Rift in the perfect picture

Chapter 0169

A gasp suddenly escaped Claudia’s lips. Then, a series of muffled noises echoed on the other end of the phone.

“Nick!” It sounded like the phone was being hiddr making the voice. come through indistinctly.

Sternly, Nicholas began, “The doctor says they can’t find your anywhere. What are you doing?”

Claudia quivered, “I… I made a call.

“To whom?”

“I called Ariana…”

There was a brief silence on the other end at the mention of my name. His voice grew colder as he pressed, “What do you have to talk to her about?”

“I want her to expose me, so the people online will criticize me and not Ariana. I saw that Zachary was crying outside his ex–wife’s house, and it blew up on the internet again.

“I don’t want Ariana to be bullied because of her work. She just won a lawsuit.”

I blinked in disbelief, feeling absurd. Was she really trying to manipulate the online discourse just for me?

Multiple footsteps were simultaneously heard as Nicholas snorted. This matter is under my control. You don’t need to interfere any further.”

My hand holding the phone trembled uncontrollably, and I eventually switched to speaker mode. I frantically turned the volume up, trying

to manage the complex emotions of anger and anxiety swirling inside me.

“It’s fine if I’m wronged for your sake, but Ariana seems to have a big issue with Jasmine…

“She wouldn’t bother,” Nicholas suddenly said, his voice resolute.

“That’s true, but I didn’t mention you and Jasmine to her. But Nick, are you really planning to have children with Jasmine? I heard from Morn that Dad is getting a bit impatient.

A series of beeping noises indicated that the call was suddenly disconnected My heart sank along with it

Nicholas wanted to have a child with another woman? My hand, resting on my lower abdomen, trembled.

Since returning to Nicholas’s side. I had been taking birth control pills every time we were together. But I hadn’t prepared any during our honeymoon

Brushing my fingers against the gravestone with my fingers, I quivered, “Dad, Mom, it looks like I’m in trouble

It seemed like people always tended to fall in love with their destined partners over and over again. My relationship with him had caused me so much pain, and he had shattered my heart countless

times.

Yet, I had genuinely considered having a child with him under the influence of hormones. Thankfully, that didn’t happen.

Nicholas was known for being a devoted son. He would never go against his late father’s final wishes.

Rubbing my head, I smiled wryly and muttered to myself, “I will

divorce him. If he wants to have children with someone else, he can go ahead.”

The only trouble I needed to deal with was forgetting him, and time would help with that.

I must have looked like a stiff, zombie–like figure as tood up. Someone shouted at me from across, “Oh my God, you scared me to death!”

The cemetery caretaker was an elderly woman. She sprang to her feet the moment she saw me, and her demeanor seemed somewhat. comical.

“What time is it? Why are you still here? Have you been here all day?”

I nodded, intending to smile apologetically, but I couldn’t muster at smile at all.

“Dear, the dead cannot come back to life, so don’t be too sad. Is someone coming to pick you up? Do you need me to call a cab for you?”

Did I look that upset? What did I have to be sad about? I was about to explain when the phone rang again–it was Nicholas. I held it up for the elderly woman to see.

“Yes. My husband is coming to pick me up.

“Great!”

But she didn’t know that the moment I said goodbye to her, I

declined his call.

I seemingly heard myself being torn apart by my own rapid breathing, matched by the pounding of my broken heart.