Chapter 129 Cassidy is Dirty, I Want to Remarry You
After finishing, Arabella laughed with some self-mockery. "I'm such an idiot for asking someone like you to have a conscience. If you had one, how would we have gotten to this point?"
"Anthony, listen carefully. I'm not particular about luxury—I'm very adaptable. What I eat, where I live, what I drive, even whether life is hard or comfortable—none of that matters most to me. What I want is sincerity, mutual devotion, respect and trust, understanding and tolerance. When I was with you, I never got any of that. But with Alex, he's given me everything. Do you think I married you for your money?"
Seeing the shock in Anthony's eyes, Arabella laughed mockingly, incredulous. "You actually still think that's why?"
She shrugged indifferently. "Think whatever you want. I'm telling you this just to make it clear—you've completely lost any chance of getting back together with me. Understand? I won't accept someone who betrayed our marriage. Now that I know what real love looks like, I definitely won't repeat past mistakes. Anthony, I'm grateful we got divorced—incredibly grateful."
After saying this to Anthony, she didn't want to waste any more time on him. She turned to Alexander. "Alex, let's go."
Alexander responded and bent down to scoop her up, striding toward the exit. As they passed Anthony, he paused, looked at him with cold indifference, then continued walking.
Anthony stared at their retreating figures and slammed his fist into the wall! His knuckles immediately turned bloody red!
He gritted his teeth, trying to swallow his rage, but couldn't manage it. He didn't understand—he'd given Arabella the best of everything. Except for when Cassie came back and he momentarily lost his mind over Cassidy, what had he done wrong?
Even if he'd lost control for a moment, divorced her, and gotten together with Cassidy, hadn't he realized now that she was better than Cassidy? He'd come back—what more did she want him to do?
Just then, his phone rang. It was Leo calling. He answered irritably. "Just get to the point!"
Leo said nervously, "Mr. Watson, that Jake... he escaped!"
Anthony froze. "What? Weren't people watching him after we brought him back? How did he get away?"
Leo said carefully, "We were watching him, but the guard accepted a cigarette from him and got tricked. Our people searched everywhere nearby but couldn't find him. Should we... tell Ms. Bourbon?"
Last time Jake had mysteriously fled abroad, and Mr. Watson had been tracking him down ever since. Fortunately, because of past cooperation, they had a lot of Jake's personal information and eventually located him through an old bank card number.
Unexpectedly, Jake still hadn't given up on avenging his sister. This time, he'd set his sights on Arabella. When Leo arrived to control him, Jake was in the middle of a crazy plan—he'd found someone to run Arabella down.
Thankfully Leo had brought Jake back in time, preventing his plan from succeeding. But unexpectedly, in just two days, Jake had escaped!
Leo was calling frantically because he was afraid something bad might happen to Arabella and wanted Mr. Watson's next instructions.
Hearing this news, Anthony went from initial rage to slowly smiling. He said expressionlessly, "Don't worry about it."
Leo couldn't believe it. After a moment of stunned silence, he reminded him, "Mr. Watson, that Jake is ruthless. Ms. Bourbon will be in real danger..."
Anthony sneered. "It's fine. Didn't she say leaving me was lucky? Let her see just how lucky she really is! Once Jake actually makes his move, she'll realize how important I am to her!"
He couldn't wait to see Arabella come crawling back to beg him!
Leo wanted to say more but finally just said, "Understood."
Alexander drove Arabella home. On the way, he asked, "When I wasn't there earlier, did Anthony say something really offensive to you?"
Even when he carried her away, she was still trembling all over, showing how angry she'd been.
Arabella looked out the window and hummed in response. "He said Cassidy is dirty now, that the Watson family can't tolerate such a filthy woman. He said I'm cleaner than Cassidy, that he doesn't mind what's between you and me... as long as I agree to come back, he'll divorce Cassidy immediately."
Alexander's fingers paused slightly on the steering wheel. Though he trusted she wouldn't agree, his heart still skipped a beat. He glanced at her discreetly and said carefully, "Is he sick or something?"
