Kevin leaned in.
“If Ethan caught her cheating with his own eyes, he’d throw her out on the spot, guaranteed.”
Rosalind blinked.
“Cheating?
Claire?”
How would someone as devoted to her perfect husband as Claire even manage that?
Unless she’d lost her mind entirely.
She looked up, caught the greed plain in Kevin’s expression, and felt a wave of disgust.
This man’s own sister-in-law, and he’s looking at her like that.
No wonder he came up with this scheme so fast he’s clearly wanted this for a long time.
Still, thinking it through, Rosalind realized this benefited her either way.
She cleared her throat.
“Ethan and I are heading to Lakemere Valley for a hot spring getaway in a few days.
Bring your family along, broaden their horizons a little.
I’ll find a moment to introduce you both.”
Kevin lit up.
“Thank you, Mrs.
Ashford!
Thank you so much!”
“Don’t thank me yet.
Deliver results first.”
“Absolutely!”
Kevin practically floated back to his car, cheeks flushed with excitement.
Years ago, after one bad move on his part, Claire had cut him off completely, wouldn’t share a table with him during holidays, turned away the second she saw him.
And once she married into the Ashford family, he couldn’t get anywhere near her at all.
He’d nearly given up entirely.
But this chance encounter tonight had reignited something he’d buried for years.
Everything was finally lining up.
Every time he pictured Claire’s soft, composed face, the figure she’d grown into after years of easy living, something ugly stirred in his chest.
Little Claire.
You hid from me back in school.
You won’t get away this time.
The Reed residence.
Mrs.
Reed couldn’t stop admiring the rose seedlings.
“They haven’t even bloomed yet, and I already saw how gorgeous they were in your garden the other day.
What’s this variety called?”
“After it blooms, the petals shift from a deep gold at the edges to pale yellow toward the center like fading threads of silk,” Claire explained.
“So I named it Golden Years.
Its flower meaning is ‘a deep, lasting love.'”
She’d originally bred it as a surprise for Ethan.
Now, she thought privately, he didn’t deserve it.
Mrs.
Reed had always liked Claire’s calm, quiet nature, and having now witnessed firsthand how badly the marriage had gone, sympathy came easily.
She had a maid take the seedlings off to be properly cared for, then pulled Claire down for tea.
“You work at the Botany Institute at Havenbridge University, right?
What exactly do you do there?”
“Mostly cultivation experiments, data monitoring, chemical composition analysis.”
Seeing the blank look on Mrs.
Reed’s face, Claire tried again.
“We control conditions, light, temperature, water, fertilizer inside greenhouses or climate chambers, and study how plants function under different conditions.
Photosynthesis, nutrient absorption, growth cycles, flowering, drought resistance, salt tolerance, that sort of thing.”
“In simple terms we study how these plants survive, then extract useful compounds from them.
Alkaloids, essential oils, medicinal properties.
Could end up in new drugs, natural pesticides, fragrances.”
Mrs.
Reed looked thoroughly lost, but laughed warmly anyway.
“That sounds genuinely impressive.”
Claire smiled.
“It sounds duller than it is, honestly.
Next time I develop something new, I’ll bring you a sample.
If you like it, it’s yours.”
Mrs.
Reed’s eyes sharpened with interest.
“Actually I’ve looked into your work a little.
Given what you just described, your institute must partner with biotech or pharmaceutical companies too, doesn’t it?”
Claire nodded.
“It does, but that side’s usually handled by my senior colleagues.
My hearing makes that kind of coordination harder, so I mostly work behind the scenes.”
Mrs.
Reed slapped her own knee.
“Perfect, then!
Gerald invested in a pharmaceutical company overseas a while back, nothing’s really come of it, and their strongest research team just walked out entirely.”
“The company’s owner keeps coming to Gerald, complaining he’s got no one left he can rely on.
Man’s got more money than sense, honestly, desperate to prove himself.
Claire interested?”
Claire’s eyes widened slightly.
A pharmaceutical partnership, genuinely tempting.
The Institute had tried similar collaborations before, but every partner either ran out of funding or wanted fast results, pulling back the second the timeline stretched longer than expected due to cost.
Professor Wren, notoriously stubborn and research-obsessed, walked the second anyone tried to interfere with his methods.
If it weren’t for Caleb’s constant networking over the years, the Institute would never have survived on university funding alone.
She’d even asked Ethan for help once.
His response: “You could study a hundred trees and get a hundred sour apples out of it.
Why throw money at research with no guaranteed return?”
“If the Institute can’t sustain itself, just come home and be my wife.”
But this was the work she loved.
“Mrs.
Reed, could I take the company’s information back to the Institute?
Run it by my professor.
If it looks promising, he might be able to pull together a research team.”
“Of course!”
Mrs.
Reed handed over a folder she’d apparently prepared in advance.
“Take your time.
Let me know what he says.”
Claire hesitated, then said, sincere, “You’ve been so kind to me.
I want to be honest about something.”
Mrs.
Reed waved it off.
“I already know.
At your house you let me see the ruined flower bed on purpose, didn’t you?”
Claire went quiet, stunned.
“…You’re not upset that I used you to get back at them?”
Mrs.
Reed took her hand, voice earnest.
“Why would I be?
You were being bullied with nowhere to turn, and you found a way to protect yourself using whatever leverage was available.
What’s wrong with that?”
“Gerald’s always treated me well.
I’ve never had to worry about other women.
But before we had money, I put up with plenty of ugly looks from people who thought I didn’t matter.
I learned to grab every advantage I could back then, or we’d never have built the life we have now.”
“These days, people in my circle owe me a certain respect.
But what good is that respect if I don’t use it for something?
My favorite thing about where I’ve ended up is helping girls like you avoid the detours I had to take.”
“And besides when Rosalind swung that shovel at me, you’re the one who took the hit protecting me.”
“If you really wanted to use me as a weapon, you should’ve let me get hurt worse.
Gerald would never have spoken to Ethan again.
You went soft on me, if anything.”
Tears sprang to Claire’s eyes.
It had been nearly two weeks since Julian’s funeral, and she’d been quietly holding herself together the entire time.
And here she was, receiving the most genuine comfort she’d felt in weeks from a woman she’d only just met.
Mrs.
Reed handed her a tissue.
“Don’t be scared, Claire.
Everyone hits a rough patch somewhere.”
“Get through this one, and I promise things start moving in your favor.”
“Besides, what’s the difference between an unreliable man and an ungrateful stray?
Kick them both to the curb.”
Claire laughed through the tears.
“That’s exactly the plan.
I’m done with him.
Life goes on.”
She wiped her eyes, then remembered something.
“I heard your name is Yvonne.
Would it be alright if I called you Sister Vonnie?”
With a bold, easy laugh, Yvonne yanked a bracelet off her own wrist.
“Don’t call me sister like some stranger, you’re my sworn little sister now.
Consider this your welcome gift.
Put it on.”
Claire’s eyes widened.
This has to be worth over a million.
“Sister, I really can’t”
Before she finished the sentence, Yvonne had already grabbed her wrist and slid the bracelet into place.
“There.
Matches mine perfectly.
Keep it.”
“…Thank you, Sister Vonnie.”
Claire never could have guessed that her impulsive stand against Ethan and Rosalind would net her not just a research partnership, but a genuine ally.
She’d always considered herself unlucky.
No parents.
Taken in by the Ashfords, only to be discarded.
Handed off to Gordon, who gave her decency but never quite warmth.
And Ethan that whole chapter felt like swallowing something rotten.
But ever since the divorce started moving forward…
something had shifted.
Like the universe had finally decided to shove something good into her arms, whether she’d asked for it or not.