Chapter 70
“Why don’t you stay with me for a few days? You can just avoid them for now and see how things go,” Cerys offered.
“Thank you, Cerys, but it won’t be necessary,” Emma rejected without giving it a second thought.
Emma felt grateful for Cerys’ help, but she was one of Trevor’s most trusted subordinates, and Emma did not want to have anything to do with Trevor.
Furthermore, she knew very well that avoidance was not going to solve anything.
Now that Simon and Steven had confirmed that she was back, they would not stop coming after her.
Trevor threw Emma a look of displeasure when he heard her declining Cerys’ offer.
Emma looked away and continued eating.
However, Cerys was still concerned. “What are you going to do then? You can’t just let them continue pestering you.”
“Are you thinking about heading over to Susanna’s place?” Cerys seemed to have read Emma’s mind. “The last time we ate together, didn’t Susanna mention that she would be filming out of town right now?”
Oh, right.
Emma had forgotten about this until Cerys brought it up.
Susanna had sent Emma a text before heading off for filming, and Emma had even responded with a long paragraph reminding Susanna to take care of herself, but this slipped her mind as she was completely caught up with her writing.
Since Susanna was not around, Emma could not room with her.
Seeing that Emma had fallen silent, Trevor commanded, “Go pack up your things later and bring Cerys with you. Stay with her for the next few days.” His words left no room for objection.
Emma tried to say something, but he cut her off with a grave expression. “You don’t need to reject Cerys just because you don’t want me around. She truly values you as a friend.”
Trevor walked off as soon as he said that.
Cerys was a quiet and reserved person. It was unlikely of her to ever invite someone to stay at her house, even temporarily.
The fact that she extended such an invitation to Emma proved that she truly liked Emma as a person.
In the past, Emma had often cominented to Trevor that Cerys was a good person. She would often invite Cerys and Cyrus out for a meal, so it seemed pretty obvious that she valued her friendship with Gerys too.
Trevor knew beyond any reasonable doubt that he was the only reason why she rejected Cerys’ offer.
He never thought there would come a time when someone would avoid him like the plague.
Once Trevor left, Emma glanced at Cerys and said sheepishly, “I know you meant well. I just—”
Cerys shook her head and cut her off, saying, “You don’t need to say anything more. I get it.”
Emma sighed and added lightly, “I’ll have to trouble you for a bit, then.”
“Not at all. You’re welcome anytime,” Cerys replied with a smile.
There was nothing seriously wrong with Emina, so a short while later, she was discharged from the hospital. Cerys followed her back to her apartment to pack up some things.
Meanwhile, Trevor was currently in Kaleb’s office. He stood by the window with his hands in his pockets, and he only withdrew his gaze when he saw Emma and Cerys leaving together
Kaleb came over and passed hini a cup of coffee. “What’s up with you? Why are you so concerned about your ex-wife?”
Trevor lowered his eyes. “Am I supposed to just stand back and watch as Simon harasses her?”
“It sounds a little harsh, but you could always just ignore it. You’re divorced. There’s no need to concern yourself with her matters anymore,” Kaleb replied.
Trevor fell silent.
Has Kaleb always been this uncaring? Has he forgotten how he used to feast on all of Emma‘s delicious food?
Kaleb continued, “Are you pretending, or do you really don’t get it? Emma’s predicament right now is thanks to you.”
“Do you think Crystal would’ve been able to cause trouble for Emma if you had just cut off all ties with her?” Trevor was irritated that Kaleb had a point, so he looked out the window once more.
Earlier, he received a call from Cyrus with the results of his investigation.
Someone had sent Simon a text informing him of Emma’s current place of residence.
The text came from a burner phone with a prepaid SIM card, but Cyrus had dug deeper and found out that it was purchased by one of Arianna’s staff.
That cleared things up at once. Arianna was the culprit behind all this, and since she was the one who did it, then it meant Crystal was definitely involved as well.
Knowing Arianna’s personality, it was impossible to get her to stop causing trouble for Emma. Trevor’s eyes narrowed as he stared out the window and pondered how best to deal with his troublemaking younger sister.
