Chapter 8: His Wife, Their Gossip
948 Words
After work, the marketing department gathered for dinner.
Normally, by Friday evening, everyone wanted to return to private life as quickly as possible. If colleagues ran into each other on the way home, they preferred to pretend not to know one another.
But today was different.
Cedric Kane’s arrival had shaken the whole company. Even after work, people could not resist meeting up for drinks and gossip.
“Is Chairman Kane’s health really that bad?” someone asked in the private dining room. “That one is only twenty-seven, right? Or twenty-eight? Isn’t he too young to take over directly?”
“Young?” another colleague said. “He graduated from Harvard. At twenty-two, he led the Sicon acquisition. That deal nearly drove Vice Chairman Lewis insane, but Cedric solved it in a few moves. Clean and ruthless.”
“I know he’s capable. Cloudmere was also his project. It’s just… taking over the whole group at his age still feels unreal.”
A female colleague cut in, “I don’t think the problem is that he’s too young. The problem is that he’s too handsome. He looks like a movie star. It makes him feel unreliable.”
“Handsome is a problem now? Would you rather stare at Mr. Dawson’s face every day?”
Mr. Dawson was their department manager.
His appearance was famously abstract.
The whole room burst into laughter, and the tension finally eased.
“Does he have a girlfriend?” someone asked, half-joking. “A face like that and no office romance? What a waste.”
A male colleague snorted and mercilessly crushed the pink fantasy in the room.
“Girlfriend? He’s married.”
“Married?”
“No way. How come I never heard?”
“Who’s his wife?”
“Married young, huh.”
Questions came from every direction.
The department’s gossip expert finally contributed real information.
“His wife is from the Vale family.”
“Which Vale family?”
“Which one do you think? The Vale family behind Vale Energy.”
A short silence followed.
Then the room erupted again.
At that very moment, the wife everyone was discussing was soaking in a private ginseng hot spring at Cloudmere Resort.
“And then he actually told me to crawl to Saint Aurelia’s Cathedral and pray for a miracle. Can you believe those words came out of a man’s mouth?” Miranda said, wrapped in a bath towel as she ranted furiously. “I’ve lived for more than twenty years and have never seen a man like him. And you still praise him? You have no idea how cruel that man can be. What sin did I commit in my previous life to deserve—cough! Cough, cough…”
She had been speaking too fast and accidentally choked.
She pressed one hand against the stone edge of the pool and coughed violently.
Claire had been listening to her curse Cedric for almost fifteen minutes.
Her stomach hurt from laughing.
She handed Miranda a tissue while wiping tears from her own eyes.
The temperature of the spring was exactly forty degrees Celsius. Not too hot, but Miranda had been too emotional. After soaking for a while, she felt as if she could no longer breathe.
“No. I can’t. I’m getting out.”
She stood, wrapped herself in a fresh bath towel, and walked toward the edge while twisting up her long hair.
This particular private spring belonged exclusively to Miranda.
It was located deep inside Cloudmere’s hot spring garden. A small pavilion had been built around it, with carved lanterns hanging from the eaves and antique screens surrounding the pool.
In the daytime, one could see trees, flowers, and greenery.
At night, mist mingled with warm yellow light.
Each had its own charm.
Staff waiting outside the screens heard movement and immediately came forward. Some brought robes. Some offered tea.
A short while later, Claire came out as well.
The two women showered, changed, and walked toward the spa center while chatting.
As they passed the VIP lounge, Claire suddenly stopped.
She nudged Miranda lightly with her elbow and lifted her chin in one direction.
“Chloe.”
Miranda paused.
Following Claire’s gaze, she looked into the lounge.
A waiter was serving Chloe Winters a fruit salad, his bent body blocking most of the view.
Even so, Chloe was sharp-eyed enough to spot them through the gap.
Worse, she had no survival instinct at all.
“Miranda Vale. Claire Grant.”
She called their names first.
Miranda smiled.
She exchanged a look with Claire, then walked in leisurely on long legs.
“Miss Winters,” Miranda said, sitting down beside her as if they were close friends. “What a rare guest.”
She picked up a small silver fork without asking and casually selected a slice of cucumber from Chloe’s fruit salad.
Chloe looked Miranda and Claire up and down.
Then she suddenly remembered something.
No wonder her VIP spring card and Aurelia black card had not allowed her to move freely through the garden earlier.
That private spring belonged to Miranda.
Chloe also picked up a piece of fruit. Her smile did not reach her eyes.
“Long time no see. I heard your husband came back. Last night he accompanied Sophia Stone to Zero Degree’s gala and even bought her necklace at auction. That necklace was worth, what, one point two million at most? Your husband raised the price more than four times. How generous.”
Miranda’s expression remained calm.
“What can I say? Our Cedric has always been passionate about charity.”
Our Cedric.
Claire and Chloe both felt goosebumps rise at the same time.
- Writer
