As she walked, Harper silently thought in frustration that it was best she didn’t waste her energy worrying excessively about Chloe’s future after the divorce and how she would live.
With no spare time or energy, it would be better to bury her head in the studio, designing a few more new collections for the company to grind for more profit.
Waiting until later when those two crazy fools had a child, she, in her capacity as the Founder, would generously write a huge check as a gift for her adopted son or daughter; that was the most practical and proper goal.
“Let’s go.” Chloe reached for her Trench coat and carried her Hermes Birkin bag, stepping over to stand next to Julian.
“Mhm.” Julian calmly nodded in response, casually and incredibly naturally grabbing Chloe’s soft, small hand, wrapping it neatly within his warm, large palm, then proudly leading Chloe as they strode out of the office door.
Chloe’s entire body stiffened as if struck by electricity.
She and Julian, in front of the public eye, from the time they got married until now, had never had a moment of intimately and naturally holding hands like this!!
Oh my Lord!
Her breathtakingly beautiful blue eyes stared somewhat panicked and dazed at their two hands tightly intertwined.
How should she react appropriately?
With their relationship currently standing on the brink of freezing, was this action suitable?
But if she stubbornly pulled her hand away to refuse, Julian’s sky-high ego would definitely feel incredibly humiliated and embarrassed, right?
A series of tangled thoughts flashed through her mind at the speed of light.
Ultimately, Chloe chose to compromise in resignation, relaxing her tense body, letting Julian’s firm hand continue to envelop and lead her small hand down the hallway.
Her mind was light and chaotic.
Even until they stepped into the private elevator cabin, where it was just the two of them in the cramped space, Chloe was somehow hypnotized into forgetting to pull her hand back.
She just let him hold her hand tightly like a true pair of lovers, walking side-by-side straight down to the dark basement parking area.
Arriving beside Julian’s luxurious Maybach, he regretfully could not bear to let go of Chloe’s warm hand, politely walking around to open the passenger side door, leaning in slightly to signal for Chloe to get in.
Chloe embarrassedly mumbled a small “Thank you,” then timidly sat down in the seat.
Julian also gently closed the car door, walking around to the opposite side to sit in the driver’s seat.
Throughout the drive back to the main estate, Chloe appeared unusually silent.
Julian frowned, feeling a bit unaccustomed.
Previously, whenever they shared a car ride, Chloe was always the one playing the chatterbox, loving most to chirpily recount the trivial stories that happened during her workday in her soft, gentle voice.
Every time he drove and heard that sound, his tense mood from work was very well soothed.
But today, looking at Chloe’s frozen attitude, it seemed she completely lacked the mood to share anything.
“Why is that?” The man’s warm, magnetic voice suddenly spoke up, breaking the stifling silence inside the car cabin: “Why did the employees in your office not know the face of your legal husband at all?” Hearing that probing question, Chloe felt a bit flustered, not knowing how to react.
Wait, why did her design staff absolutely have to know his face…
Julian only needed to cast a glance to read through the bewildered expression on Chloe’s small face in a flash.
His handsome, angular face darkened slightly, carrying a trace of annoyance: “Then have you ever bothered to use your brain to think about why all the employees of the Quinn Group can recognize you?” Chloe, previously busy playing the role of an invisible wife, had indeed never paid attention to this minor detail.
Now, being questioned by him, thinking back on it, it truly was a strange matter.
Every time she set foot in Quinn headquarters, she had never encountered any obstruction or interrogation from the security guards.
Moreover, the majority of employees passing by who saw her would respectfully smile very amicably and bow to greet her with a standard title: “Hello, Mrs.
Quinn.” “Perhaps it’s…
because I appear there often.” Chloe slightly tilted her head, reasoning naively and drawing such a superficial conclusion.
Hearing Chloe mumbling and answering herself, Julian only felt a lump of frustration stuck in his chest, unable to be swallowed down and unable to be vented out.
He was wondering if his wife was born foolish.
But when he accidentally glanced in the rearview mirror and caught sight of his little wife blinking her large, round, sparkling innocent blue eyes looking at him for help, that fire of anger was immediately extinguished.
“You thoughtless fool.” Taking advantage of the red light stop at the intersection, he suddenly reached out his long arm, extending his large hand to gently pinch Chloe’s cheek in an affectionate gesture, Julian gritted his teeth and scolded lovingly in anger.
