His Ex Wife Is A Billionaire

Chapter 762

In the dead of night, Mr. Bartley summoned Alston to his study. Mrs. Bartley was already there, her presence a clear sign of the gravity of the discussion about to unfold.

“What? Call off the engagement?!” Mrs. Bartley shrieked in disbelief. “Timothy, are you out of your mind? The news has already spread like wildfire. I have the ladies from the country club practically fawning over me, showering me with gifts because our Alston is set to marry the Abernathy heiress!”

Her eyes blazed with the scandal of it all. “With the wedding just around the corner, you drop this bombshell on me. How am I supposed to show my

ace around them after this?”

“Dad! What’s going on? Why cancel the engagement?!” Alston, his face flushed with anger, recalled the evening’s humiliation. “Marilla had the audacity to hold hands with Mr. Ashbourne and dance with him right in front of me. I’ve been embarrassed already, and now you want to call off the wedding altogether?”

Edith had painted Marilla as a simpleton. But what sort of fool dares to flirt with another man in front of her own fiancé, to be so intimate in public?

The thought of it was maddening. He wanted to make her pay, to make her regret her indiscretion.

“If your dignity comes at the cost of my future, then I say your pride is a small price to pay!” Mr. Bartley’s words were shocking, his impatience written all over his face.

“What are you saying?!” Both mother and son stared at him, bewildered.

“Haven’t you seen it tonight? Aaron has fallen for that ‘simpleton‘,” Mr. Bartley said, sipping his tea with an air of self–satisfaction. “Suri approached me in confidence, asking me to break off the engagement.”

also in the loop. If I refuse, they’ll throw their

clenched his jaw, and Mrs. Bartley was at a loss for

to a rogue in a heartbeat. “Firstly, Alston

aligns us with the influential Ashbourne family. It’s killing two birds with one stone, isn’t it?”

desperate, interjected, “Dad, aren’t you oversimplifying things? The Ashbournes have a formidable reputation. I find Emeric even more daunting than Frederic!”

ill, everyone knows that. He’s abroad for treatment and probably won’t last two years.

eyes, that woman is like a banshee, far more terrifying than her father!” Alston fumed, influenced by Edith’s opinions. “You might handle Frederic, but can you really contend with Evadne? She’s

let’s not forget, she

you made tonight, acting like a cornered animal in front of Mr. Frederic. I’ve taught you better! Even if it’s an act, you have to

Alston was speechless.

Yet watching her dance intimately with Aaron had stung him deeply. It felt like

completely ruined your impression with Frederic. He’s known for holding grudges, and

in disappointment. “You don’t have what it takes to marry into their world. Give up on

his engagements, inquired about the previous night’s events during his leisurely

lavish gift to

alone was worth over ten million,”

planning an engagement with the Bartleys, and yet they’ve shown no such grandeur. It’s

better of him. “Bought by a mere trinket? Those Ashbournes probably have a vault full of such baubles.

boy,” Dennis scoffed. “Last night, Alston had the nerve to

this. The comparison between the

call off the engagement with the Bartleys? A match with the Ashbournes would be a hundred times better. I bet you’d be over the moon

flushed with anger. “My son marrying an Ashbourne girl and my daughter wed to an Ashbourne boy? As

wisely chose to remain

Frederic’s mood. If he set aside his personal feelings, he had to admit that Aaron, Suri’s son, was

affection for his daughter; it was all about family arrangements. But the way Aaron looked at Marilla, with

wasn’t an

him from his thoughts.