Chapter 15
The person who shoved Nicole had small hands, yet they were surprisingly strong.
Caught off guard, Nicole toppled forward, crashing into the server.
“Whoa! Oh no!” he cried out in shock, his arm jerking and sending the wine from his glass splattering all
over a watercolor painting.
Gloria and Hayden rushed over. When Gloria saw what happened, her face turned pale. “My watercolor
painting is ruined! What on earth happened here?”
Trembling, the server immediately pointed at Nicole and said, “S–She ran into me first! That’s the reason I spilled the wine!”
Clutching her chest as if in physical pain, Gloria looked at Nicole in disbelief. “What did you do? How
could you be so clumsy?” she said.
Hayden frowned, but one look at the ruined painting told him he couldn’t openly defend Nicole. “Nicky didn’t do it on purpose.”
Instead of speaking up, Nicole slowly turned to face the crowd. She searched for a moment before her eyes landed on a small, almost–blended–in figure. The person who had shoved her was Matthew.
Not at all looking guilty or repentant at doing such a horrible thing, Matthew tilted his head and demanded, “Mommy, where are your manners? Why aren’t you apologizing for ruining Ms. Ashford’s
painting?”
Nicole’s gaze darkened.
“Say something, Mommy. There was no one around you just now, so you did this on purpose, didn’t you?
You wanted to ruin Ms. Ashford’s work, all because I’ve been getting closer to her recently!” Matthew
added while staring smugly at Nicole.
Gloria had told him last night that if he didn’t help Nicole and even spoke up against her, Nicole would surely be heartbroken. Then, she would definitely stop giving him the cold shoulder!
Hearing that, Hayden knitted his brows, but before he could speak, Gloria asked, “Matt, is that true? Did your mommy really ruin my painting on purpose?”
Matthew nodded vehemently. “Yes, I saw it with my own eyes!”
That response instantly pulled a laugh out of Nicole, but it was one of scorn and disdain. The sound was
abrupt and out of place for the situation.
Looking down at Matthew, Nicole said indifferently, “Matthew Spencer, is putting on this act so much fun for you? I already told you that you can acknowledge Gloria as your mother if you like her that much. Even if you were to publicly declare her as your mother right now, I wouldn’t grow angry. On the contrary, I’m more than willing to cut off relations with you.”
Chapter 15
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All the color instantly drained from Matthew’s face.
Gloria was also stunned, and surprise flashed through her eyes. Had Nicole gone mad? Why wasn’t she reacting at all?
Upon hearing Matthew’s words, Hayden immediately realized that all this was the boy’s doing. Taking out a bank card, he passed it to Gloria. “Here, swipe my card. Just think of it as me buying the painting.”
With that, he yanked Matthew closer to him. “How dare you falsely accuse your mother? Apologize to her,
now!”
“I won’t apologize! She’s the one who keeps bullying me and being mean, so she deserved it! I’m not apologizing! Why should I be the one to say sorry every time?”
Disregarding the fact that they were in public, Matthew burst into furious tears, and after shouting those words, he spun and ran off.
Exasperated, Gloria chased after him, but before she left, she said, “Seriously, you two? Why are you getting angry at a child?”
Nonetheless, Hayden didn’t seem to care about his wayward son. Instead, he led Nicole away to change
her clothes.
Not too far away, Gloria was hugging Matthew as she soothed him, but her eyes were locked onto their retreating backs. A malicious look crept into her gaze.
She thought, “Even after getting cancer, Nicole won’t step aside, even going so far as to hide the truth and pretend she’s fine. Isn’t it all just so she can keep Hayden to herself?
“Fine! It seems like Matthew’s attitude and my interactions with Hayden aren’t enough to push that sickly
wretch to a quicker death. In that case, let’s up the stakes, shall we?”
Curving her lips into a sinister smile, she then turned to continue socializing.
As the exhibition drew to a close, Gloria called the crowd to gather so they could move on to the last
event of the day–naming her newest artwork.
“This painting is the first work I made since returning to the country, and it bears quite a significant
meaning to me. Next, I would like to invite the most important person in my life to come up here and help
me name it.”
Chapter 16
Chapter 16