Truly a wasted effort; after the two got married, he used his CEO authority to specifically demand that the human resources department insert Chloe’s image into the mandatory corporate culture documents that all rookies had to memorize.
In the organizational chart display section for senior management, her portrait photo was even favorably and solemnly placed ahead of his own photo.
CEO Julian felt that his hidden, romantic intentions released must surely have all been poured down the river and out to sea with this slow-witted wife.
But to ask an arrogant person like him to lower himself and bluntly speak these things out to claim credit and win Chloe’s favor, he felt his male pride did not allow him to open his mouth.
Truly a sincere heart turned toward the sun, but the sun heartlessly trampled that heart and threw it to the ground.
“Ouch, it hurts…” After Julian let go of her hand, Chloe rubbed her cheek, only now snapping out of her extreme shock to wake up.
In broad daylight in downtown New York, was she having hallucinations?
Damn it, that man was Julian Quinn!
That was precisely the cold billionaire Julian Quinn!
Could an emotionless workaholic also perform an intimate action…
such a cheesy, affectionate action…
on an ordinary day like that?
Chloe felt as if her brain had crashed; she couldn’t find any vocabulary to describe the event anymore.
The feeling of being shocked to the point of speechlessness, possessing a poor vocabulary, was precisely the most accurate description of her mood right now.
Waiting half the day without seeing the woman beside him react or make any movement in response, Julian slightly tilted his head to glance over and discovered Chloe was dropping her tiny jaw, wearing a look of unbelievable astonishment staring fixedly at him; clearly, her soul had not yet returned.
Julian’s eyes darkened slightly, carrying a trace of self-reproach: Was my action too abrupt, scaring her?
Locking himself in his office these past few days, he had also carefully analyzed the root cause making their strategic marriage stand on the brink of collapse.
The key was perhaps that initially, he foolishly followed the terrible relationship advice of his friend Wesley.
If, in a long-term marriage, the face shown to the other half daily was a fake disguise, hiding one’s true nature, then what real foundation did this contract marriage have left to be durable?
But it seemed changing his image still had to be done slowly, step by step…
Regardless, he would absolutely never allow her to sign the divorce papers and escape from his hands.
Chloe carried that suspended, terrified mood all the way until the car entered the compound of the Quinn family’s main estate.
Julian, as a habitual routine, turned off the engine, unbuckled his seatbelt, stepped out, and walked around to open the passenger door for her.
The only fatal difference causing bewilderment was that her soft, fair, small hand was once again naturally grasped tightly by someone, intertwined within a large palm.
Julian’s broad palm was very dry and radiated a scorching heat.
That masculine warmth transmitted through Chloe’s small hand, causing her blood vessels to accelerate and rush straight up, making her cheeks flush bright red.
On the skin of her cheek seemed to still linger the caressing sensation from the man’s rough fingertips just now, tingling as if an electric current ran through…
Completely neutralized in resistance, not generating a single intention to stubbornly pull her hand away, she just obediently and blankly let Julian hold her tightly and pull her into the main house’s hall like a puppet.
The head housekeeper of the main house was not on duty at the door to welcome guests as usual; probably it was too busy down in the kitchen preparing the banquet.
From the common living room space far away faintly echoed the lively chatting and laughing sounds of several women and the pleasant clacking sound of shuffling Poker cards.
“Looking at the situation, it seems there are quite a few family members gathered tonight.” Chloe leaned close and whispered against his shoulder, her small face instantly dropping somewhat despondently.
She truly lacked any patience when having to force herself to wear a sarcastic mask, smiling socially while facing some toxic people.
Unfortunately, it happened to be all of Julian’s blood relatives; no matter how annoyed and disgusted she was, she had to grit her teeth and maintain superficial peace for the sake of relationships.
Julian astutely said nothing, his left hand still tightly intertwining and protecting Chloe’s hand.
He politely bent down to take a pair of women’s sheepskin indoor slippers placed ready on the side of the shoe cabinet, then gently and thoughtfully placed them neatly at Chloe’s feet.
“…” Chloe gaped in astonishment looking at Julian’s humbling action as he stood up straight.
The flaring heat that had just been soothed and lowered thus once again crawled up to burn her cheeks.
Julian raised an eyebrow and teased: “Is it very hot inside the car with the heater on?” “Huh…?” Chloe blinked, feeling she seemed to be seeing things; she actually saw a sly, teasing look flash across Julian’s cold face.
