To this day, I could still remember Emery’s words to me, “If I ever meet such a person, I’ll make sure they never have another day of peace in their life!”
Perhaps she already had her suspicions then that her marriage wouldn’t last long.
When she saw that I was quiet, Emery decided to change the subject. “By the way, I got someone to check out that Mr. Cress you were talking about. He seems all right. He’s from K City and has been teaching at Summer’s school for four years now. Kids love him because he’s young and good-looking.”
“Oh, thank you.” I nodded, my face devoid of expressions.
Emery suddenly stopped stirring her coffee and dropped the spoon. “Hey, don’t be like this. You’re divorced too, and now that I’m in the same boat as you, you should be happy for me. From now on, we’ll have each other for support. Men can all go to hell.”
Now that she had brought up my divorce, I knew I couldn’t keep the truth from her anymore. I had to come clean to her, and it was now or never.
After hearing the truth, Emery was surprisingly quiet. All she did was stare at me oddly.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” I finally asked as her stare was starting to make me uncomfortable.
“It’s nothing,” she quickly replied. She didn’t seem all too surprised by this news as she looked away and sipped her coffee.
The more relaxed she seemed, the more anxious I got. “That’s all? Aren’t you going to ask me anything else?”
“What’s there to ask?” She pushed her coffee away and held my gaze. “I’ve noticed the way you look at each other. Even if the divorce was real, I figured you’d get back together sooner or later. That’s not much different from a fake divorce.”
“Ha… your eyes are really sharp.”
“It’s the two of you… oh, no, it’s just your bad acting skills.”
Again with my acting skills? How dare they!
As I sipped my hot cocoa, I decided to tell her everything I knew about Delilah. “Emery, actually Emma and I had seen Hunter going shopping with Delilah. But we were afraid you might not take it too well, so we kept it from you. I’m sorry.”
Emery’s expression was calm as she glanced at me. “No wonder Emma has been avoiding me like the plague.”
“You know how bad Emma is at keeping secrets, so she had to…”
“Forget it,” Emery announced with a wave of her hand. “Tell her it’s all over now. She doesn’t have to keep coming up with excuses to avoid meeting me.”
“Do you really not blame us?” I asked warily. Even though I knew her well, I still needed to make sure.
Emery let out a deep sigh, put down her coffee, and looked at me with a calm and composed demeanor. “The two of you could have told me the truth earlier and saved yourself all this trouble. I had known about Hunter and Delilah for a while now.”
The fact that she had found out about it even before the ribbon-cutting ceremony should come as a surprise to no one.
After all, Emery had such acute senses that nothing her partner did could ever escape her. Besides, the harder one tried to fake being in love with another, the easier it was to give it away.
I pursed my lips, unsure of what to say.
Emery had a look of sorrow as she gazed out the window and into the distance. “I hate betrayals the most. Sadly, I’m the product of my father’s betrayal, and maybe that’s why I have to pay the price of my mother’s mistake.”
“That’s not your fault!” Emery’s words had made me emotional, and I felt like I was choking back tears.
She shook her head sadly as she continued, “It’s over now, and I’ve made concessions. Since Hunter has made his choice, I’ll respect it. There’s no need to end this on a bad note. I’ll just cherish whatever good had come out of this one true love of mine.”
“There’s still a long way to go in life. You just haven’t met the right person yet.”
“It’s not that easy,” Emery retorted. “Scarlett, there are billions of men in the world. A man like Ashton is one in ten million. Not everyone is as lucky as you.”
After a brief pause, her expression turned even more serious. “You need two hands to clap in any relationship. Many women can’t wait to snatch Ashton from you. So my advice to you is don’t go down the same route as I had.”
