Chapter 48
Blanche followed the sound up to the second floor, pausing at the top of the stairs where she could see the entire sitting room laid out before her. The two people inside were so swept up in their feverish passion, they didn’t even notice someone else had arrived.
Scattered across the floor and couch were all manner of sordid,
carelessly discarded objects-a sight that made Blanche’s stomach turn.
Her grip tightened around the golf club, her hand beginning to tremble.
Just then, Eddy’s phone, left haphazardly on the side table, lit up and Kelvin’s voice cut through the air.
They were on a video call.
On Kelvin’s end, throbbing music and drunken laughter spilled into the room, punctuated by the unmistakable sounds of pleasure. Two glamorous women hung onto him, one on each arm. “Heard Jeannette’s back, Eddy. Told you, man, you never should’ve sent her away. You’re only torturing yourself. Jeannette knows how to have fun. She’s not some sanctimonious saint like your girlfriend. You’ve been playing the monk for her for years now.”
“If you two aren’t coming over, I’ll send something your way-make sure you can really let loose.”
Eddy didn’t bother to correct Kelvin’s lewdness; he just offered a quiet, noncommittal “Yeah.”
Kelvin ended the call with a knowing, sleazy laugh. Blanche’s knuckles went white around the club.
It wasn’t as if she’d never seen this side of Eddy before. When she’d first arrived in Novandria, she’d gone to a wild party with him-her first taste of that world. She’d seen things she wished she could forget. One man,
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reeking of booze, had tried to grope her.
Eddy had beaten that man bloody, then rushed her out of there.
He’d soothed her, promising, “Laney, this is my first time at this kind of party too. If you don’t like it, I won’t come again. And I won’t let anyone around me host or go to these kinds of parties, either.”
He’d kept his word. After that, he steered clear of parties, and forbade Kelvin and the others from attending as well.
Then one time, rumors spread that someone at a party had brought an infectious disease. Everyone present was forced to get tested. The wild escapades of the city’s trust-fund brats ended up splashed across the news, their faces exposed for all to see. Eddy’s circle, the ones he’d banned from partying, sent Blanche messages of thanks-they’d avoided scandal, sickness, and the wrath of their families.
Eddy had praised her for it, boasting about how proud he was to have a girlfriend like her.
Back then, Blanche had been a little smug herself, happy she could help people.
Now, looking back, it was nothing short of ridiculous.
Eddy wasn’t the man she thought she knew. Maybe he’d only hidden his true nature after meeting her. Now, he’d simply reverted to who he really
was.
Anger flared in Blanche’s chest. She raised the golf club, wanting to smash every filthy thing in sight.
She couldn’t take his hypocrisy any longer. Even if there were only twenty-four days left until she’d never have to see him again, it was already too much.
Suddenly, Jeannette twisted in Eddy’s arms, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Eddy, my dad’s thinking of relocating the company to
Novandria-he wants to expand here. Can you help us out? They’d really
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love to meet you.” She pouted, pleading. “Please?”
For five years, Jeannette had done nothing but chase after Blanche’s life-scheming to snatch everything she had, dreaming of getting her own child into the Simmons family and taking the Healys’ fortune for herself, never once planning for her own future.
Only when Loraine cut off her credit card did she finally wake up.
Everything she had came from Eddy. The moment he got bored of her, it could all be taken away.
She’d be left with nothing-no love, no money.
She needed to look out for herself now.
Blanche froze, the golf club suspended in mid-air.
Pollock and Rhoda were coming.
She remembered what Loraine had told Hedwig the other day-how Pollock, after being kicked out penniless by his wife, had managed to claw his way back, and now lived blissfully with Rhoda.
Why did people who betrayed their families and destroyed others always seem to land on their feet?
Her own mother, devastated by heartbreak, had fallen gravely ill and passed away soon after.
Blanche could still feel the pressure of her mother’s hand in those final days, urging her to let go of the past and look forward to a new life with Eddy.
The memory made her chest ache with grief.
Her mother had never wanted her to wallow in resentment-she’d only wished for Blanche to be happy.
For a while, Blanche’s marriage had been happy, too. She had almost managed to forget that wretched family.
