He Loves Me Right, Finally novel Chapter 194

Wynette looked at her furious friend.

It was the first time she'd seen Joanne this furious at Eli.

Her gut told her something had definitely happened between them.

After a beat, Wynette asked, "He came to see you?"

She meant Eli.

Joanne's expression stiffened. Her hands tightened around the steering wheel. "Yeah."

She hadn't planned to tell anyone Eli had come looking for her.

What she hadn't expected was for that shameless man to go sniffing around Wynette for information about her.

She'd heard every word Wynette said in her defense.

She was touched, sure. But she also wanted to laugh at herself for ever falling for a dumbass like that.

He hadn't always been like this. In the beginning, Joanne had genuinely felt his sincerity.

But after all those breakups and makeups, he'd only gotten worse.

It really proved that line: maybe he had loved her once, but a person's heart could change in the blink of an eye.

And somehow, the ugly fallout from that relationship had landed right in Joanne's lap.

"Do you want to tell me what happened between you two?" Wynette asked carefully.

Something serious must have happened, or Joanne wouldn't be this furious.

Joanne pulled over, stopped by the curb, and switched on the hazard lights.

Then, she looked at Wynette, drained. "That dumbass asked me to lend him money for his wedding. I was so mad I laughed."

Eli's latest stunt was so ridiculous it would've been funny if it weren't so pathetic.

She'd sooner feed that money to stray dogs than lend it to a man like him.

Wynette thought she had misheard. "Is he out of his mind?"

That didn't sound like something Eli would do.

But since Joanne was the one saying it, Wynette believed her.

Clearly, Eli had seriously lost it.

Joanne let out a cold laugh. "Insane, right? And it gets worse. His so-called fiancée contacted me too, demanding I pay back everything Eli spent on me while we were dating."

Joanne had no idea what Eli had told that girl, but the whole reimbursement act disgusted her.

That girl clearly didn't have much going on upstairs either.

Before coming after Joanne, she hadn't even bothered to check what Joanne did for a living. She just showed up acting high and mighty, like Joanne owed her money.

Joanne was genuinely speechless.

Wynette burst out laughing. "Wait. Eli failed to borrow money from you, so he turned around and asked you to reimburse his dating expenses?

"Never mind how much he spent on you. Any one thing you bought him could probably cover everything he ever spent on you put together."

Over the years, Joanne had bought him watches, belts, and bags. Even after lowering the price range to protect his pride, a single watch still cost hundreds of thousands.

And that didn't even include all the designer clothes she bought him while they were dating.

If anyone really wanted to keep score, what Eli had spent on Joanne was laughable by comparison.

By now, Joanne couldn't even describe the level of disgust sitting in her chest.

She looked at Wynette. "So I sued him right back. I told him to convert everything I bought him during our relationship into cash and pay me back. He wanted to settle accounts, didn't he? That little bit he spent on me isn't even pocket change."

Even if Joanne doubled every penny Eli had ever spent on her, it still wouldn't come close to what Adriel gave her as spending money in under a month.

Joanne, on the other hand, was a different story.

Had things between them moved that fast?

What exactly had she missed?

She dragged Wynette into a full-on rant and helped her pick out plenty of pieces in other colors.

In the end, Wynette also picked out the newest starlit watch.

It was a limited-edition piece from a famous brand, named after the twelve traditional hours. Wynette had preordered it as soon as it launched.

It had arrived a few days ago, and the brand had called her, but she hadn't had time to pick it up.

The moment Wynette saw the preorder, she fell for the watch named "Midnight."

The stars stretched endless as scenery, and the galaxy spilled across the sky like brocade.

The meaning of the watch deeply resonated with her.

Joanne took all of it in and asked curiously, "So when exactly did you and my brother start?"

Those two had hidden it well.

If Wynette hadn't announced it herself, Joanne still wouldn't have known. She'd even been thinking about setting them up.

Honestly, that was pretty unfair of her.

"Pretty early. Let me think." Wynette smiled at her. "After I was stood up that day, I got hooked up with your big brother. We just couldn't make it too obvious because of everything going on."

Joanne instantly understood what she meant.

Back then, the Jewells and the Shepherds were cutting ties. If Adriel had gotten involved, people might've branded him the other man.

Joanne knew that wasn't the truth, and honestly, part of her wanted to see her brother suffer a little for love—but only in theory.

Never mind public opinion. If news had broken then about some so-called love triangle between Adriel, Wynette, and Noah...

Joanne shook her head. Forget it.

Her own family alone would've been impossible to answer to.

The second she thought of those suffocating parents, Joanne's face darkened, and she fell silent.