Chapter 17 Friendship

"Mrs. Amelia, have a good time!" A proud smile appeared on Lucian's face. He turned the steering wheel and drove off.

After Lucian left, Amelia heaved a sigh of relief. When she was waiting for the car, she heard people talking.

"That woman's such a weirdo. I don't know what she's doing just screaming out here in the streets!" a passerby commented snidely.

"That man is trash! He had an affair while his wife was pregnant. Can you imagine..." another passerby said, shaking his head as he spoke.

"The woman's probably pregnant and the man doesn't want to marry her," another chimed in.

"You're right. Men nowadays just want to have fun. But the minute the responsibilities come rolling in, they're gone!" The other nodded in agreement.

"..."

While they were talking about shotgun marriages, Amelia couldn't help but be reminded of Jasper and Yolanda. But how could Jasper have done that to Yolanda?

It was like they were dealing with one problem after another. Jasper only betrayed Amelia because he knew how much she trusted him. Meanwhile, Yolanda wasn't really the type of person to take anyone's shit. She'd fight tooth and nail for what she wanted. Naturally, she'd be resentful toward any other women Jasper used to be involved with.

"What's even more unbelievable is that the man used to date that woman's younger sister first then for some reason, they broke up and the man ended up with that crazy woman..."

Amelia was only able to catch the last few things the woman had said as she was too absent-minded.

She looked over in astonishment and wondered to herself, 'This is such a weird coincidence! Are they talking about Jasper and Yolanda?'

"Yeah, that woman's crazy. Did you see how scared the man was of her?"

All signs were pointing to Yolanda. It seemed as if they were really talking about her.

Amelia didn't mean to overhear any of this. After all, it's not like she still had anything to do with them.

She just thought how unfortunate her luck was for her to have to know someone like Yolanda.

Her heart sank as she thought of how Jasper had cheated on her again.

She was 25 years old when she thought she'd finally had things figured out. Things were falling into place and she was happy for the first time in her life until Jasper destroyed everything.

When she arrived at the place where Courtney worked, she took a deep breath to prepare herself for all the taunting.

"Courtney, I'd like to order one mango milk tea please," Amelia called as soon as she came into the store.

Upon hearing the voice of Amelia, Courtney turned around with delight. She however pursed her lips and said playfully, "Amelia, what's up? Looks like my little store is going to be popular very soon! I'm going to be rich!"

Amelia smiled to herself and said, "Oh I have no doubt! Do you think you can handle it though?"

"Hmf!" Courtney murmured, rolling her eyes at Amelia.

Amelia found a place to sit down and then said aggrievedly, "I don't have to get the mango milk tea but I'd like a glass of water please."

Courtney glared at her and proceeded to make her an order of mango milk tea.

"You didn't tell me you were coming. If you'd brought your rich husband, I would have been so embarrassed!" Courtney looked outside to check if a fancy car was parked outside. She was relieved to find it empty. Still, she had to tease Amelia.

"We're two different people you know. I'm still the same person you know. I'm not changing. If you don't want to be my friend then fine!" Amelia said seriously before she began to drink her mango milk tea.

"Amelia, when did you become so shameless?" Courtney said rudely. She stood up and grabbed a newspaper. She pointed at a photo on the paper and said angrily, "Look! Look how many rumored girlfriends Lucian has!"

Amelia turned her attention to the newspaper that Courtney was holding. It was a photo of Lucian surrounded by beautiful and famous women. She'd never seen this photo before but she remained calm. She said simply, "Well, like you said, they're just rumors."

After all, her marriage with Lucian was just a deal. She didn't need to be jealous.

"Amelia, you're being blinded by love again!" Amelia was acting so nonchalant and so unaffected. Courtney wasn't letting it go. She pointed a finger at Lucian's face on the paper and said rather passionately, "He dates a new woman every week! If that's fine for you then go ahead but Amelia, Lucian isn't Jasper. There are much bigger consequences to being cheated on by someone like Lucian."

Courtney was just worried that if Lucian dumped Amelia, Amelia would never find another man to look at her.