That was a facial expression that had never appeared since they knew each other; she felt one hundred percent certain it must be due to her hallucinating.
In her eyes, Julian was always a proper, dignified gentleman.
No matter how silly a thing she did, he would maintain a cold demeanor and would never bother to mock or joke about her.
“Mhm…” Chloe awkwardly nodded randomly to let the matter pass.
His strong, large hand naturally touched the expensive Trench coat Chloe wore outside against the cold.
Julian pretended to be incredibly serious and thoughtful: “If it’s hot, let me help you take off your outer coat.” He slowly, carefully took off each layer of Chloe’s coat.
During that process, his long, slender fingertips, whether unintentionally or deliberately, even lightly brushed against the incredibly sensitive skin of the nape of Chloe’s neck, making her shudder and let out a faint, ambiguous gasp, widening her blue eyes round like a rabbit’s, glaring at him in warning.
Masterfully hiding the overly obvious triumphant smile on his handsome face, he leisurely and meticulously hung the branded coat on the coat rack in the corner of the hall, then turned back and used an innocent tone to ask: “Is something the matter?” “You…” Chloe stammered, constantly having a strong feeling that there was a place in this script that was incredibly strange, but lacking the evidence to voice out that absurdity.
Being choked up, the word “you” was stuck for half the day without a following sentence to scold him with.
“Aren’t you planning to change your shoes?” Julian felt as if he had just been enlightened, opening a door into a new world.
It turned out that letting go of his ego to tease his stubborn little wife could bring about such a great feeling of joy and achievement.
In a flash, the billionaire felt that over the past two years of their cold marriage, he had foolishly missed out on an investment yielding hundreds of millions of dollars in profit.
Tsk, Julian’s nature was always that of a savvy, meticulous businessman; he felt that this trade-off in lost time was truly too massive, unacceptable.
“Want your husband to kneel down and change them for you?” He slyly lowered his voice to whisper.
“No, thank you!” Chloe startled in a panic, quickly and clumsily taking off her Christian Louboutin high heels herself, hastily slipping on the soft fluffy slippers, and fleeing inside like the wind.
Julian put both hands in his pants pockets, regretfully standing and looking at Chloe’s graceful back that seemed to be fleeing in panic, smacking his lips and silently thinking it was truly a pity…
After that, he unhurriedly, slowly changed his leather shoes to indoor slippers, leisurely following the direction Chloe had just fled into the common living room area.
Eleanor was smiling cheerfully, enthusiastically shuffling Poker cards on the table with her sisterhood.
Looking up and seeing Chloe walk in, the smile on her lips became even more brightly radiant and deeper.
She pulled one hand out from the deck of cards, waving it frantically and calling out: “Oh my, Chloe my dear, why are you two only arriving now?
Come here quickly and help Mother look at the cards to defeat these ladies.” Chloe regained her obedient lady demeanor, walking gracefully to the side of Eleanor’s chair, speaking coquettishly: “My Porsche is still sitting in the maintenance garage, isn’t it, Mother.
I had to be stuck waiting in the office so Julian could conveniently drop by to pick me up and go back together after work.” Just as she was whispering softly, Julian also coincidentally stepped in from the hall outside.
Eleanor, hearing her daughter-in-law say that, her entire face – carefully injected with Botox – smiled even more radiantly like a sunflower: “Wow, since when did this obnoxious workaholic brat get enlightened, knowing how to dote on his wife so romantically like this.” “Our nephew Julian’s nature has always been that of a gentleman who knows how to dote on women.” At this moment, a noble old lady with platinum hair in an elaborate high bun, wearing a velvet dress and sitting in the chair opposite Eleanor, spoke up to defend him: “He isn’t dry and heartless like his old father Richard, who is both conservative and rigid!” Hearing this, Chloe tactfully pursed her lips in an elegant smile, raising her sweet voice to greet each elder: “Hello Grandmother, hello Second Aunt, hello Second Auntie.” Sitting in the position to the left of the noble old lady was an elegantly dressed middle-aged woman, looking very kind and educated; that was Julian’s biological aunt, Lady Margaret.
Sitting imposingly occupying the right position was a woman whose appearance had undergone plastic surgery, looking much younger than her actual age, with a coquettish and flirtatious demeanor, extremely heavy makeup, and an expensive perfume scent lingering strongly.
That was the second wife of biological uncle Ethan, meaning Madison’s stepmother, Lady Vivian.