Those few words were enough to make the group of girls at the next table, who had just finished eating and were about to pay, pause.
They silently took out their phones and scanned the QR code on the table, just so they could stick around for the drama.
Evelyn Kendrick was truly Hazel Sinclair’s arch-nemesis; the moment Evelyn started talking, Hazel was right there to back her up.
“Jasper Fletcher, don’t you plan on giving me an explanation?”
“You told me you were busy with work today.
Meetings, factory inspections…
so this is what ‘busy’ is?
Taking some young girl out?” Evelyn Kendrick sneered as she looked at Crystal.
Hazel Sinclair immediately jumped in.
“My, my, that really is busy.
So busy you have to take a young girl out for shopping and a meal.”
Her sharp gaze swept over the other woman.
With a click of her tongue, she said, “For my best friend, you get her a measly necklace worth five million.
But for *her*?
The latest bags, clothes, necklaces, jewelry, and shoes.”
“It’s not like my best friend is hurting for that five million, but this is just plain thoughtless of you.”
Evelyn Kendrick looked at her, her elegant brows furrowed.
‘Best friend?’
‘Who’s best friends with her?’
‘This Hazel Sinclair really knows how to flatter herself.’
Jasper Fletcher hadn’t expected to be caught.
He stood up and looked at Evelyn Kendrick, his voice laced with panic.
“Evelyn, it’s not what you think.
She’s just a junior from my university.
She happened to be visiting Veridia, so I was just showing her around and grabbing a bite to eat, that’s all.”
He walked over to Evelyn Kendrick and reached for her hand, but she pulled away.
“Really?
Just a junior from your university?” Evelyn Kendrick crossed her arms.
She wore a black skirt and a white, form-fitting top, with her long hair cascading down her back.
She smiled, but her sharp gaze was fixed on Jasper Fletcher.
Just then, the other woman stood up.
She didn’t seem the least bit embarrassed about being caught.
A smile spread across her face as she extended a hand to Evelyn Kendrick.
“You must be Miss Kendrick?”
“I’ve often heard Mr.
Fletcher speak of you.
Meeting you now, I see you’re every bit as beautiful as he said.”
Evelyn Kendrick glanced at the outstretched hand but didn’t move.
Instead, she asked a question that made both their expressions turn foul.
“Oh?
And on what occasion would he bring me up?
In bed?”
Jasper Fletcher’s expression was livid.
He snapped at Evelyn, “Evelyn, that’s enough!”
“That’s slander!
Nothing happened between Crystal and me.”
Just then, a young couple watching the drama from a nearby table whispered, “They were making out, and he says ‘nothing happened.'”
Nobody was blind.
They had all seen it when Crystal Lambert cupped Jasper Fletcher’s face in her hands and kissed him.
A moment ago, they’d thought they were a deeply-in-love young couple.
Turns out it was a cheater and his mistress.
“Oh, Evelyn, they were definitely kissing just now.
I have proof.” Hazel Sinclair whipped out her phone, opened her photo album, and pulled up a screenshot she had just taken.
“Look, look.”
“Honey, you’ve been cheated on,” Hazel Sinclair said in a strange, singsong voice, dripping with sarcasm.
Evelyn Kendrick could have accepted hearing those words from anyone else, but not from Hazel Sinclair.
Her expression darkened further.
Staring intently at the photo, she said grimly, “You and your ‘junior’ must be really close.
So close you’re making out.”
The moment the photo appeared, any further denial from Jasper Fletcher died in his throat.
At this point, Crystal Lambert gave up on trying to play along.
She stood in front of Jasper Fletcher and faced Evelyn Kendrick directly.
“Mr.
Fletcher doesn’t love you at all.
He was forced into this engagement.
The one he loves is me.”
“So what if you’re engaged?
The one who isn’t loved is the real other woman!” Crystal Lambert said, wrapping her arm around Jasper Fletcher’s with a triumphant smirk.
Hazel Sinclair’s expression turned serious as she retorted, “Miss, I believe I need to correct your twisted logic.”
“If Mr.
Fletcher truly loved you, he would have defied his entire family to make you his wife, not hide you away as a mistress who can’t be seen in public.
That proves he doesn’t love you all that much, either.”
“Furthermore, even if Mr.
Fletcher doesn’t love her, *my* Miss Kendrick is the future daughter-in-law that Mr.
and Mrs.
Fletcher have personally acknowledged.”
Hazel Sinclair stood by Evelyn Kendrick’s side, her eyes sweeping over Crystal Lambert with a look of utter disdain.
“As for you,” she said contemptuously, “I doubt you’d ever even register on their radar.”
“No wonder you’re stuck being the other woman.”
Hazel Sinclair hadn’t uttered a single curse word, yet it felt as though she’d said them all.
A ball of fury was caught in Crystal Lambert’s throat, and for a moment, she was at a loss for a comeback.
“You know, a person ought to have some basic decency,” Hazel Sinclair began slowly, adopting a sanctimonious tone.
“You’re so young.
You could do anything with your life, yet you choose the one profession you can’t show in public.”
Crystal Lambert was trembling with rage, her big, round eyes glaring daggers at Hazel Sinclair.
But in the end, her anger dissolved into tears.
She turned to Jasper Fletcher, her voice choked with sobs.
“Mr.
Fletcher, didn’t you tell me I was the one you loved most?”
“I’m not the other woman, am I?”
Seeing Crystal Lambert like this, Jasper Fletcher immediately rounded on Hazel Sinclair.
“Hazel Sinclair, this is between me and Evelyn!
What right do you have to butt in?”
“What gives you the right to say anything?
Leon Sterling isn’t the envied, illustrious Chairman Sterling anymore.
You’re just a broke, powerless, washed-up woman with nothing to her name.”
“It’s not your place to be running your mouth here.”
Hazel Sinclair’s status was being thrown in her face yet again.
Her current position in their social circle was undeniably awkward.
The fake daughter of the Sinclair Family, married to the bankrupt Leon Sterling—it was fair to say she had nothing.
No wonder Hazel Sinclair was so desperate to find a man with power and influence.
Everyone she met seemed to use her status to provoke her.
It was enough to make anyone paranoid.
But Hazel Sinclair’s tear ducts were her strongest asset.
After Jasper Fletcher’s tirade, she turned to Evelyn Kendrick, her eyes instantly turning red and welling up with tears.
“Evelyn, I’m sticking up for you, and you’re just going to stand there and watch him bully me like this?”
“Evelyn, aren’t you going to say a word in my defense?”
When Hazel Sinclair cried, she looked far more beautiful than Crystal Lambert.
Combined with her soft, sweet voice and the way she clutched at Evelyn’s skirt, it was enough to make anyone’s protective instincts flare up.
Even Evelyn Kendrick, who had still been reeling from the shock, snapped to anger at the sight.
‘So what if Leon Sterling is bankrupt?
So what if Hazel Sinclair is the fake Sinclair daughter?
She hasn’t done anything truly evil.’
‘She only played a few tricks to marry Leon Sterling, that’s all.
In Evelyn’s eyes, those little schemes were nothing.’
‘It was understandable, just a way to survive in Veridia’s high society.’
‘Besides, what right does a cheater like him have to criticize her?’
Evelyn Kendrick strode forward and slapped him hard across the face.
The slap was so forceful it instantly left one side of Jasper Fletcher’s face red and swollen.
Of course, her own hand was now stinging painfully.
Crystal Lambert gasped and rushed to support him, glaring at Evelyn Kendrick and yelling, “How can you just hit someone like that?”
“Is it your place to speak?” Evelyn Kendrick shot back, her voice cold.