The gist of Isabelle's text was that she felt awkward and embarrassed by Matilda's plan, which she was totally unaware of. So, she was apologizing to John for troubling him.
She had bombarded him with a slew of texts, from which he could tell that she was feeling anxious. Even after staring at the texts for an extended time, he did not reply in the end. Instead, he turned off his phone and the bedside lamp.
On the other side, Isabelle clutched her phone and waited for some time, but she did not receive any reply from John. This must have meant that he would not reply to her. She wondered if it was because he didn't read her texts at all, or if he had purposely ignored her after reading the texts.
Feeling antsy, she held her phone and paced around her room a few times. Just now, Matilda called and said that she had reprimanded John for his attitude. Matilda explained that John left because he was worried of being seen dining with other women, which might cause some gossip.
It was a plausible explanation. Lately, John and Isabelle were captured on camera by nosy people a few times. Thankfully, they were captured when they were at work, so they had assistants around. When the photos spreaded online, the media reported that the two of them were business partners, so there wasn't any nasty gossip. With that, previous rumors about John and Isabelle were dispelled and speculations on their relationship were slowly clearing up.
Right now, if someone were to discover any slightly suspicious 'private dates', it would negatively affect both John and Isabelle. Anyway, Isabelle couldn't keep a distance from John forever for fear of creating any scandal; she no longer had the patience to keep waiting.
When she was in a few business talks with John before this, she noticed that John had taken out his phone and clicked into Facebook. She could clearly see Sophia's selfie on his screen.
It was obvious that John still missed Sophia. Isabelle thought that if she remained passive, she might end up losing him like before.
She could only tolerate losing him for once, for she had no desire, nor the mental fortitude, to go through the same ordeal twice.
In the span of John and Sophia's one-year marriage, Isabelle's daily life was hellish. Now, she finally waited until the day of their divorce, an opportunity that she would not pass on anymore.
After some rumination, she made a call to Matilda, and the latter instantly picked up. "Belle!"
Meanwhile, John was in the dark about the plan between Matilda and Isabelle. The next morning at breakfast, he heard Old Mrs. Constance bringing up the topic of the monastery visit, to which he suggested once more, "I'm serious. You should try inviting Sophia to go with you. Let's see if she'd say yes. Just try. What if she agrees to it?'
Upon hearing that, John smiled. "l didn't mean anything. I was just suggesting that you invite her.'
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