Arabella laughed and nodded. "Right? That's exactly what I thought."
Her somewhat low mood inexplicably lifted because of that comment.
Alexander's phone rang. He glanced at it but didn't answer.
They soon arrived home. He carried Arabella inside—Becky's room light was already off and the house was quiet. He carefully carried Arabella to his room, had her sit on the bed, then got the medicinal oil and knelt down to apply it for her.
Arabella was startled and quickly pulled her foot back, saying awkwardly, "No need, I can do it myself."
Alexander grasped her foot, focusing intently on the injured ankle as he said quietly, "Don't move."
As if under a spell, Arabella actually stayed still.
Alexander squeezed out some medicinal oil and gently massaged her ankle. His fingertips were slightly rough, and Arabella felt her skin tingling and heating up from that small contact...
Alexander never looked up the entire time, so Arabella didn't see the barely controllable devotion and tenderness in his eyes.
He carefully applied the medicine three times, massaging until it was completely absorbed, then lifted her leg onto the bed. His voice was somewhat hoarse. "Get some sleep. I need to make a work call."
Arabella nodded.
Alexander tucked her in before leaving.
Lying under the covers, even though the temperature was comfortable, Arabella felt uncomfortably hot. She tossed and turned restlessly, mainly because she couldn't suppress the scratching, clawing feeling in her chest.
She thought she might really be falling for Alex.
What was she supposed to do about that?
She wasn't particularly brave to begin with, let alone with Alex being gay.
How could she even try to win him over?
And there was no need to doubt it—Alex definitely couldn't be interested in her. He liked men. She was blocked right at the gender level.
But she couldn't keep going like this either. Alex was too wonderful—just being around him made her heart flutter uncontrollably. She'd fall deeper and deeper.
She needed to find an excuse to move out soon, preferably resolving this relationship entirely. She'd draft a divorce agreement later. Theirs had been a marriage of convenience anyway—divorce wouldn't involve any messy complications.
Just thinking about separating from him, even if only physically, made her heart ache.
But there was no other choice. She'd fallen for someone she could never be with. Getting out early was the wise move.
Arabella mentally planned that once Becky adapted to life here, she'd rent a place near the company. Then she'd see how things were with her dad. If Marilyn was still incorrigible, she'd live with her father and Becky.
Her salary was enough to support an elderly man and a child, especially since she had quite a bit in savings.
The future looked bright. She'd weathered all kinds of storms—surely she could handle one misguided crush.
With these chaotic thoughts swirling in her head, Arabella soon fell asleep.
Alexander stood at the bedroom door, and only after hearing no more sounds from inside did he turn and walk outside, finding the recent missed call on his phone and dialing back.
Roy's voice came through. "Mr. FitzRoy, there's news about the case Ms. Bourbon reported."
Alexander's expression was cold. "Go on."
Roy said, "The police caught those guys. They confessed to taking money to smear Ms. Bourbon's reputation, and they revealed it was Rachel who arranged it. Rachel paid each of them fifty thousand to put up banners outside Ms. Bourbon's company. The police were going to contact Ms. Bourbon, but our lawyer intercepted. The lawyer wants to know your intentions."
"Rachel." Alexander's expression grew colder, a dangerous glint flashing in his eyes. "The Watson family just won't give it a rest."
Roy asked, "Should I arrange for someone to warn her at her school?"
Currently, for special reasons, Mr. FitzRoy couldn't directly move against the Watson family, so when dealing with their various provocations, his hands were somewhat tied. He couldn't let the Watson family catch on while still cleaning up troubles for Ms. Bourbon.
Rachel was still in college, a senior. The school controlled her thesis—if they wanted to warn her, they could work from that angle.
But Alexander said, "No need."
Roy was confused. "So we just let it slide?"
This wasn't Mr. FitzRoy's style at all. Ms. Bourbon was wronged and Mr. FitzRoy could just tolerate it?
