Chapter 47 The Law of Infidelity
Half an hour after Michelle left, I went back to the bedroom alone, locked the door, and put on my headphones.
When checking those bottles of Velo Nutrient, I had taken the chance to stick a very thin bug inside the gift box.
"That lying scammer! He actually sold me fake products!"
Amelia's voice went from fuzzy to clear—she had obviously opened the gift box.
I heard her forcefully pull the ampoules out of the protective foam. The friction made a crisp sound as Amelia cursed angrily, "How dare he trick me! I curse his whole family to death!"
Michelle: "Can you still contact the seller?"
Amelia: "No! He blocked me!"
Michelle: "Forget it for now. We need to find an excuse to get back those boxes of fake supplements we sent home. We absolutely can't let anyone find out they're fake!"
After a few minutes of silence, Amelia said, "Mom, Byron is asking me for money again. He also said you're not replying to his messages."
Michelle's voice sounded somewhat cold: "Ignore him. He's useless now, no value left."
Amelia carefully confirmed: "So we're not going to deal with him anymore?"
"That's right." Michelle gently called Amelia by her childhood name: "Ella, you're all I have now. Can you be a little better? Don't lose your temper all the time. Try to please Lucas—he's our lifeline for surviving in Starstream City, for both of us."
"But he's been getting colder and colder toward me lately!" Amelia said. "He doesn't like me at all! He only likes the person who saved him!"
"Isn't the person who saved him you? You took him into our home for several days—that's a fact he can't deny! As for the person who stopped his bleeding and bandaged him, they didn't show up back then, so how could they suddenly appear now?" Michelle said earnestly. "Your temper is just too bad. If you had half of Isabella's gentleness, Lucas would have completely fallen for you already."
"That bitch Isabella!" Amelia said. "She's clinging to Lucas and won't divorce him, and she's deliberately creating ambiguous news stories!"
I couldn't help rolling my eyes at this. I'd been wholeheartedly trying to get divorced—it was Lucas secretly creating problems!
"Her mother was a bitch, and she's just like her mother." Michelle's venomous tone made me clench my fists tightly.
"What should we do now?" Amelia asked.
"You keep seducing Lucas," Michelle said. "No matter what, we absolutely cannot let Lucas and the Sorelli family form an alliance!"
Then the gift box seemed to be placed somewhere, and I couldn't hear their voices anymore.
I took off the headphones and frowned, thinking about their conversation. Michelle giving up on Byron so quickly was somewhat unexpected.
I had a feeling that Michelle didn't actually care about Byron.
It was indeed strange—if Byron was very likely to become the next Don of the Gambino family, Michelle hadn't properly cultivated him. I had originally thought that "Playboy" and "good-for-nothing" were acts Byron put on to protect himself, but in fact, Byron really was an idiot.
No matter how much Michelle spoiled Byron, she wouldn't spoil him into being useless. What good would that do her?
The cold tone in her voice when she said she wouldn't deal with Byron anymore—it was as if Byron wasn't her son.
This thought suddenly popped into my head, and my thoughts immediately ran wild.
A few minutes later, I calmed down and ordered Cole to investigate Byron's birth information and upbringing in detail.
The next morning, around eight, I walked out of the villa and saw Lucas's car parked outside the gate.
"Are you here to visit Grandpa?" I nodded in greeting. "Go on in."
"Where are you going?" Lucas looked me over. I was dressed casually, not like I was going to work.
"To the market to buy groceries," I answered.
Gale and Brian had been working overtime every day lately, and I planned to make some good food to reward them.
"By yourself?" Lucas raised an eyebrow. I could feel him cooking up some bad idea in his head.
I looked at Adrian and Cole following behind me and glared at him: "Can't you see these two people?"
Lucas shrugged. "Where's Marcus?"
"Marcus stayed up all night gaming. He's still sleeping." I pointed to the side, indicating he should get out of the way.
Lucas moved aside, but he said, "I'll go with you."
"You want to go to the market with me?" I suspected I wasn't fully awake. "Are you that free today?"
"Grandpa asked me to go with you." Lucas pretended to be reluctant.
I laughed at Lucas's perfunctory lie. "When did Grandpa say that?"
Lucas and I made eye contact for two seconds, then he pulled out his phone and called Harold: "Grandpa, I'm going to the market with Bella to buy groceries now."
Harold: "Good, good, good! Keep Bella company. Have you finally come to your senses, you bastard? I—"
Before Harold could finish, Lucas hung up and said to me, "You heard that, right?"
I was truly speechless.
I couldn't get rid of him, so I had to let him tag along.
After a forty-minute drive, we arrived at a large farmers' market.
At the entrance, three dairy cows were tied to a truck, selling freshly squeezed milk.
Although the milk was fresh, the smell wasn't very pleasant. Lucas accidentally stepped in a fresh pile of cow dung and couldn't help cursing under his breath.
"Why not go to the supermarket?" Lucas asked me. "Are you deliberately coming here to make me look bad?"
He had an expression that said he'd seen through my intentions but wouldn't hold it against me.
I couldn't be bothered to respond and walked in with familiarity.
There was a large supermarket near the villa, but compared to those products carefully packaged according to weight on assembly lines, labeled with barcodes and "pollution-free" tags, I preferred the chaotic yet vibrant real ingredients at the farmers' market.
"Bella, want to buy some fresh shrimp?"
"Bella, long time no see! You're even prettier today. Want to buy some potatoes? Imported ones!"
"Bella, what are you planning to cook today? I recommend beef short ribs—slaughtered this morning. I just got back from the slaughterhouse!"
Familiar vendors greeted me one after another. I smiled and responded while Lucas looked at me with some surprise.
"Bella, haven't seen you in a while!" An elderly woman selling vegetables enthusiastically waved at me, gave me two bright red tomatoes, and teased, "What delicious food are you making for your husband today?"
I accepted the tomatoes. "Thank you, Emma, but I'm not cooking for him anymore."
"Did you have a fight?" Emma asked kindly.
I smiled. "We got divorced."
Emma was shocked. "What happened?"
Me: "We weren't compatible."
She looked at me sympathetically: "Nine out of ten women who've been cheated on say that."
She grabbed a bag and started filling it with produce while saying, "I guessed it a long time ago. Rain or shine, whenever he came home for dinner, you'd always pick the freshest, best ingredients and cook for him yourself, but he never once came to the market with you."
I glanced at Lucas. What a coincidence—this time, Lucas had come.
Lucas was expressionless and looked quite unhappy.
I explained, "He's usually busy with work."
"No matter how busy, he has days off, right?" Emma looked at me disapprovingly, like she was scolding her own child. "Haven't you heard of the cheating rule? If a man's free time isn't spent with you, it's definitely spent with another woman!"
"Brilliant!" I couldn't help clapping for her.
"A wife as good as you, and he doesn't treasure you—that's his stupidity. Are you single now?" Emma winked at me. "My grandson works at a big company, has a car and a house, and looks pretty good. Want to see his photo?"
Lucas: "She doesn't!"