All of a sudden, Crystal’s words flitted across his mind. She had said that Arianna could not continue wasting her life away like this. It would be best to send her overseas to gain some education and experience.
This would get her out of Jonestown for a while, and give people time to forget all about her salacious private life.
Secondly, being alone in a foreign country meant that she would have to learn to fend for herself. This might be the catalyst needed for her to mature.
At the time, Trevor had dismissed the idea because his mother would not be willing to send Arianna away, and she would come to him and kick up a fuss.
Just the thought of it was enough to give him a headache, so he decided against that idea.
However, he was now rather keen on Crystal’s idea.
This time, he made up his mind to do so, regardless of his mother’s imminent protests.
Emma packed a few of her belongings, including her laptop, before following Cerys
to her apartment.
Cerys’ apartment was located near Bateson Tower in a prime housing area. It was around 1,600 square feet and was furnished in a Scandinavian minimalistic style that perfectly reflected her personality.
As one of Trevor’s most trusted subordinates, Cerys ranked among one of the highest-paid office workers in town. Her salary was not to be sneezed at.
Cerys led Emma to a south-facing guest room. “Here, you can take this room. It gets good light throughout the day. Feel free to use my study too. I spend most of the day at the office anyway, so I rarely use it.”
“Thank you so much,” Emma said at once.
Cerys brought Emma on a tour of the apartment before they sat down at the counter.
“Cyrus’ owns the apartment opposite mine, but he doesn’t stay there,” Cerys said with a chuckle.
“Why not?” Emma was curious as to why Cyrus did not stay in his apartment since it was situated in such a good area and had a good environment too.
“It’s because my mother would come and stay here sometimes. He couldn’t stand her incessant nagging about finding a wife and getting married, so he decided to move away.”
“That’s adorable. Your mother treats both of you very well,” Emma responded with a laugh.
Cerys looked down, and when she spoke, she sounded a little dejected. “More accurately, my mother treats her son, Cyrus, very well.”
Seeing the look of confusion on Emma’s face, Cerys explained, “Back in my hometown, people heavily favor sons over daughters. My mother only cares about Cyrus. She doesn’t care about me at all.”
“Every single time, she’ll bring up how everything she and my father own will only be passed down to Cyrus, but if you think about it, what do they have anyway? All the money they have came from me.”
Emma was stunned. So Cerys‘ parents kept taking money from her just to leave it to her brother instead?
“Every time she comes, she brings Cyrus’ favorite food. All I get are some leftovers from Cyrus’ share.”
“Whenever she comes, she’ll stay in my house because she says she doesn’t want io
burden Cyrus with the need to care for her, but she doesn’t care that her daughter is on her feet all day trying to come up with new recipes since she has to prepare all three meals for her parents every single day.”
“Cyius has tried to convince her to stop being so biased. He wants her to treat us equally, but she never listens.”
“He says that in the future, he’ll return everything that belongs to me.” Cerys snorted self-deprecatingly. “But I don’t care about the money. All I want is for my mother… to spare a little bit of her love for me.”
TE
“If we didn’t receive the scholarship and financial support from Bateson Group, my mother would’ve forced me to drop out of school so that I can work and pay for Cyrus to attend school instead.”
Emma’s heart grew heavy as she took in Cerys’ outpour. It‘s true that every family has its own closet skeleton, huh?
burden Cyrus with the need to care for her, but she doesn’t care that her daughter is on her feet all day trying to come up with new recipes since she has to prepare all three meals for her parents every single day.”
“Cyrus has tried to convince her to stop being so biased. He wants her to treat us equally, but she never listens.”
“He says that in the future, he’ll return everything that belongs to me.” Cerys snorted self-deprecatingly. “But I don’t care about the money. All I want is for my mother… to spare a little bit of her love for me.”
“If we didn’t receive the scholarship and financial support from Bateson Group, my mother would’ve forced me to drop out of school so that I can work and pay for Cyrus to attend school instead.”
Emma’s heart grew heavy as she took in Cerys’ outpour. It‘s true that every family has its own closel skeleton, huh?