"Now, do you actually believe that man's word, or is it just because you're working with him, that's why you're taking his side?" Chloe asked suddenly.

She got triggered when the old secretary called her rash and irrational. Now, she wanted to see if this old hag was at her side or at least neutral about this whole problem between her and Vincent.

Or was she just one of Vincent's mindless subordinates?

Maria sighed, full of woe, acting as if she was fighting her inner demon, "I don't know, Mrs. Gray. I want to believe you. But Mr. Gray constantly said that you're the one who cheats on him."

"And you believed him?!"

"Why wouldn't I? You're the one who ran away, so it's really easy for him to claim that you're the one running away with a man, leaving him because he doesn't give you enough attention," Maria said.

What she said was all lies, of course. Mr. Vincent Gray simply told her that he didn't understand why Chloe left him because he was doing his job as a good husband by not marrying another woman or producing an illegitimate heir.

Nothing more, nothing less.

But she needed to lie to bait Chloe until she ran over her mouth.

Chloe got even more triggered than before. She raised her voice without thinking twice, "I do not run away, I simply leave because I can't endure the abuse anymore!"

"Well, he said that you're cheating on him…."

"I didn't! I never had any idea of cheating when I was with him!" Chloe insisted. She viewed marriage as a sacred plea and would never cheat just because Vincent cheated first.

"Well, you always have the chance to cheat on him, Mrs. Gray. After all, my boss rarely comes home because he's always so busy with work. You can find any man outside, and that's exactly what you're doing behind his back," Maria kept spouting lies that continued triggering Chloe to the point that she was about to turn the table upside down.

"This is the last time I'm going to repeat myself, Secretary Maria, since you obviously side with him because he's your boss. I never cheat on him, not even once I do have the idea about it. But even if I did, he has no right to call me out, because he fucked Priscilla in our marital bed!"

Chloe got up and stormed off the table, leaving Maria stunned by her sudden departure.

"Where are you going, Mrs. Gray?" Maria asked as she tried to catch up to Chloe, who stomped her feet away from her.

'This chapter is updated by N o v elBin.cᴏm',

"I'm leaving. There is no use talking to you. I don't want to waste my energy trying to convince one of Vincent's cronies!" Chloe yelled. She fished the car key out of her bag and unlocked her car door.

Chloe entered the car, and Maria yelled as she had difficulty catching up to the younger woman, "Mrs. Gray, don't you want to know your husband's condition after you left?!"

Chloe was about to close the car door, but she stopped when Maria asked that question.

'Do I want to know about Vincent's condition? I do, of course, I do…' Chloe thought. 'But what's the point? I know I'll be disappointed. That asshole will never learn about regret….'

Thus, Chloe replied, "No need, I already know that he doesn't change at all, even after I left. He can rot in hell with all of his whores for all I care!"

SLAM!

Chloe slammed the car door, and she quickly drove away from Maria.

The old secretary's chest was rising up and down. She was short of breath after trying to catch up.

She stood in the parking lot, her eyes turned cold when Chloe's car kept getting further and further.

"I should've put a tracker in her car," Maria murmured. "But I think I don't need to do that. I don't want to overstep my boundaries and anger Vincent."

'ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ N(ov)elBin',

The old Maria knew Vincent must've had the idea of tracking Chloe's whereabouts.

In fact, she knew well that Vincent could catch and drag Chloe back to the mansion in less than a day if he wanted to.

'But he prolong it so much, just because of that stupid man pride, thinking he could play with Chloe until that woman desperately returns to him,' Maria thought.

She fished the phone out of her pocket and turned off the voice recording.

She returned to the patio and took a hidden camera between two potted plants.

The hidden camera had been set by the coffee shop owner— who happened to be one of Maria's children before their meeting.

Maria had planned everything and could do more had it not because of the limitation she put herself.

"Of all things I could do, I could only record her face and voice, what a waste of chance," Maria said.

She glanced at the hot coffee left untouched on the table and scoffed, full of ridicule, "Turns out she's not that dumb. She's afraid that I might've put something in her drink. That's why she ordered the boiling hot coffee so she could find a reason not to drink it."

Maria had to give Chloe an applause for being watchful, but she was still gullible enough to run over her mouth and give Maria the recording she needed.

"Well, all I can do is to show these recordings to Mr. Gray, and see if he wants more of her. Maybe he will eventually stop playing around and catch that stupid bitch and throw her back to his mansion," Maria said.

"And then, he can focus on work again…."

Maria disliked the current situation in her office because Vincent continued playing with fire.

He cut off Gregory Maxwell and said that it was because of the corruption case.

But Maria knew her boss was just trying to cover the real fact:

He cut off Gregory Maxwell because he wants to start an all-out hunt for Chloe.