."

Alvin waved a hand, his tone unbothered. "I've always been a one-woman man. I have my own girlfriend, and that's enough for me."

With that, he reached over and casually ruffled my hair, deliberately adding, "Right, my girl?"

Anger flared up inside me instantly.

Without hesitating, I kicked him hard in the shin.

William watched with cold detachment and said flatly, "Doesn't look like things are going so smoothly between you two either."

"Mr. Spencer, you really have no idea how to make a relationship work."

Alvin's tone was easy and unhurried. "That's just how couples are—a little pushing and shoving, the occasional argument, and the bond actually gets stronger. That's what keeps a marriage from falling apart."

I had to admit, he wasn't entirely wrong.

The words were clearly a backhanded dig at William—rigid, cold, and clueless about how to love someone.

But William didn't rise to it. He just lowered his voice, a quiet warning underneath his words. "I don't need your advice. Worry about keeping Jade in line."

Then he turned and walked away.

Ryan followed right behind him.

Only when the sound of their footsteps had completely faded did I yank the coat off my head.

I looked at the scene in front of me and froze.

Without the coat covering me, I realized Alvin and I were in a pretty compromising position.

His arm was still propped on the railing behind me, and from anyone else's angle, it looked exactly like he had me wrapped in his arms.

Alvin didn't seem the least bit awkward about it. He looked me over with obvious interest and said with total confidence, "I've always had good instincts. Someone like William is completely wrong for you."

I grabbed the coat and threw it back at him, then thought about the scandal video spreading all over the internet, and the anger surged back up. "You've barely met me. What makes you so sure you know me?"

He frowned slightly, his tone blunt. "Your personality and the way you think are easy to read. I don't need to spend much time with you to figure that out."

I had no comeback for that.

I let out a cold laugh. "Then tell me—what kind of person am I suited for?"

"Well now..."

Alvin stroked his chin, pretending to think it over. "That falls under professional people-reading services. There's a consultation fee."

"You'd be better off just robbing people. Faster that way."

I wasn't in the mood to keep bickering with him, so I got straight to the point. "The video from last night is all over the internet. Was that you?"

"Of course it was me."

Alvin answered without a hint of shame, so matter-of-fact that I was genuinely thrown off.

He saw absolutely nothing wrong with what he'd done—like it was the most natural thing in the world.

I was frustrated and confused all at once.

He had promised me yesterday, with his own mouth, that he'd keep this quiet for now.

How had he turned around so fast?

I rolled my eyes, unable to hide my irritation. "You literally promised me yesterday that you wouldn't let anyone find out!"

"See, I told you—you're easy to read. I was completely right."

Alvin blinked, looking perfectly untroubled.

That's when it hit me. He'd been playing me from the very beginning.

Seeing that I was about to blow up, he quickly raised a hand to calm me down, his tone like someone talking a child out of a tantrum. "I didn't break my promise."

"What I promised was that I would never expose the fact that you secretly recorded that video. And I didn't—there's not a single shot of you in the footage I released."

I had nothing to say to that. I wasn't going to waste my breath arguing over his word games.

I looked him straight in the eye. "Do you have a grudge against the Spencer family?"

Alvin's expression shifted slightly, and his answer was vague. "Depends on how you define a grudge."

I waited, puzzled, for him to explain.

"Business competition is brutal."

Alvin shrugged, giving me the look someone gives a person who just doesn't get it. "There's only so much market share to go around. Why split the pie when you can take out the competition and keep everything for yourself? That's just business, plain and simple."

His bluntness—and the complete lack of shame behind it—made me laugh despite myself.

I had never met anyone who could talk about cutthroat tactics so openly, even proudly.

Thinking back on it, William had never taught me any of this—the scheming, the maneuvering, the games people play in circles like his.

In four years of marriage, what he taught me was to endure, to be patient, to give, and to understand.

What he never taught me was how to look after myself or protect myself.

We had always been polite but distant with each other, like strangers sharing a roof. He never brought his business battles home, and at work, I just focused on the technical side of things.

I drifted for a moment, and Alvin suddenly let out a quiet laugh. "Didn't expect you to be this interesting."

I gave him a look that wasn't quite a smile. "So you're secretly going after the Spencer family, squeezing them out of the market—and at the same time, you're deliberately getting close to your rival's wife, just to make things harder for yourself?"

"You've been watching too many over-the-top villain storylines. It's messing with your head." Alvin pulled on his coat, looking mildly exasperated. "In this situation, we're on the same side. We're facing the same enemy."

I laughed, more out of frustration than anything. "You blew up my entire plan, and you still have the nerve to say we're on the same side?"

"I blew up your plan?" Alvin's brow furrowed, genuinely confused. "You want to divorce William, and the root cause is Jane interfering in your marriage. I leaked the scandal to help you get out of this marriage faster. How is that blowing up your plan?"