Chapter 28
Heh…
Victoria, you’re such a fool. Even now, you still fall for McNeil’s sweet talk.
McNeil himself opened the car door for her. He took her hand, looking into her eyes with sincerity. “Tonight, I’ll bring Gwyn home for dinner.”
Victoria pulled her hand free and reached for her suitcase.
“Driver, let’s go.”
At McNeil’s command, the car started up. Out of the corner of her eye, Victoria saw him pull out his phone and make a call. Whoever he was calling, she no longer cared.
When Haley saw Victoria, she was so overjoyed she nearly burst into tears.
“Ma’am, you’re home!”
Haley wasn’t a Langford family employee. She was the old housekeeper Victoria had brought with her from the Turner family estate, the woman who had watched Victoria grow up from childhood.
After Victoria married McNeil, Haley had naturally switched to calling her “ma’am.” “Yes, I’m back.”
Victoria headed upstairs and returned to the master bedroom she shared with McNeil.
On the nightstand lay a share transfer agreement she’d secretly signed with the old man some time ago.
How long had it been since McNeil last came home? The document hadn’t budged from its spot-no sign anyone had touched it.
Victoria picked it up, and on her way back downstairs, she tossed the agreement straight into the fireplace, watching as the flames hungrily devoured the pages.
Seated on the sofa, Victoria spent half an hour drafting a résumé.
Under work experience, aside from her two years as McNeil’s assistant at the Langford Group six years ago, there was little else of substance.
Once hailed as a financial prodigy, she’d poured all her intellect and skill into supporting McNeil. Now, six years later, she found it laughable that she couldn’t point to a single noteworthy accomplishment of her own.
She stared at her computer for five full minutes before finally sending her application off to fifty companies.
She was applying for assistant manager positions.
After that, she closed her laptop and began making phone calls.
“Johnny, if you’re free tomorrow, let’s meet up.”
Just as she finished, Yasmine arrived.
“Mrs. Langford, here’s all the information you requested. Mr. Miller has been looking at engagement rings lately-he even took someone to a boutique to custom order a ten-carat diamond.”
Victoria took the file and began flipping through it, page by page.
Inside was a list of Simms Miller’s “close friends”-the women he’d been involved with over the past decade.
He cycled through girlfriends frequently, but Victoria’s private investigator had still managed to track them all down.
No matter how many women Simms dated, there was always one constant-a woman named Morris.
She didn’t even live in Starfall City, but in a town two hundred miles away.
Ever since Simms married Edith, he’d kept busy, running the Turner Group’s affairs and working tirelessly to earn Mann Turner’s trust. He’d even managed to win over a loyal following at the company.
Victoria’s hands trembled slightly as she held the documents.
Her mother had died never knowing the true identity of Simms’s other woman. He never admitted to an affair, but after Victoria’s fifth birthday, her father never touched her mother again.
Mann had suspected, but Simms’s reputation as a hard-working, ambitious man fooled even him.
They all thought he was just a driven, upstanding young executive.
It wasn’t until after Mann passed away that Simms’s ambition began to show. But he’d only just taken over the company then, and if he’d treated Edith poorly, the public would have torn him apart.
Three years after Mann’s death, Edith fell into depression and died. Simms never remarried, earning him a reputation for devotion-he was the man who stayed by his ailing wife’s side for two years without leaving.
Looking back now, Victoria slowly closed her eyes. The truth was, Simms was a cold and faithless man.
In fact, that woman named Morris had been by his side even before his marriage to her mother.
It was clear, then-Simms had married Edith for her family’s wealth. Her poor mother had spent her whole life hoping he’d have a change of heart, never realizing she was nothing but a pawn in Simms’s game.
And Victoria-wasn’t she just another chess piece in McNeil’s hands? “Yasmine, get ready. I’m going home…”