"Would you mind if I tagged along?" Selma asked him instead.


    Henry stood frozen for a few seconds. Selma''s reaction wasn''t one of anger. Instead, she was offering to help him take Vanessa home. It waspletely unexpected.


    "Selma, are you really... not angry?" Henry asked again, needing to be sure, especially after the scene in the bar.


    Selma''s expression was calm, her eyes clear. "Why would I be angry? You and Miss Shannon are friends. She was drunk, and it''s only right for you to help her." She paused, then added, "Isn''t she Mr. Goodwin''s girlfriend?"


    Henry blinked. "How did you know?" A thrill of excitement shot through him. Had Selma been looking into Vanessa? Was it for his sake?


    Henry''s intense gaze seemed to see right through her. Selma felt a blush creep up her cheeks and quickly looked away. "Are you going to get her or not?"


    "Right. Wait for me by my car. I''ll bring her out," Henry said. He took a few steps, then turned back to make sure she was still there, as if afraid she might vanish. Selma waited by Henry''s SUV. She had, for his sake, meticulously studied Vanessa''s social media presence. She had scrolled through practically every post, confirming that Vanessa was a high-level social climber who had forced her way into the upper echelons of society. She had interfered inn''s marriage, constantly provoking Eleanor with thinly veiled posts and flirtations. At the same time, she hadn''t forgotten to keep a high-quality heir like Henry on the hook, ying him like a fiddle and keeping him as her backup.


    As a woman, Selma despised people like that. She also felt that Henry deserved better and hoped he would wake up to the fact that he was being used.


    Selma thought back to her first meeting with Henry. She was a freshman in high school on a visit to the Holt family estate. She was too young then to have any feelings for him. Later, she ran into him again in the international student circles in Fairhaven. At a party, a guy was aggressively hitting on her, and Henry had stepped in, ying the white knight and driving her home.


    He had left an impression on her then, but she was busy with her studies, and he soon took over his family''s business in Drexford. They barely saw each other after that.


    She had harbored a secret crush for


    three years. After returning to the


    country and starting her own business, she''d gone to dinner at the Holt estate, but Henry hadn''t been home. Mrs. Holt had insisted that Henry make it up to her by taking her to dinner. At the restaurant, Henry had been polite and gentlemanly, but it was obvious he was resistant to the setup. Midway through dinner, he took a call and left in such a hurry he forgot his coat.


    Selma was sure that call had been from Vanessa.


    That night, he hade home drunk. She had been there to return his coat, and in his stupor, he had mistaken her for Vanessa. Faced with an embrace from the man she had secretly desired for years, Selma hadn''t pushed him away. She didn''t regret it afterward and went on with her life. But something seemed to have changed in Henry. He would text her out of the blue de liked. every one of her social media posts. The day of the car ident, he had been frantic with worry, and his concern for her had be a regr thing...


    Back at the booth, Vanessa sat huddled in the corner, her head down, her long hair obscuring her face. Just then, the ss was snatched from her hand.


    She looked up, a sh of delighted surprise on her face. But when she saw it was Henry, half of her excitement faded. It was clear he wasn''t the one she had been hoping for.


    But she quickly recovered, a smile touching her red lips as tears welled in her eyes. In the dim light, she looked utterly pitiful and heart-wrenching.