"What? Are you telling me you and Seth fooled around in his car all night?!"


    On the other end of the line, ire practically exploded.


    Her shriek was so piercing it almost shattered Noreen''s eardrum through the speaker.


    Noreen reflexively held the phone away from her head. Once the squealing died down, she muttered, "You really should have taken up opera as a kid."


    "Don''t change the subject!" ire demanded. "Spill it! What happened? How did you end up sleeping with that jerk Seth again?"


    "We didn''t sleep together..."


    "Oh, so hooking up in a car doesn''t count as sleeping together now?"


    "...We didn''t go all the way."


    ire went dead silent for a second before letting out an even louder scream. "I knew it! That jerk is totally useless! He''s impotent, hahaha! He can''t get it up!"


    Noreen pinched the bridge of her nose, suddenly regretting telling ire anything at all.


    She may have been drunkst night, but she still had feeling in her body. She knew perfectly well whether Seth could perform or not...


    Still, since ire was distracted and no longer prying for gritty details, Noreen opted to keep her mouth shut.


    Once ire finishedughing, she tried to console her. "Look, it''s no big deal. You just made a mistake any woman in the world would make. Totally understandable."


    "It''s mostly because you haven''t been with a guy in ages. Sleep around a little more, and you''ll get over him."


    Noreen was utterly speechless.


    What a blessing it was to have a best friend like this.


    "What about you? How are thingstely?" Noreen asked, shifting the focus.


    "Same old, same old," ire replied, sounding bored. "Just waiting for this mandatory waiting period to end so I can finally get my divorce."


    "Has Felix been keeping out of your hair?" That was what Noreen was most worried about.


    "He''s been too busy throwing money at his little mistress to bother with me," ire scoffed.


    Honestly, ire kind of admired Madeline''s sheer audacity. After the scandal broke, the woman had actually stood in front of reporters, crying crocodile tears, iming the video was a malicious Al deepfake, and had even marched into a police station to file a report.


    She''d poured every ounce of her limited acting skills into that performance. It was a masterss in ying the victim.


    Thanks to her pathetic, tear-stained face, she''d managed to drum up a ton of sympathy online.


    With Felix cleaning up the mess behind the scenes, the whole scandal had eventually fizzled out.


    Not long after, though, Madeline announced her retirement from the entertainment industry.


    ire had been a bit puzzled by that. It didn''t seem like Madeline''s style to just quit.


    But... exactly as she''d suspected, when a snake slithered off into the grass, it was only nning its next strike.


    Madeline was starting her own business.


    And get this Felix was entirely


    funding it. He was pouring resources


    into her handing her hiswork,


    and paving every


    h of her


    forward...


    He was acting like he was on a holy mission to turn Madeline into the richest woman in Northcrest.


    Well, at least it kept him busy. If he was busy, he didn''t have time to disgust ire with his presence.


    Doing the math, she only had one week left. 168 hours. 10,080 minutes. 604,800 seconds.


    The absolute second that clock ran out, she was flooring it to city h


    grab her divorce certificate Affet


    that, Felix could go straight


    hell!


    Hearing that Felix was paving the way for Madeline, Noreen opened WhatsApp and


    sent a message to Wilbur, asking if he knew about it.


    Wilbur replied that he did.


    [Make things difficult for her,] Noreen typed bluntly.


    [Way ahead of you,] Wilbur shot back. [Already stole two of her projects.]


    [You''re the best,] Noreen replied, adding a relieved sticker.


    A few momentster, Wilbur sent another message: [How is ire doingtely?]


    Noreen thought it was a weird question. [Do you guys not have each other on WhatsApp? If you want to know how she is, just ask her directly.]


    [Just asking randomly,] Wilbur deflected.


    Noreen took him at his word and didn''t think much of it.


    Just after she hung up the phone with ire, Castle arrived.


    They had made ns yesterday to grab lunch together. Noreen grabbed her bag,


    and the two headed downstairs.