Divorced the Cheat Married the Fleet (Camilla and Lance) novel Chapter 249

Barnard’s expression kept changing, his eyes hidden behind his glasses growing darker every second in the shadows.

Camilla glanced outside at the pitch-black sky, then checked the time on her phone. “You look pretty free tonight, Barnard. I’ll get in touch tomorrow to deal with the divorce papers. For now, you can go.”

Divorce papers. Again.

Barnard clenched his teeth so hard it was almost painful. He pressed her one more time. “You’re really not scared at all?”

Camilla met his gaze. “Do whatever you want. If you honestly think playing dirty is enough to mess with me now, try it.”

She knew better than to show even a hint of weakness in front of him. If she did, she’d just be handing him a weapon to use against her.

The conversation crashed and burned, just like every other time. When Barnard stood up, he gave her one last hateful look. “You’re going to regret this, Camilla.”

She didn’t even bother answering him.

After work, Camilla stopped by the supermarket. She picked up groceries, plus some fruit and snacks Jasper liked. Anything to keep her mind off everything that just happened, to drown out Barnard’s threats.

Divorce was the only way forward. She’d made up her mind not to compromise again, no matter what.

***

The next morning, Ada called in a panic, saying yet another business partner was interested in switching over to Pamela’s studio.

Ada sounded like she was about to explode from stress, so Camilla told her to book a hotel suite for a proper meeting. There was no time to waste.

This particular partner came in with an attitude even nastier than yesterday’s. Something was up; they must have heard some rumor. Camilla spent forever trying to calm them down, drinking with them and negotiating until their tempers cooled a little.

The tension inside the suite was suffocating, so she slipped out for some air. Out in the hallway, she ran smack into Abelard.

Since she’d started getting closer to Lance, Abelard had stopped openly picking fights with her. Now he acted way more polite, though he still couldn’t resist a few digs about her being clueless with men.

At least they weren’t constantly clashing anymore.

They exchanged a quick hello, and Abelard glanced at the door behind her. “Lance is upstairs. Want me to tell him to come down?”

He genuinely had no clue what was going on between her and Lance. They definitely seemed closer... but also not? This whole mess would be a five-second fix for Lance, yet Camilla clearly didn’t plan to tell him about it.

“Hey, Lance, Abelard, what are you guys doing here?”

“If we’d known you were involved, there’s no way we would have made Camilla’s life difficult.”

“Camilla really keeps it under wraps, huh? Never mentioned knowing you.”

“Oh, you’re Camilla’s assistant, right? Let’s get the contract out and sign it now.”

Lance looked at their groveling faces, and he could only imagine how badly they’d treated Camilla before he arrived.

He fixed them with a look. “You really think you deserve to work with her? Forget it, none of you are worth her time.” He turned to Abelard. “I want names. Find out who’s been feeding them this garbage.”

The business partners instantly went chalk-white, trembling under his stare. Ada was startled, and pulled Lance aside for a moment, saying in a low voice, “Lance, about our business… if we mess this up now, all the effort Camilla put in will be wasted…”

Before she could finish, Abelard cut in. “Come on, you haven’t figured it out? If Lance is getting personally involved, do you really think you need to stress about business?”

Lance turned, shot Abelard a sharp look, but didn’t say anything else. He just took the car keys from Abelard and headed downstairs.