Chapter 60
A sliver of confliction flashed across Julian’s eyes for a split second for Cherise to notice.
“Yes, I met him and thanked him, too,” Julian replied.
“Did you see his face?” Cherise asked, her eyes still shining with excitement. “Is he handsome? Is he someone you know? Did he give you his information? A phone number?”
This was what Julian was afraid would happen – the barrage of questions. He had talked to Paula about Hudson’s identity as Xav
While he thought telling Cherise that her idol was her ex–husband would be fine, that she could take it, Paula’s reasoning about shattering Xav’s image or the thought of Cherise might change her mind about Hudson made more sense.
He didn’t want his beloved sister to feel any confliction about Hudson.
“Whoa, whoa, hold off with the many questions,” Julian tried to make this light.
Cherise rolled her eyes but shook his arm again. “Come on, tell me.”
“Hmm… Is he handsome?” Julian pretended to think about it and shrugged. “I’m a man. I can’t judge whether another man is handsome or not.”
“Oh, please,” Cherise rolled her eyes again. “You think Logan is handsome.”
“He’s our brother. Julian smiled.
I
Cherise groaned but didn’t give up. “Come on, Julian. I know you can appraise a man’s appearance.”
“He’s not as handsome as me,” he joked.
“I knowwwww” Cherise muttered with a smile. “You are the most handsome man on this planet, and no one can compare to my
brothers.”
Julian laughed and decided just to give her an honest answer. “Yes, he is handsome”
No one with eyes, women or men, would say Hudson Amery was not handsome.
“Is he someone you know?” Cherise repeated one of her questions from before. “Do I know him?”
“No,” Julian lied and felt kind of guilty when he saw the disappointment in Cherise’s face.
But that expression turned into anxiousness the next moment. “Did he… Did he see my face?”
Julian eyed her, and since he had lied about not knowing him, it was alright for him to tell her the truth now.
“He did.” He nodded and reassured her. “But he didn’t know who you were either. And I think, since he didn’t tell us anything about himself, he wouldn’t say anything about your face to anyone. He knew the importance of keeping your identity a secret.”
You didn’t want to know her b
“Oh.” Cherise felt relieved yet kind of disappointed that as Julian said, they both knew how important
it was to cover their identities.
“Alright, enough talking.” Julian said. “Are you hungry? I can ask Neil to buy you food.”
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“No.” Cherise shook her head. “I still want to sleep”
Her fever had gone down, but it didn’t mean it was gone, and she still felt weak.
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Julian helped her settle the bed back until she was comfortable and waited until she drifted off to sleep before going to the living room and texted Paula what had happened.
He needed to make sure they got their story straight just in case Cherise asked her. As for Logan, they decided not to tell him who Xav really was. The fewer people who knew, the better it would be for Cherise and Hudson. They were divorced. They didn’t need to have any connections between them.
In Keith’s office, Finley was fidgeting in his seat. When Hudson returned from Cherise’s ward and sat on the couch, he quickly apologized for blurting out to Emely, that Hudson was there to ch*ck on Cherise.
It had been more than ten minutes, but Hudson had yet to say anything in response. He didn’t even spare Finley or Keith. That made Finley feel anxious. Even though they were best friends, he was still scared of Hudson.
He looked at Keith for help, but Keith seemed unconcerned about the fact that Hudson was ignoring them. He looked focused on looking through the documents on his table, which were seemingly a never–ending work.
“H–Hudson.” He stuttered and gulped hard. “Are you angry with me?”
Finally, Hudson looked at him and frowned.
“A–Are you angry that I told Emely you are here to see Cherise?” Finley asked timidly.
Hudson frowned even harder. Emely? Had Finley been talking about Emely? His mind had been fist ith Cherise that he hadn’t
noticed anything else.
“No,” Hudson replied. He and Emely had an agreement. She wouldn’t be angry or jealous of Cherise since she was still in love with Luis and didn’t love Hudson in that way, as they had discussed before.
Finley let out a breath of relief. Thank God, he thought to himself.
“Well… I’m off then. It’s getting late,” he said and stood up.
Keith waved his hand without taking his eyes off from whatever document he was reading while Hudson only nodded, and Finley nearly ran out of the room, wanting to flee as fast as possible in case Hudson changed his mind.
Once Finley left, Keith leaned back against his seat, crossed his arms, and asked Hudson, “Well?”
He noticed Hudson had been absent–minded ever since he returned from Cherise’s ward. Something must have happened.
Hudson let out a deep breath and looked at the ceiling. “It seems I’m wrong.”
Keith raised his eyebrows. “About?”
“Cherise,” Hudson mumbled.
“You are not the only one who thought wrongly about her,” Keith pointed out.
Hudson chuckled, but it sounded sad and bitter. “You are right. And I didn’t stop them from thinking that way. I let them and even encourage them to think badly of her… indirectly.”
Keith looked at his best friend. Had he finally realized his feelings?
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Chapter 60
“I regret divorcing her. I should’ve tried to get to know her more rather than thinking she was a lowly gold digger.”
There it was… The confession he had been waiting for.
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“If I have a mother like yours, I might have thought about Cherise the same way as you do,” Keith tried to comfort his best friend.
Hudson shook his head. “No, you won’t. You’ve never thought badly about Cherise. You were always friendly toward her.”
Keith sighed. What could he say? That he could see the way Cherise looked at Hudson as if he were the sun and moon? That he could see how much Cherise was in love with Hudson? Would there be a point in telling him anything about it now?