"Don't worry about me, Courtney. I know what I'm doing it." While she was grateful that Courtney was concerned about her, it's not like she could do something about it. She'd already agreed to be in a fake marriage with Lucian and until Lucian decided it was

over, she was helpless. Besides being a little bossy, Lucian was good to her. He didn't hurt her or anything like that. As she thought of this, she couldn't help but smile and blurt out, "You know I only came to see you because he asked me to. He just didn't want me to get bored at home."

Amelia knew that there was a chance that what she said wouldn't sit well with Courtney. However, she knew that she had to say something to defend Lucian to at least get Courtney off her back.

"Oh, Mrs. Amelia, are you truly happy?" Courtney said disdainfully, pursing her lips.

Amelia smiled and pouted as if she was a spoiled child. "All right, all right. I know you're just worried about me since you're my best friend but you don't really have to, I'm fine," she said.

"Well, if I wasn't late that night then maybe..." Courtney said in a guilty tone, eyebrows knitted together.

"It's not your fault! This has nothing to do with you. Besides, Lucian is good to me. He didn't hurt me..." Amelia said, her voice trailing off.

"You mean... He didn't take advantage of you?" Courtney said in disbelief.

"Courtney, what were you thinking?" Amelia finally understood why Courtney was so hostile to Lucian. No wonder she was so concerned about Amelia.

Courtney still seemed to be in disbelief. She asked, "Why did you agree to marry him if he didn't do anything to you? Don't tell it was love at first sight! Or did you marry him for his wealth and power?"

Courtney's words hit her hard. They'd known each other since middle school. That was more than ten years of friendship. If anyone knew her, it was Courtney.

"I..." Amelia stuttered. She didn't know how to answer.

"Are you using Lucian to get over Jasper?" Courtney guessed hesitantly, gazing back at Amelia who was already flushing in embarrassment.

Besides the photos that Lucian had of her, it was true that she agreed to the deal because she wanted to move on from Jasper and forget the hurt that he had caused her.

Amelia had no choice but to nod her head in response to Courtney's question.

"Oh please!" Courtney was visibly irritated. She raised her voice, "Jasper's a bastard! I can't imagine how he stands Yolanda!"

"Enough, Courtney. Yolanda's already married to Jasper with a child on the way. We should just let them be. We know their marriage is going to be a loveless one. You should congratulate me for escaping that," Amelia said simply, flashing an easy smile.

Courtney stared at Amelia for a while before asking carefully, "What about Lucian? Is Lucian your true love?"

That was a sharp question.

Amelia opened her mouth wide and answered, "Well, we'll see."

She thought this answer would finally shut Courtney up but to her surprise, Courtney gritted her teeth and said angrily, "When are you ever going to be more careful? After getting mistreated by your stepmother and being cheated on by Jasper, you should be smarter than this! Haven't you learned anything? Don't you come crying to me about Lucian!"

It was reasonable for Courtney to worry about her. She had witnessed how Amelia was treated by the Mo family over the years and sometimes, she'd even defend her.

But Amelia was tired of crying because she didn't want to get hurt by anyone anymore. So when she found out about Yolanda and Jasper, she was definitely hurt but she was quickly able to get over it. Even to her, that was a surprise.

"By the way, how are things going between you and Kent?" Kent was a classmate of theirs back in junior high. When they graduated, Kent began pursuing Courtney and they did get along quite well. Kent was a good match to Courtney's tendency to go wayward.

"What about it?" Courtney mumbled mindlessly. She really didn't like talking about Kent.

Looking at her face, Amelia asked in concern, "Don't tell me you broke up with him."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Courtney said defensively then she continued to explain, "We're fine but we've been fighting a lot lately. The night you asked me out to drink, I was in a bad mood. I was going to wait for you in the bar after hanging up the phone but I didn't expect that Kent would show up..."

"Did you two have a fight?" It wasn't like them to fight like that. Courtney would start a fight and by the end of the day, Kent would apologize to Courtney. It had been almost a week since that night at the bar.

Amelia trembled at the thought of this. She and Lucian had gotten married within a week of meeting each other.

"If we could fight, that would be way better!" Courtney sighed as she continued, "It's all my father's fault. He doesn't approve of my relationship with Kent. He says Kent doesn't come from a rich family and if I end up with him, I'm just going to have a hard life. He also said that if I married Kent, he would ban me from ever coming home..."

Tears began to well up in her eyes.

Amelia sighed to herself upon hearing this.