Chapter 83
Before long, Rachel and Haynes were soaked to the skin. Stella watched the scene unfold like something straight out of a soap opera and suddenly stood up. Neville glanced at her, assuming she couldn’t bear to watch the two of them bickering any longer and wanted to stop Haynes.
He asked in a polite, gentlemanly tone, “Need any help with that?”
“No need,” Stella replied, moving to the window and pulling out her phone to start recording the scene.
Neville was taken aback, “What are you…?”
“Of course, I’m filming it,” Stella said with a sly smile. “This scene could go viral, whether as evidence of infidelity or just for the drama.”
Neville couldn’t suppress a chuckle. Outside, Rachel seemed to grow more and more agitated, yelling at Haynes and shaking her head furiously. Finally, Haynes seemed to lose his patience and suddenly picked Rachel up. Rachel struggled fiercely in Haynes’ arms. Haynes said something to Rachel in a cold, stern voice, and Rachel froze for a moment. Then, Haynes opened the car door parked outside the diner and placed Rachel inside. Before too long, Haynes drove away.
After capturing the footage, Stella calmly returned to her meal. Noticing her composed expression and steady hands as she ate, Neville couldn’t help but ask, “Aren’t you upset?”
Stella took a sip of water and said lightly, “They’ve done worse. I’m numb to it by now.”
Neville pondered her words.
In the days that followed, Stella finally found some peace. One afternoon, while she and Abby were at the mall picking out yarn for knitting scarves, a sarcastic voice rang out from nearby.
“Well, well, who do we have here? Isn’t it Stella?”
Stella turned around and saw Jasper looking at her with a smirk. His eyes fell on the bags of kids’ clothes she was holding, and he let out a mocking laugh.
“See? I always knew you were faking it. Let me break it to you-no matter how hard you try, Haynie and Keen are never going to like you.”
“Stella, before Rachel came back, your antics with Haynie might have passed. But now that Rachel’s here, it’s game over for you.”
Abby, unable to listen any longer, interrupted Jasper with a frown.
“Hey, that’s enough.”
“Why should I stop? Look at you, a housewife with no status or background. Do you really think you’re a match for Haynie?”
“Shut up,” Abby said, trembling with anger. “I’ve never met anyone so shamelessly proud of being the other woman!”
“Oh, who’s the homewrecker here, really?” Jasper laughed derisively, as if hearing a hilarious joke.
“Everyone knows if it weren’t for Stella scheming her way into marriage, Haynie would be with Rachel by now. Stella is the real homewrecker, and she dares to accuse others? So funny.”
At that moment, Stella, who had been silent until now, spoke up. “Marriage is supposed to be a choice made freely. If he didn’t agree, there wouldn’t be a marriage certificate. Since he married me, no matter how much he and your dear Rachel were in love, that’s all in the past.”
Though Stella was much shorter than Jasper, she stood before him, radiating
confidence. She looked up at Jasper and said, “No matter the reason or excuse, interfering in someone else’s marriage makes you the other woman.”