"Let it slide? No." Alexander's lips curved in a smile that didn't reach his eyes, his face cold. "Since that woman is so eager to cause trouble, why not give her something fun to do? I heard the Watson family is currently looking for suitable marriage prospects for Rachel?"
Roy hadn't expected Mr. FitzRoy to know about this too and quickly said, "That's right. The Reeves and Watson families reached an understanding. Gloria's life is ruined, so Rachel can't escape responsibility either. As long as Rachel takes responsibility for this matter, the Reeves and Watson families can continue their friendly relationship. The Reeves family's condition is that Rachel can only marry an ordinary person."
"Jennifer has been stressed out lately over Rachel's marriage prospects—she can't choose from wealthy families, but she and her daughter look down on ordinary people. They're stuck in the middle and desperate."
Alexander was concise. "You handle the screening. Find her a suitable candidate."
Roy paused. "You mean..."
Alexander smiled, one hand in his suit pocket as he looked at the neon lights outside the window, speaking leisurely. "Find a man with similar status to the Watson family, but with terrible personal life and character."
Similar status to the Watson family meant Rachel couldn't act recklessly. Terrible personal life and character meant Rachel would have a miserable time.
Roy felt an inexplicable chill. This was psychological warfare at its finest.
Once Mr. FitzRoy orchestrated such a marriage, Rachel's future would basically be over. And there was nothing Mr. FitzRoy wanted to do that he couldn't accomplish.
Of course Roy didn't sympathize with Rachel—he was just grateful for the nth time that when he'd submitted his resume, he hadn't sent it elsewhere.
Being enemies with someone like Mr. FitzRoy would be a lifelong nightmare.
After hanging up, Alexander stood by the window for a while. Thinking of Arabella inside and his own endless journey to win her heart, he sighed and unconsciously reached for the cigarette pack in his pocket.
Finding nothing, he belatedly remembered that after promising her he'd quit smoking, he'd thrown away all his cigarettes.
He smiled slightly, didn't dwell on the smoking issue, and turned back to the room.
Because of her foot injury, Arabella took a week off from work. Alexander treated her like a porcelain doll, bringing her three meals a day in bed and even hiring a short-term caregiver to help with bathing and bathroom needs.
Arabella found it both amusing and touching. It was just a minor sprain, but he was acting like she was dying.
Actually, after three days in bed she could walk around. The first thing she did was send the caregiver away—at fifteen hundred a day, she wanted to transfer money to Alexander, but he wouldn't take it. She didn't want him to think she was a money pit with such expensive daily costs.
On the fourth day of her foot injury, Arabella was working online from home when she received a call from an unknown number.
She was currently emailing with a client and thought it might be the client calling, so she answered casually. "Hello, this is..."
"Arabella! Where did you hide my son?" Before she could finish, a shrill female voice cut her off.
It was Philip's mother calling.
Arabella's expression grew somewhat complicated. Before Philip left, she and Daisy had anticipated this situation, so she remained relatively calm. "Are you looking for Philip? He hasn't contacted me these past few days."
"Stop pretending! My son spends every day hanging around with you two women. How could you not know where he went? Tell me, where exactly are you hiding him? Do you know how important he is to the Reed family right now? If something goes wrong, ten of you wouldn't be enough to compensate!"
Miley questioned her aggressively.
Arabella felt somewhat helpless. "I really don't know."
Philip had bought his ticket with cash. With the Reed family's resources, they shouldn't be able to access personal information, meaning as long as she and Daisy kept their mouths shut, the Reed family would never find Philip.
Philip had finally decided to be brave and work hard for once. As his good friend, she absolutely couldn't hold him back.
So no matter how Miley pressed and scolded her, Arabella had only one response: "I really don't know."
Miley hung up in frustration.
Arabella relaxed slightly. She'd guessed right—Miley wasn't actually sure Philip's disappearance had anything to do with her and Daisy. She was just desperately searching for clues everywhere.