Chapter 24
As Hudson’s black eyes were glued to his ex–wife’s figure and none of her movements escaped his watchful gaze, the space between his eyebrows started to crease.
He had never seen her look so…lively. Just like when she was dancing at the club, now his ex–wife seemed so cheerful, confident, and carefree. The way her head was thrown back every time she laughed out loud, the sparkles in her eyes, the elegant way she sat and ate… And when did she have so much appetite?
For all he could remember, she was always shyand timid. No, he remembered it wrongly, he thought. When they first met, she was this exact same girl – lively and bubbly but gradually, she changed. Granted, she always looked at him with love and admiration, but the sparkles of happiness were gone with each passing time, and she seemed to become more restrained.
Why, though? He never asked her to change. He only wished for her not to embarrass him. It was already embarrassing enough that she couldn’t dress up appropriately… But she could, couldn’t
she?
Just looked at her now. Her dress accentuated her figure, and her makeup and hair were also perfect.
“Cherise seems to have changed a lot since her divorce from Hudson,” Keith uttered and glanced at his friend from the corner of his eyes.
Finley snorted, “What changed? She just becomes sluttier, hooking up with big shots to get their money like she did to Hudson.”
“I don’t think so.” Keith shook his head and placed his cutlery down before thoughtfully pointing out, “She looks more radiant.”
So he wasn’t the only one seeing it, Hudson thought. Keith thought so, too. But what brought these changes? If she was like this during their marriage, at least he could bring her out to socialize more often.
“Radiant, my ass,” Finley kept snorting. “I really don’t know what went wrong inside your head, Keith. Please don’t tell me she’s bewitched you too.”
Keith calmly took his wine glass and swirled it gently before reminding his friend softly, “You know my preference, Finley.”
Finley looked confused for a moment before his eyes widened and then filled with guilt. “I‘ ‘m
sorry.
Keith shook his head, his eyes flashing with sadness for a split second. “Don’t worry about me. We are talking about Hudson’s ex–wife now. Take a good look at her and tell me if she doesn’t radiate an elegant aura.”
“And don’t say anything before you look at her with your unbiasedness,” he added before Finley
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Chapter 24
could retort with another sarcastic remark.
Finley finally looked hard at Cherise and found her to really have changed, just like Keith had pointed out. How in the world could an orphan become this elegant in a matter of days?
“She did change, Finley surrendered, but he was still unwilling to believe Cherise wasn’t a gold- digger. “But I bet she was just pretending. She needs to look and act like an upper–class lady to hook out the big shots.”
Keith rolled his eyes at his simpleton of a best friend. “If that’s the case, why didn’t she act like this when she was married to Hudson? She could keep him and wouldn’t need to waste her time and energy to find another big shot. Hudson is the wealthiest man in this country, after all.”
Now, it was time for Finley to roll his eyes. “Maybe she’s trying to get Hudson back, or she knows she won’t ever get any affection from Hudson, so she needs to jump to her next target. And I’m right, aren’t I? Hudson is now engaged to his first love. As his best friends, we should be happy for
him.”
“Alright, if you said so, Keith pretended to agree with him since there was no point in him saying otherwise anyway. “Back to your question about her knowing Julian Alster.”
“Do you think she has really gotten together with THE Julian Alster?” Finley asked in disbelief.
“Hudson said so, and… Did you not hear the waiter call her by ‘Ms. Alster‘ instead of her name?” Keith asked Finley, but he secretly still glanced at Hudson from the corner of his eyes, wanting to see his reactions.
Hearing Keith’s words, Hudson’s hold on his cutleries tightened without him knowing, and his b*dy. went rigid. Yes, he heard it, too, but he thought it was just his imagination, so he brushed it off. But if Keith heard it too….
A chilling aura blasted off his b*dy, nearly dropping the room temperature. Keith ren……ed calm while Finley the simpleton was too caught up in Keith’s words to feel it – his mouth hung open, and his ev
eyes went as wide as a saucer as he couldn’t contain his shock and nearly shrieked, “You mean she’s now engaged to Julian Alster?!”
“They could be,” Keith rubbed his chin and thought about it for a while before concluding, “Even if they are not engaged now, they will be soon as he has given her his last name, and he is definitely pampering her a lot.”
Hudson couldn’t control his rage anymore and slammed his cutlery down against the table, making Finley jump on his seat like a frightened cat.
“I need to smoke,” he said and stood up, leaving Finley gawking at his back and Keith smiling in
secret.
“What the hell is wrong with him?” Finley asked as he rubbed his thudding heart through his shirt and muttered under his breath, “Not only has his ex–wife changed, but Hudson himself also changed.”
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Chapter 24
Keith shrugged and repeated Hudson’s words, “He needs to smoke.” How Keith wished his best friend could open his eyes and heart and see that he held some affection for his ex–wife after three years of marriage. He didn’t wish for Hudson to have the same fate as him. Unfortunately, the only way for him to help Hudson realize his feelings was by using his words to taunt him, which seemed. to work perfectly fine.
But Cherise… Who was she? Keith thought to himself. Unlike his two best friends, he knew who Cherise’s friends were Paula Laurent and if he didn’t see it wrongly, the one seen with Cherise at the club was Katherine Sterling. Both of them and Logan Jennings were difficult people to get to know, much less to get close to. They looked like they had known each other for a long time, and not because of Cherise’s connection with Julian Alster, they wouldn’t be this close.
Judging from how she carried herself after divorcing Hudson and how the waiter addressed her ast ‘Miss. Alster, could it be… Keith frowned and brushed the thought away. There was no reason for her to conceal her identity if she were, and from what he knew, the Alster family’s heiress had disappeared when she was five years old.
Rumor had it that she was killed during a kidnapping, but the Alsters were too deep in their grieve. to hold an open funeral, and no one dared to mention the little girl in front of Charles Alster, the patriarch of the Alster family, nor in front of Julian Alster.
Now, Keith could only hope Hudson could realize his feelings as soon as possible before Julian Alster snatched Cherise away, or he would regret it forever.
Hudson, feeling irritated with everything his two best friends were saying, like he wasn’t even there, went to the empty balcony and held a cigarette between his long fingers before lighting it up and dragging a lungful of smoke, the nicotine instantly calming some of his nerves.
think he
He couldn’t help but rub his forehead. Keith and Finley’s conversations kept replaying in his mind. Why had she never bothered to dress up for him? How could she change so fast? Did wasn’t worth her effort, but Julian was? Was she really engaged to Julian Alster now?
Hudson sneered when that thought entered his mind. Julian Alster would most probably only be playing with her. Charles Alster wouldn’t let him be with a gold digger or someone who was divorced. Either that or, just as Finley had stated, she was trying to get his attention back.
Did she think it was easy for her to get him back? She wished; Hudson sneered again. He had Emely now, and she had divorced him. He would rather die than remarry her, and yet, the thought of her with Julian Alster was still unsettling.
As he extinguished his cigarette, he saw a slender figure coming out of the woman’s bathroom. Just like at the restaurant’s entrance, he couldn’t help himself from going after her and grabbing her wrist to stop her from walking away.
