Whispers of Destiny: His Belated Love novel Chapter 128

Maxwell was furrowing his brows, staring hard at the document in his hands, "What identity?"

"She's that Rose." Because there was some similarity in “Rosemary” the name, thinking he might not understand, she emphasized, "The one who fixed that antique painting for me."

She'd planned to use that painting to butter up Pearl and surprise Maxwell as well, hence why she hadn't mentioned it beforehand. But then, the drama that unfolded at the birthday bash put Rose, who was supposed to be just a behind-the-scenes player, right under the spotlight.

Rose? Maxwell's fingers, which had been flipping through the pages, suddenly paused, and his gaze lifted from the document. It took him a while before he just hummed in acknowledgment. Rose? Rosemary?

As Victoria heard his nonchalant response, her breath hitched, and she asked in disbelief, "You knew about this already?"

Not a clue. He recalled someone named Hans calling Rosemary “Rose”, but he had just thought it was a coincidence, and since he didn't really care about it, he hadn't given it much thought.

Now facing Victoria's interrogation, he didn't bother to explain, nor did he think it was necessary to justify anything to her.

Victoria's voice rose, "And what about her conning me? Did you know about that too? Or were you in on it?"

"What did she con you out of?"

Silence. The moment the question left her lips, she realized she'd made a fool of herself. True, Rosemary had charged her a hefty sum, but she had quoted the price upfront, and Victoria had agreed to it, so it wasn't really a con, just a bit of a rip-off.

But considering that the two of them weren't exactly bosom buddies, it wasn't beyond the bounds of reason that she'd refuse.

On the other end, Maxwell remained silent. Victoria wasn't sure if he was still waiting for her to answer, but after what felt like an eternity, she managed to squeeze out a reason she didn't even believe herself, "The money, sure the painting was a bit banged up, but it wouldn't cost an arm and a leg to fix it based on market rates."

Maxwell replied, "If it's about the cash, why wouldn’t she come sucking up to me? She'd make a killing without having to hustle from dawn till dusk."

Victoria knew Maxwell's comment wasn't a dig at her. He was too above that. He was just stating the facts.

She stood by the window in the hallway, the cold wind blowing in, making her cheeks feel stiff and sore.

"I'd tried to get a hold of her through so many contacts, and then not long after I bumped into her at Oswald's office, suddenly someone called up out of the blue saying they got her. Plus, the whole birthday party fiasco, don't you think it's a bit too coincidental?" Victoria mocked, "She's deliberately trying to humiliate me."

Maxwell, rubbing his temples, leaned back in his chair tiredly, "How did you find out she's Rose?"

"She accepted Director Madden's invite to go on the show, promoting it under her stage name; looks like she wants to..."

She couldn't finish her sentence before the call cut off. Victoria was stunned, staring at her phone as it automatically went back to the call log. She watched it for a full five minutes, but Maxwell didn't call back.

During the wait, she bit her lip so hard it left deep teeth marks. She thought about calling him back, but ultimately, she nixed the idea.

In the president's office of the Templeton Group, Maxwell’s phone was slowly twisted and bent in his bare hands, the screen shattering into fragments, pieces of broken glass piercing his palm, slowly oozing droplets of crimson.

The moment Christ pushed the door open, his skin crawled, and every instinct screamed danger! But looking closely, everything seemed business as usual, with Mr. Templeton impassively reviewing documents.

"Mr. Templeton, you wanted to see me?"