The Wife He Dumped, The Queen She Returned As novel Chapter 209

The entire room exchanged wild, wide-eyed glances.

Preston Hayes was basically untouchable royalty.

Since their school days, he had been the brilliant, unattainable star at the top of the pyramid. The undefeated valedictorian, always perfectly composed, endlessly sophisticated.

Seeing Jenna act like a literal feral animal in front of him, everyone fully expected him to be thoroughly repulsed and shove her away in disgust.

They held their breath, waiting for the executioner's blade to drop. Instead, a second later, Preston wrapped his arms around her, lowering his head to soothe her erratic sobbing with unbearable tenderness.

"It's okay. You're safe now. I'm right here..."

The entire room collectively dropped their jaws in absolute shock.

Jenna looked up with red, teary eyes. "Preston, you're not mad at me?"

"Don't think about that right now," he murmured.

"I'm so sorry. I completely ruined the Vantage Group partnership."

"It's not your fault. You tried your best."

He then shot a cold, clinical look over at Belle. "My apologies. I'll have my assistant contact you later to discuss a financial settlement for the altercation."

Rhonda exploded. "If apologies and checks fixed everything, we wouldn't need a legal system! You should be dragging her to the police station—"

But the words died in her throat. Preston fixed her with a stare so intensely predatory and lethal that it literally forced her to look away.

He gave Mr. Goodwin a stiff nod. "My deepest apologies, Mr. Goodwin. I'll visit another day to make amends."

"Don't bother!" Mr. Goodwin spat, his face dark with fury.

No wonder Jenna had the audacity to act like such a tyrant. He never would have believed that Preston, a man renowned for his ruthless logic, could be so utterly, blindly brainwashed by this woman.

Preston didn't offer a single word of rebuttal. He just wrapped his arm tightly around the weeping, victim-playing Jenna and swept her out of the room.

A suffocating silence slammed back down over the dining hall.

Through the cracked door, they could hear Preston sharply ordering Ken to wipe the security footage.

Belle's face instantly twisted into panic.

She hadn't even fought back just so she could secure ironclad proof of assault!

She wasn't about to take a slap to the face for absolutely nothing!!

"Ignore them," Chloe said softly. "Let's go get some ice for your cheek."

Mr. Goodwin stood up. His once ramrod-straight spine suddenly seemed a little hunched, burdened by the evening's chaos.

"I'm so sorry. If you hadn't come out here for my birthday, none of this would have happened."

Belle forced a bright smile and waved her hands. "Don't be ridiculous, this isn't your fault! Next time we see those toxic disasters, we'll just turn around and walk the other way!"

Mr. Goodwin opened his mouth as if to say something more, but couldn't find the words. He settled for another heavy sigh.

He just couldn't wrap his head around it. This didn't seem like the Preston he knew.

No, logically speaking, Preston shouldn't even be occupying the same atmosphere as a toxic snake like Jenna.

Something major must have gone wrong behind the scenes, or there was some catastrophic misunderstanding at play.

One of these days, he was going to march straight into Preston's office and demand answers!

"Mr. Goodwin, I'll be flying out of the country soon. Unless there's an emergency, I probably won't be coming back," Chloe said quietly.

She had been rehearsing this moment in her head all night, finally finding the courage to say her goodbyes.