“You can still salvage the situation.” That was the only advice he could tell Hudson at the moment.
m
Hudson knew what Keith meant. He could try and ask Cherise to remarry him. But…
He drew in a deep breath before replying, “I can’t. Julian is in her room now, and he is serious about her.”
This time, Keith was the one who let out a deep breath. Maybe they were not meant to be.
“Then it’s time to let her go,” Keith said. “She has Julian, you have Emely. You made a wrong choice this time and just have to live
with it.”
Hudson gave him a sidelong glance and chuckled. “Such a good friend you are.”
Keith shrugged and said, “As your friend, I have tried to tell you many times to treat her better, but you never listened.”
“Yeah…” Hudson c
closed his eyes, and for a while, the room was silent.
“You didn’t seem surprised to hear I regret divorcing her,” Hudson muttered.
“I have suspicions that you have feelings for her, and I kinda hoped you would realize it sooner.”
Hudson’s eyes flew open, and he eyed Keith in disbelief.
Keith smiled at him. “You know I’m observant, and as an outsider, it is kinda obvious. Especially after you guys got divorced and you couldn’t leave her alone. I think Finley is starting to notice, too. He was going to ask you about it before, but he was easily distracted and might have forgotten about it already.”
“When did you start having your suspicions?” He only started feeling jealous and possessive after their divorce, but Keith seemed to
have realized it sooner.
Keith tapped his index finger against his chin as if thinking about it. “Are you sure you want to know?”
Hudson nodded without hesitation. He was curious about it.
“Around the time you let Cherise redecorate the villa,” Keith said, and once again, Hudson stared at him in disbelief,
Cherise started redecorating the villa after their first wedding anniversary. Had he been blind about his own feelings for over two
years?
“We were in a shareholder meeting, and you couldn’t stop looking at your phone,” Keith explained. “I got a glimpse at what you were looking at, and they were pictures of curtains.”
“So?” Hudson was confused about how Keith could see that he had feelings for Cherise from that one act. “T’d like my house to still look good.”
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Keith couldn’t stop the chuckle that threatened to escape from his lips. “Yes, but those curtains are certainly not your colors, yet you still let her redecorate the villa however she wanted to. God knows you wouldn’t let anyone else do it. And that wasn’t the only tell,”
Hudson frowned. What more did Keith see?
“You always ignored any calls or texts during meetings, but you never ignored her calls or texts.”
Did he? Hudson realized he did. He was always annoyed every time Cherise called or texted him, but he always replied, even if only to tell her that she was disturbing him and she should stop doing it
And that was what she did–obeyed him. He received fewer and fewer calls and texts from her until they were nearly non–existence.
“And you saved every picture she had ever sent you,” Keith kept pointing out things he had seen Hudson do only for Cherise, “Usually, you never save pictures except those from Luis. You didn’t even save any that Emely had sent you.”
“You checked my phone?” Hudson narrowed his eyes. That was a breach of his privacy.
Keith laughed, and his eyes shone with mirth. “No. You showed them to me when you were drunk. You kept complaining about her and those pictures, but you never deleted them.”
Hudson seldom checked his phone photo gallery, so to make sure Keith was right, he pulled out his phone and scrolled through it, not surprised to find it filled with pictures he never took
“But I wasn’t a hundred percent sure because I know you still have Emely’s pictures in your wallet and phone, too,” Keith said, making Hudson frown again.
He kept scrolling and found a picture of Emely. He didn’t even remember saving it to his gallery. Maybe it was from Luis, and he forgot to delete it. This time, he didn’t hesitate to delete the picture, but he didn’t have the heart Cherise.
tany images sent by
He set his phone down on the table and took his wallet from his suit pocket. Opening it, he saw a picture of him and Luis from their younger days.
Hudson fished out the photos behind it and saw the picture that Keith had talked about – Emely from their younger days.
–
In all honesty, he had forgotten he had it in his wallet. It had been so long since he had changed wallets as the wallets being. produced now seldom had a photo slot, and all he remembered was only the photo of him and Luis.
After everything that had happened, he didn’t feel right having Emely’s photo in his wallet. He should give it back to her when they
meet next time.
“Do you think Cherise knew about Emely before I brought her back?” Hudson asked.
“With Finley kept running his mouth trying to make her feel small the few times she accompanied you, there is no doubt in her knowing about Emely’s existence,” Keith confirmed.
“And she misunderstood,” Hudson said with a mix of guilt and regret.
“Not like you considered her feelings.” Keith shrugged. “There are many other tells, but you let your hatred rule the way you treated
her.”
“And you made it worse by bringing her back and letting everyone think Emely was having your baby, Keith added.
“I was such a bad husband.” Guilt and regret kept hitting Hudson like tidal waves, and he felt like he was drowning and couldn’t breathe.
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“You were,” Keith sighed. “Let it be a lesson for you. Never judge a book by its cover.”
Keith was right, Hudson thought in his mind. He judged Cherise because of her poor background and hated her because of his own poor judgment of her.
“Since there is nothing you can do about this, I assume you’ll still marry Emely?” Keith asked to make sure of his best friend’s decision
“Yeah, under the condition I’ve told you before,” Hudson replied with a heavy heart.
He regretted blurting out about marrying her and thinking it was the best way to fulfill what he promised Luis.
If he didn’t blurt it out, he might still have a chance of pursuing Cherise.
“So, since you are going to marry her, is there a need for us to investigate her miscarriage?” Keith asked, breaking Hudson’s chain of thoughts.
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