?Chapter 1677:


    Ste rose quickly from her seat and navigated through the dispersing crowd toward the backstage lounge. She needed to check on William’s condition.


    Alisha stayed in her seat, but when she watched Ste disappear into the backstage area, she understood immediately where she was headed — straight to William. Alisha started to stand, but her roommate’s hand shot out and caught her arm. “Where do you think you’re going?”


    Alisha faltered. “I… I was going to find Mr. Briggs.”


    Her roommate’s eyebrows shot up. “Please don’t tell me you have a thing for Mr. Briggs?” Caught out, Alisha’s cheeks flooded with color.


    The roommate, seeing her reaction, spoke with sincere concern. “Look, I’m telling you this as a friend — you need to let that crush go. I heard he got married a few months back. To Ste Russell, supposedly.”


    Alisha’s eyes went wide. “What did you just say? Mr. Briggs and Ms. Russell… they got married?”


    The roommate was startled by the intensity of her reaction but nodded anyway. “Yeah. I only heard it secondhand, but apparently Ms. Russell got kidnapped on their wedding day and the ceremony had to be called off. Even so, plenty of people im they’d already legally registered the marriage beforehand — they just never got to finish the actual wedding.”


    Every drop of color drained from Alisha’s face. Her eyes locked on the spot where Ste had disappeared, and her fingers gradually curled into fists.


    The roommate tried to soften the blow. “Alisha, you’re still so young. You have your whole life ahead of you and plenty of options. William might be gorgeous, but he’s a married man. You should choose someone else.” Getting involved with someone else’s husband wouldn’t be right.


    Alisha said nothing, but the shock zing in her eyes couldn’t be concealed.


    Suddenly everything made sense — why Ste was always around William, why she had been the one to show up at the ident scene instead of him. So they were husband and wife. But then… why hadn’t William acknowledged it when she’d asked him directly?


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    She couldn’t make sense of it. Based on everything she had observed over the past several days, William didn’t seem to have any affection for Ste whatsoever. Something didn’t add up. She refused to believe they were actually married. She wouldn’t ept it.


    The roommate cleared her throat awkwardly. “Look, Alisha… from what I’ve heard, they have a really strong bond. They’ve been through a lot together. And Ms. Russell is genuinely amazing — half our ssmates look up to her.”


    “I know she’s impressive!” Alisha cut her off sharply, jealousy threading through her voice in a way she didn’t even seem to recognize. “But since when does being aplished at work mean someone deserves love? When I asked Mr. Briggs point-nk about their rtionship, he never said a word about being married!”


    The roommate’s mouth snapped shut. She had no idea how to respond to that.


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