When the call connected, Lionel didn''t speak, waiting for Quennel on the other end to say something.


    Quennel had expected to be met with a furious roar, but the line was so quiet.


    For a moment, he thought he might have dialed the wrong number and even pulled the phone away to check the contact name. Seeing it was indeed Lionel, he finally spoke.


    "I heard you went to see the elders. Were you perhaps expressing your dissatisfaction with their investigation and demanding they reopen the case?"


    Quennel couldn''t help but chuckle at the thought of Lionel actually doing that, and offered a word of caution.


    "If so, I''d advise you to just drop it. No one has ever questioned the elders about anything. If you do, it will only make them resent you more."


    Lionel had thought Quennel was calling to taunt him about being a trending topic again.


    He never expected him to still be talking about the leak. He had just managed to convince himself to put that matter aside.


    The elders were done with it, yet here was Quennel, bringing it all up again. The anger Lionel had just suppressed instantly red back to life.


    "Quennel, everything done leaves a trace. Don''t think you''re some kind of mastermind. The elders may not be investigating, but that doesn''t mean I''ll stop. One day, I will make them see you for who you truly are."


    While he had the divorce proceedings to deal with now, he was determined to continue investigating the leak as soon as it was over.


    And when he found the truth, he would publish it online for everyone to see how the elders had shielded Quennel, how Quennel was behind it all from the start, and how he had even tried to frame him!


    Hearing his words, Quennel let out a long, dramatic sigh. "If you want to investigate, then go ahead. I won''t stop you. But your divorce hearing with Hannah is already scheduled for next week. The fact that Hannah is caring to go through with this proves she has some very strong evidence. You have time to deal with my affairs, but maybe you should be thinking about how to save your wife instead."


    When Quennel first heard Hannah mention the divorce proceedings, he suspected it was just a threat to scare Lionel, so he had looked into it.


    It turned out Hannah was serious; she wasn''t bluffing.


    He also hadn''t expected them to get a court date so soon.


    When he saw the news trending today, he dug a little deeper and discovered that Hannah had asked the Temple family to pull some strings to get an earlier date. Otherwise, the whole thing might have been dyed for another month or two.


    "Lionel, you stalled for so long, and now it seems it was all for nothing. In the end, you still have to divorcez Hannah If you knew it woulde to this why did you drag it out? should have just signed the signed the divorce


    papers when you had the chance.


    Maybe then things wouldn''t have


    gotten so messy."


    As Quennel spoke, he recalled the time Lionel had made Hannah go to the hospital, only to make her wait for him to sign the papers. The memory made himugh out loud.


    "You know, back then you made Hannah sign the papers and wait over thirty days, only for her to find out you never signed them, forcing her to bring up the divorce all over again. If you had just signed your name that first time and divorced her then, and then put in some effort afterwards, who knows? Maybe you''d already be in the process of winning her back. She might have even taken you back already, and things wouldn''t have escted to this scorched-earth disaster."