Filed to story: Leaving the Country After Divorce Novel (Lucian & Roxanne)
“Where are you going? I’ll give you a ride. I don’t have anything to do tonight anyway, and it isn’t easy to get a taxi here.” Colby’s smile was warm and gentle.
Roxanne hesitated for a second. She glanced at the time, only to see that it was indeed time Archie and Benny got off school. Thus, she didn’t decline but opened the car door and got into the car.
No sooner had she settled into the car than she received a call from Harvey again, inquiring about the project’s progress.
She explained things to him briefly and succinctly.
After hanging up the phone, she was just about to put her phone away when a push notification popped out.
The headline read: Mr. Farwell drove his fiancée to the hospital in the middle of the night and kept her company the entire night.
Seeing that, she inexorably recalled the situation last night and the employees’ discussion earlier. Unbidden, she tapped open the link.
Right after doing that, two blurry photos entered her line of sight.
The instant she saw the photos, she froze. She didn’t even have to tap into them to tell that the woman in there was her.
The first photo was taken when she was delirious with a high fever, probably when Lucian carried her from the car to the hospital.
Even when she woke up in the hospital, she was still in the man’s arms.
However, she didn’t expect them to look so close in the photo.
That aside, the man seemed to exert particular care when carrying her.
The second photo was taken when she got into the car with Estella in her arms, while Lucian stood at the side.
She had no idea where the person who snapped the photo hid that neither of them perceived his presence.
Besides, the paparazzo who published that news evidently couldn’t distinguish between her and Aubree that such a misunderstanding transpired.
Fortunately, the photos were exceedingly blurry, so much so that only those closest to her could tell that the woman in them was her.
With her brows creased, Roxanne continued scrolling downward, only to see that the comments below were all envious of her because of Lucian’s attentiveness toward her.
Little did they know that she didn’t feel the least bit happy about it.
After looking through them for a while and ascertaining that no one realized that the woman in the photos wasn’t Aubree, she put away her phone with mixed emotions.
Hoping to avoid unnecessary trouble, she didn’t plan on clarifying things.
Instead, she merely found the entire misunderstanding rather amusing.
Colby noticed that Roxanne was scrolling through her Twitter feed for a while and asked out of curiosity, “Are there any hot topics that are worth keeping up with?”
Hearing that, Roxanne gathered her thoughts and gave him a nonchalant smile. “Nothing much. I’m just looking at some gossip.”
Based on her current relationship with Lucian, his news could only be taken as gossip.
Colby wanted to strike up a casual conversation with her and continued asking, “What is the gossip about? Did something happen to a celebrity recently?”
Roxanne didn’t expect that he would probe further. She was momentarily stunned and answered vaguely, “It’s not a celebrity. I forgot their names and just clicked on it casually.”
Once she finished speaking, she then changed the topic as if nothing had happened and didn’t wait for Colby’s reply. “The recent project is quite demanding, isn’t it? I’m already feeling tired from it.”
Colby raised his brows subtly and went along with her change in topic.
Roxanne got off work early that day, and as Colby sent her there, she reached the kindergarten just when they were done for the day. Archie and Benny scrambled out of the doors.
At a glance, Roxanne immediately found Archie and Benny among the swarm of children and went over to bring them back.
In the crowd, Estella looked at her pitifully.
When Roxanne met her gaze, she felt a pang of inexplicable guilt in her heart.
However, when she recalled the news that she had just seen, she genuinely didn’t want to face Lucian again.
Thus, she could only harden her heart and bend down to touch Estella’s head, saying, “Essie, can you wait for Daddy with Ms. