Silly Bride

Chapter 284

“Is that it? What’s so special about that? It’s common for prominent families to establish alliances through marriage. We see that all the time in movies and novels.”“Aren’t you forgetting something? Yes, it’s true that arranged marriages are common practice for prominent families, but you need to keep in mind that Winnie has yet to divorce her husband! I know she’s from a really powerful family and all but the Fairchild family is no pushover either. I can’t believe she’d openly cheat on Xavier like that!”“Oh, my goodness! You’re right! I can’t believe I forgot about that! Man, this is some really crazy stuff! Does she think the people in Chanaea wouldn’t know about her actions in Yartran? We’re living in the modern age, for goodness’ sake! All it takes is a few clicks for information to spread all over the internet!”“Exactly! There are even pictures of them online!”“The pictures only show their backs and the side of their faces, so you can’t see much.”“That’s good enough for me. Winnie used to work really long hours here, so I’ve spent lots of time around her. You girls may not be able to recognize her, but I can. Trust me, that is definitely her in the picture.”“Really?” Josiah frowned deeply as he glanced at the nurse’s phone. “Mind if I have a look at the picture?”“Sure thing. Here you—” The nurse froze when she realized who she was talking to. “Dr. Houghton? W-When did you get here?”All the staff in the hospital knew about Josiah being close friends with Winnie and Xavier. The nurses felt really awkward when they saw him, as they reckoned he had caught them badmouthing Winnie.“Um… I-I-I just happened to stumble upon that stuff on the internet! I d-didn’t make it up or anything!” the nurse stammered nervously while putting her phone away.With a gloomy look on his face, Josiah held his hand out and ordered, “Give me the phone.”“I…” The nurse didn’t dare defy Josiah’s orders, so she handed him the phone after a brief moment of hesitation.Josiah furrowed his brows the moment he saw the familiar-looking face in the picture.As Josiah wasn’t around by the time Xavier came out of the treatment room, Xavier went straight to Josiah’s office, which happened to be on the same floor.After lazing around on the couch for a bit, Xavier got bored and started browsing aimlessly through his phone.He had already pinned Winnie’s chat to the top so that he wouldn’t miss any of her messages, but he had yet to hear from her.He missed her so much that even just scrolling through their chat messages was enough to put a smile on his face.He didn’t even bother to close the chat when he heard Josiah come in.Josiah glanced at the screen on his phone before sitting down beside him. “Did Winnie send you any pictures?”“I only received one so far. It was taken at the bottom of a snowy mountain,” Xavier replied without even looking at him.“I see…” Josiah nodded. “Was it a selfie? Or did someone else take the picture for her?”“It was a selfie.” Realizing something was amiss, Xavier shot Josiah a glance and asked, “Why would you ask me that? Did something happen?”Josiah shrugged. “No. I was just curious as to how many people are with her on this trip. Is she traveling alone?”Xavier frowned slightly. “I forgot to ask her about that when we last spoke on the phone. Knowing her, I think it’s likely that she’s traveling alone. She said she used to go there all by herself.”“Maybe things are different this time.”Xavier found his behavior really strange. “What exactly are you trying to say?”Josiah let out a huge sigh as he handed Xavier his phone. “I think you should see for yourself.”Xavier took the phone and quickly skimmed through the news article.“This is impossible. You know who that earl’s son is, right?” he asked after he finished reading it.Josiah glanced at the picture as he replied, “Yeah, I know who he is. That’s Nathaniel. He’s one of Winnie’s business partners. I bet you weren’t expecting their families to be so close, huh?”Xavier frowned deeply when he heard that. “So what if they’re close? You don’t think she has suddenly gotten engaged to Nathaniel, do you?”Josiah shook his head. “No, I don’t think so because we don’t have much information on the situation there. This news article is our only lead at the moment. I can’t say for sure if the contents of this news article are true, but take a look at who wrote it. It’s Helen, the journalist who recently wrote an article about the scandal involving the Ustranasion royal family. That article was genuine, mind you. Helen also wrote an article about Winnie and her connection to the Speiser family after having a formal interview with Lady Joshua Speiser. Do you know what that means? She’s not some paparazzo who makes a living by writing misleading articles. You probably missed an important detail since you were going through the article so quickly, but I had been reading through it many times before I got here. Take a closer look at this sentence over here. While investigating the case, Helen found out that Winnie had erased all of her information on the Chanaean network. It wasn’t your doing, nor was it Harold’s. Instead, it was the Speiser family that did it. They removed all information on your marriage in Chanaea so that Winnie could get engaged in Yartran. Don’t you find it strange that Winnie disappeared completely from the Chanaean network overnight?”Xavier paused for a moment and read through the news article a second time.“No, this is a baseless accusation. I won’t believe this unless she tells me about it in person. How could you believe something without confirming it first, Josiah?” he said firmly.“Oh, I don’t know…” Josiah let out a huge sigh. “You still remember my first girlfriend, right? I trusted her completely, but everything changed the moment she went overseas. We’d have video calls on a daily basis, but then she got