Chapter 5
“Mrs. Miller, I advise you to think carefully before you speak. Today is my wedding, and I’ll be taking these colleagues to another hotel in a moment.”
Mrs. Miller bit her lip, her eyes on me filled with a strange mix of confusion, guilt, and reluctance.
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After a long pause, she finally spoke, “This… this is our Mrs. Sterling.”
She pointed at Ashley, her head bowed, not daring to look at me.
Ashley’s face was smug, and Brenda burst into uproarious laughter. “Heard that, you loser? Give up now, will you? Did you really think Mr. Sterling’s staff wouldn’t recognize their own madam?!”
I couldn’t believe Mrs. Miller would side with Ashley. I screamed at her, my voice raw, “Mrs. Miller! What are you saying?! Look closely! Who am I?!”
“I don’t know what you’re doing, don’t ask me, don’t ask me!” Mrs. Miller waved her hands frantically as she spoke.
“Mrs. Miller, there’s no need to teli Mr. Sterling about what happened in the bridal suite, understand?” Ashley warned, her voice laced with meaning.
“Yes, yes, of course!”
With that, she turned and fled, quickly disappearing from the room.
What was Ashley’s connection to Mrs. Miller?
Mrs. Miller seemed terrified of her, even willing to cover for her.
Ashley’s laughter was wild and unrestrained. She leaned down, grabbing my chin tightly. “How dare you threaten Mrs. Miller? Chloe, wake up. You were never as good as me in high school, and you’re still not. You, with a face like that, think you can marry Julian Sterling?”
Brenda yanked my hair, pulling it back forcefully. “I think she’s just desperate, Ma’am. She’s probably here to seduce Mr. Sterling!”
“She definitely is! Look at her seductive act, who knows how she even got into this company!”
Ashiey pushed my face away. “You’re right. I don’t even think you went to college, did you? How could someone like you get into Sterling Industries?”
“I was studying overseas+ Ow! Let go!”
My scalp was aching, but I couldn’t finish my sentence.
Ashley was so close, and as I looked at her carefully, I noticed something. She actually resembled Mrs. Miller quite a bit, like 70%. Could it be…?
“Ashley, you and Mrs. Miller look so much like…”
Before I could finish, Ashley slapped me, hard, making me see stars.
“You, you’re not even a Sterling family heiress, how could you be..”
She picked up a piece of cloth from the floor and stuffed it into my mouth. “Let’s see you be so stubborn now!”
“Ma’am, look what she’s wearing on her hand!” Brenda grabbed my hand to show Ashley. “Isn’t this the Sterling family’s heirloom?”
Brenda actually recognized our family heirloom! I looked at her with a glimmer of hope.
“She, she must have stolen it! Yes, that’s right! I wondered why she came so early. Goodness, not only did she want to steal a man, but she’s stealing things too!”
Mr. Davies took the opportunity to pinch my waist. “You wretched woman, how dare you steal the lady’s property?! Hand it over!”
The two of them held me down tightly. I struggled with all my might but couldn’t break free from their grip. Unable to speak, my heart filled with rage and despair.
Ashley seized the chance to reach for the jade bracelet on my wrist. “This is mine, give it back.”
She yanked hard, making my wrist red and raw. In the struggle, the jade bracelet fell to the ground and shattered into several pieces.
My eyes fixed on the broken bracelet, tears uncontrollably welling up. That was a gift from my grandfather. My grandfather was gone, and now the bracelet was shattered too.
I struggled free, slowly kneeling down, my trembling hands gently picking up the fragments.
The warm, smooth feel of the jade still lingered, but now it was utterly broken.
Just then, the door opened again. “Sweetheart, are you ready? The guests have all arrived.”
It was my husband, Julian Sterling.
