Rejected Heiress, Reigning Queen novel Chapter 167

Carter agreed on the spot, but neither of them managed to leave the city.

"Miss, the Vance family explicitly ordered me to keep a close eye on you. You cannot be discharged until we're one hundred percent certain your body has recovered, so you need to come back to the hospital with me right now."

The moment Emma and Carter walked through their front door, they found Julian's personal nutritionist and nurse waiting in the living room.

Emma sighed in utter defeat. She had no choice but to obediently return to the hospital, enduring another grueling week before Julian finally signed her release papers.

The very day she was discharged, Emma attended a high-society party.

Scarlett threw the bash specifically to celebrate her recovery.

"Mr. Harrington actually didn't show up?"

Inside the luxurious villa, a stunning woman walked up to Scarlett, asking out of sheer curiosity.

Scarlett immediately looped her arm through Emma's, smiling sweetly but radiating a fierce, protective edge. "My brother spent the entire time at the hospital taking care of my sister-in-law, so his workload piled up. Since she's leaving town in a few days, he rushed back to the office to clear his schedule."

The woman's expression shifted slightly, her gaze turning complicated as she appraised Emma.

"Emma, let me introduce you. This is Tiffany Yale. Her family runs a cruise ship empire," Scarlett explained thoughtfully. She then turned back to Tiffany. "My sister-in-law, Emma, the CFT—"

"Nice to meet you." Emma cut off Scarlett's introduction, preferring to keep a low profile.

Tiffany pressed her lips together and forced a polite smile. "Nice to meet you too. Those of us who grew up with Carter were always so curious about the kind of woman he'd marry. I never expected it to be you."

Emma simply smiled without a word. Just then, Gillian and Phoebe Sterling walked through the door.

"Who invited you?"

Scarlett's eyes darkened as she physically blocked their path.

Gillian glared at Emma with raw hatred and raised her voice. "If a shameless bitch like her can be here, why can't I?"

The sprawling hall plummeted into dead silence, every eye instantly locking onto Emma.

"Emma, since you're already married to Mr. Harrington, everything between you and Percy is in the past. Why must you..." Phoebe mumbled softly, pressing her lips together.

She had heard from Gillian that Emma only married Carter to spite Percy, completely turning the Harrington family upside down in the process.

If someone had told her this years ago, she never would have believed it.

But six years had passed, and Phoebe realized she didn't know Emma at all anymore.

So when Gillian spun her that narrative, she half-believed it.

Emma's words carried a sharp double meaning. Gillian didn't catch the implication immediately, frowning in utter confusion.

"The fact that he started dating you the very same day he dumped me proves his character. Is it really that shocking that he suddenly got bored of you?"

The moment she said it, it clicked for several people in the room.

The absolute circus that had gone down in that VIP room had been the talk of the town. People had treated it as prime gossip material, so naturally, many knew that Gillian had hooked up with Percy mere hours after his breakup with Emma.

Gillian was even the one who aggressively pushed for the marriage alliance.

"Exactly. When she stole him, she should have known that six years of history doesn't just vanish into thin air," someone whispered.

Whispers broke out across the room, with the majority of the guests now openly sneering at Gillian.

Gillian's face drained of color, twisting with rage. Seeing this, Phoebe felt a surge of sympathy.

She tilted her chin up, glaring stubbornly at Emma with utter disappointment.

"Emma, you really have changed."

"Don't forget, the romance you had with Percy was originally supposed to belong to Gillian, the girl whose life you stole."