Chapter 60 Why is Arabella at the Company?
But the call was hung up.
Listening to the dial tone in her ear, Arabella immediately understood.
Gabriel must have finished his meeting long ago, and given Evelyn's conscientiousness, she definitely would have relayed the message properly. He was deliberately ignoring her, letting her worry herself sick.
Coming to her senses, she immediately dialed again.
After it was hung up again, she tried a FaceTime call, only to be rejected once more!
Arabella couldn't sit still anymore. She got up and went to her room to change out of her loungewear, then went downstairs to inform Mary before having the family driver take her to the company.
Coincidentally, when her car arrived, Gabriel's luxury vehicle was just pulling up to the fountain plaza outside the company building.
"Gabriel!" Arabella spotted him as soon as she got out of the car and instinctively called out urgently, startling everyone around them.
Ralph saw Arabella and immediately understood what was happening, frowning with concern.
Gabriel remained composed. Seeing Arabella marching over angrily, he casually slipped one hand into his suit pocket and waited leisurely for her approach.
"What's the occasion today? Mrs. Sterling, why are you suddenly gracing us with your presence at the company?" In front of a group of subordinates, Gabriel joked with his wife in a gentle, warm tone.
Arabella couldn't be bothered with his act and got straight to the point, "Why didn't you take my calls?"
"Busy."
"Even when you're busy, you have time for a few words!"
"Not necessarily. Sometimes I'm so busy I don't even have time to drink water or use the restroom, let alone waste time on pointless conversations."
Calling her a waste of time?
Arabella clenched her fists in anger, her beautiful eyes glaring at him.
Seeing the awkward scene, Ralph quietly waved his hand, signaling the nearby executives to follow him and leave first.
Suddenly, only the two of them remained.
Without outsiders present, Gabriel's expression shifted subtly as he looked at her and asked, "What's this really about?"
Arabella noticed employees still coming and going around them, security guards occasionally glancing their way, and remembering the recent online scandals, she said quietly, "Let's talk somewhere else."
Gabriel was surprisingly agreeable, "My office then."
She felt some resistance.
In all their years of marriage, she'd only set foot in the company once. That was shortly after their wedding, when Gabriel had left some documents at home and called asking for them to be brought over. Mary had insisted she make the trip.
That time, the receptionist didn't recognize her and gave her quite a hard time. Finally, they called the executive office, and Ralph came down to collect the documents—she never even made it upstairs.
This time, Gabriel was actually inviting her up himself.
Thinking of that unpleasant experience, she said stiffly, "Mr. Sterling's domain isn't a place I'm qualified to enter. No need."
Gabriel smiled, his expression so gentle it could almost be called doting. He then stepped closer to her and raised his hand to wrap around her shoulders, "You're my wife; of course, you're qualified."
Arabella's body resisted, uncooperative. The man leaned close to her ear and whispered, "In broad daylight like this, you don't want to make a scene, do you? This is perfect timing for us to put on a show of marital bliss and dispel those recent rumors once and for all."
Hearing this, Arabella felt even more uncomfortable inside.
Sure enough, his recent kindness toward her all had ulterior motives—to salvage his image, to break the rumors, all ultimately for the sake of appearances and interests.
Good thing she hadn't taken it seriously and hadn't fallen for it again so easily.
With Sophia waiting for news, she didn't have time for stubbornness. So she allowed Gabriel to firmly guide her by the waist as they walked intimately into the Sterling Group headquarters.
The scene that ensued was, predictably, sensational.
In the magnificent high-ceilinged lobby, professional elites coming and going all bowed respectfully when they saw Gabriel.
Gabriel moved like royalty on parade, acknowledging their greetings with barely a glance or nod, never slowing his pace. With a stunning beauty in his arms, their passage immediately sparked heated discussion.
"Who's that woman? She's gorgeous!"
"Must be Mr. Sterling's new flame! After the whole drama with Ms. Davis, they've been on the outs."
"What new flame! That's the CEO's wife! I remember her visiting the company before—Ralph was very respectful to her, called her Mrs. Arabella Sterling."
"Really? Wow... after keeping such a low profile for so long, she's finally making an appearance. What's the message?"
"Come on, isn't it obvious? Damage control."
...
Arabella said nothing the entire way, only grateful in her mind that she'd changed clothes before coming out instead of running over in her loungewear.
But on second thought, what did it matter what she wore?
They were getting divorced anyway—why should she still be considering his reputation? Completely unnecessary.
When they entered the executive elevator, Arabella immediately shrugged her shoulders, throwing off his hand and coldly putting distance between them.
Gabriel glanced back and found it amusing, "You come here asking me for favors with that attitude?"
"Who says I'm asking you for favors?" she instinctively retorted.
"Calling non-stop, and when you can't get through, actually coming to the company to corner me—if that's not asking for favors, what is?"
She fell silent.
Objectively speaking, she was only here to clear up a misunderstanding and get him to stop his wrongful actions.
But given his notorious personality, even when he was in the wrong, he might not admit it. This matter would probably end up requiring her to swallow her pride and plead after all.
So when this bastard said she was asking for favors, he wasn't wrong.
When they reached the executive floor, Evelyn was already waiting.
Ralph had come up early and filled her in on everything, so she wasn't surprised to see Arabella—just respectfully and politely nodded, "Good afternoon, Mr. Sterling, Mrs. Sterling. What would you like to drink, Mrs. Sterling?"
Arabella read the apology in Evelyn's eyes and knew it wasn't her fault, responding with a friendly, kind smile, "Hello, Evelyn. Just water would be fine."
"Of course, Mrs. Sterling. Please wait just a moment."
Gabriel walked ahead, and when the woman followed his steps into the office, he remarked sarcastically, "Quite comfortable ordering Ralph around—playing the CEO's wife now, are we?"
Arabella glanced at him, not even bothering to respond to such pettiness.
He walked behind his desk, set his phone down on the surface with a thud, pulled out his executive chair, and sat down. "Well then, what's so urgent that you'd go to all this trouble to find me?"
Arabella, holding back her anger, stepped forward and asked without hesitation, "Have you been deliberately targeting a lawyer named Zachary recently?"
Gabriel's expression froze, his deep eyes looking toward her as his thin lips slowly curved into a smile.
"So you finally said his name? Didn't you claim you had no lover? Refused to admit the real reason you want a divorce?"
"Gabriel, are you insane? What lover! That's my friend's husband!" Finally getting confirmation, Arabella was both exasperated and furious, her voice rising shrilly.
Evelyn knocked and entered with the water, hearing her suddenly elevated, angry shout, and nearly jumping out of her skin.
In her memory, Arabella was gentle and warm—though born into humble circumstances, she was well-mannered and polite in her interactions with others.
For such a gentle, courteous woman to be driven to explosive rage like this...
Evelyn silently criticized her boss as she walked over to place the water glass on the desk, right by Arabella's hand.
"Mrs. Sterling, please have some water," she whispered, unable to bear the suffocating tension in the room, and quickly retreated.