Chapter 355
“Ow…” Audrey winced as Yann gave her nose a playful pinch. She batted his hand away with a glare.
“Been binging romance novels again?” Yann smirked.
The reason Audrey made such a guess wasn’t out of nowhere. It came from experience. Clayton used to act the same way, favoring Valerie and her child with an obvious, lopsided affection.
Of course, she wasn’t foolish enough to tell Yann that.
All she did was mutter, “Well, how else do you explain it?”
She blinked at him, hinting he should keep talking. After all, what else kept dull days interesting if not a bit of gossip?
There had been something Audrey had wanted to ask for a while. Ever since she returned to Ashbourne, from Logan’s birthday to her own wedding, she hadn’t caught a single glimpse of Margot’s husband.
She didn’t dare bring it up to Lena, fearing it might touch a nerve. But judging from Yann’s tone, the man was still alive.
Yann clearly saw through her curiosity. “He messed up,” he said coolly.
“Oh, seriously? What did he do?”
“It happened when Aunt Margot was pregnant with Lena.”
“That’s low. But what does that have to do with Everett and Miles?”
“Aunt Margot believes it’s all in the genes. Says boys shouldn’t be spoiled.”
Audrey was taken aback, thinking, ‘Isn’t it usually the other way around? Sons take after their mothers, daughters their fathers.”
Before marrying Margot, her husband Tristan had been engaged to another woman, one who later vanished without a trace. Everyone assumed she was
dead.
Tristan came from an ordinary family. Margot had chosen him for his, steady nature, someone dependable enough to care for the home while she chased
her ambitions.
And to be fair, he did well in the beginning.
As the eldest daughter of her family, Margot was fiercely career–driven. After giving birth, she left the children in Tristan’s care and returned to work with barely a pause.
She had two sons while trying for a daughter, and when she finally confirmed her third pregnancy was a girl, the family business had already stabilized as Amelia, too, was a woman who valued her career.
Margot began to scale back her workload, only to uncover something she hadn’t expected.
Tristan had a mistress.
And not just anyone. It was his ex–fiancée.
After marrying someone else and failing to conceive, the woman had been divorced. She ran into Tristan by chance while working at a supermarket.
Maybe he assumed she still couldn’t have children, and let things slide. But to his surprise, she got pregnant.
By the time Margot found out, the mistress was already a month ahead of her.
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Chapter 355
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Back then, it was still possible to press charges for bigamy. Tristan begged Margot to let it go. He swore it would never happen again and even personally took the woman to the hospital to terminate the pregnancy,
The woman, it turned out, had a rare condition that made conception extremely difficult. After the abortion, she became permanently infertile. Her mental state collapsed, and during a final meeting with Tristan, she lashed out and injured him badly.
“So… what, Tristan’s basically out of commission now?” Audrey asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah. He barely leaves the house these days, and he’s completely cut himself off from the family,” Yann replied, not seeing him in two years.
“So Margot wants Lena and her husband to live with her because she’s afraid he might cheat on her too?”
Yann didn’t answer.
But silence spoke volumes.
It wasn’t hard to see Margot had never healed from that betrayal.
She wanted to protect her daughter, but her methods were starting to seem extreme.
Audrey, however, suspected there was more to the story. Perhaps Tristan had done something even worse after being injured, something that made Margot remain constantly on edge.
A husband cheating while his wife is pregnant is already hard enough to forgive. But when the mistress is pregnant at nearly the same time, and the husband is by her side instead of yours, it’s enough to break a person.
Still, Lena’s personality was bright, cheerful, and easygoing. She didn’t seem like someone who grew up in such a chaotic household.
That thought lingered in Audrey’s mind until she finally asked aloud, “So Margot and Lena didn’t live with him after that?”
After everything that happened, Margot moved out. Her sons insisted on going with her. Given that she was better off financially, she took them.
Audrey said, “She gave them houses and cars and let them be. I think it was more about keeping them out of Tristan’s reach than actually cutting ties.” After all, he was still their father.
If they had the means, they were free to help him. If they didn’t, Margot wasn’t going to fund it herself.
Of course, it was possible Margot said one thing and did another. Yahn wasn’t sure what really happened behind closed doors.
Everett and Miles had never come to him for help, which suggested they were doing fine on their own.
Yann kept talking, but before long, Audrey had dozed off, the story still spinning in her dreams.
Once the skies cleared, Lena began stopping by again.
She was back to her bubbly self, clinging to Audrey and chatting non–stop about the latest happenings on set, careful not to mention Owen even once.
But Audrey noticed whenever no one was watching, Lena would stare blankly at her phone, completely lost in thought.
Celeste was throwing a party to celebrate her daughter’s birth and had sent Audrey an invitation.
Yann wasn’t keen on her going, but Audrey had been cooped up at home for over two weeks and was eager for a change of scenery.
With a bodyguard and a physician in tow, Yann reluctantly agreed, making her promise to be cautious.
She skipped the hotel. The crowd would be too noisy, and the risk of an accident too high. Instead, she went straight to Celeste’s home.
“Audrey!” Celeste greeted her in pajamas/ Her face looked noticeably rounder. Whether from swelling or weight gain was unclear.
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Chapter 355
Audrey walked over to the bed and gently held her hand, soft and plump.
“How have you been feeling?”
“Much better now.”
“I want to see the baby,” Audrey said, stepping over to the crib.
The little one was fast asleep, eyes closed peacefully. But even in sleep, her narrow lids hinted at eyes that would grow wide and striking with time.
“A little something for this lovely girl,” Audrey said, placing a beautifully wrapped gift beneath the baby’s hand.
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“Sweetheart.” Celeste lit up with joy, guiding the baby’s tiny fingers in a grateful little wave. “Thank you, Audrey. Before long, your little ones will be here
too…”
She glanced at Audrey’s belly and smiled. “They’ll have someone to grow up with!”
Audrey rested a hand on her bump and smiled in return.
Celeste had someone take the gift away. The woman, perhaps a relative, couldn’t resist sneaking a look inside before quietly whispering something to Celeste.
It was a diamond bracelet.
“Audrey, you’re way too generous!” Celeste gasped, visibly stunned.
“It’s only fair,” Audrey replied with a calm smile.
She was expecting triplets. When the time came, Celeste would owe her three gifts. This was merely balancing the scales.
Two months later, when Celeste learned that Audrey had indeed given birth to three babies, she could only stare at her own belly and sigh at its lack of
ambition.
After leaving the Langfords‘ estate, Audrey decided to find something to eat. Just as she stepped out, a familiar silhouette caught her eye.
She quickly called out to Hugo. “Can you check if that’s Hogan?”
“The one with the grocery basket?”
“Yes, that’s him!”
Hugo’s primary responsibility was to protect Audrey, so he couldn’t leave his position. He signaled for one of the others to go instead, but Audrey insisted.
“If it’s really him, I need you to pass along a message.”
Hogan had once worked as a foreman under George. He’d been on–site the day George had his accident and disappeared soon afterward.
Audrey stayed where she was, waiting. But then, someone called out her name from behind.
“Audrey!”
She turned around and found herself face to face with Sharon, who was glaring at her with pure malice. Her face had gone pale. It was hard to say whether from the cold or from fury.
Audrey didn’t respond. Enraged by the silence, Sharon stormed forward, but the bodyguards stopped her six feet short.
