?Chapter 205:


    She hadn’t anticipated encountering Belinda there.


    “Cathy, what are you saying?” Helen responded with concern. “If someone chooses to degrade herself by pleading for a reconciliation, that’s her burden to bear, not ours! Even if we hadn’t seen her, someone else would have.”


    She couldn’t resist mocking Belinda. “If you knew it would end like this, why go through with it? Why not just remain Mrs. Cox? Now, you’re just embarrassing yourself.”


    Belinda’s gaze dropped, her fingers nervously twirling the car keys. She endured Helen’s barrage of harsh words in silence. When Helen’s stream of invective finally dried up, Belinda looked up, her eyes steady and calm. “Are you done?” she asked, her voice even.


    Helen scowled back, her mind scrambling for more venomous words, but none came.


    “If you’ve said your piece, then it’s my turn to speak,” Belinda dered, a faint smile ying at the corners of her mouth. “Do you really think all women are cut from the same cloth as you? That we can’t stand on our own without clinging to power and wealth? Let’s get one thing straight. I chose to leave Kristopher. It was my decision to divorce him. I walked away without a backward nce, and I have no intention of ever seeking a reconciliation.”


    At that moment, Kristopher stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes shing with icy anger. Elliott shifted ufortably from one foot to the other, caught in the tense atmosphere, his words stuck in his throat. A heavy silence descended upon the group, the air thick with unspoken words. Those friends behind Kristopher held their breath, too wary to utter a sound.


    Kristopher’s re intensified, his eyes boring into Belinda as if trying to pierce her soul with his stare.


    “And yes, it might be true that Kristopher booked this bar for the evening,” Belinda continued, her tone dismissive. “But that doesn’t mean everyone here is on his payroll.” Sheughed shortly. “I came here for my own reasons, certainly not to swoon over your esteemed Mr. Cox. Don’t kid yourselves.”


    With that, she took out her phone and dialed the car owner’s number. It had been nearly ten minutes since she received a message from the car owner. Despite the noisy ambiance of the bar, he should have emerged by now. As she keyed in the number, the sound of a ringing phone pierced the silent night. It wasing from Elliott’s phone.


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    At the ring, all four women shifted their gaze toward the sound.


    “Kristopher!” Cathy’s face brightened as she released Maggie and Helen, darting over to Kristopher and grabbing his arm. “When did you arrive?” Maggie chuckled.


    With a sneer directed at Belinda, Maggie said, “Still pretending you’re not here to beg Kristopher for a fresh start? You’re calling him right before our eyes!”


    Helen chimed in, her tone dripping with sarcasm, “Belinda, there’s no shame in seeking a reconciliation. But why the pretense? You im you’re not here to beg, yet here you are, dialing his number…”


    Belinda furrowed her brow, casting a puzzled nce at Kristopher and the group around him. That ringtone… It was unmistakably Kristopher’s usual tone. Yet she knew his number by heart, and this wasn’t it on the caller ID. Could it possibly be…


    The phone kept ringing.


    Kristopher’s expression darkened with each passing second. Atst, he faced Elliott. “Are you going to pick that up?”


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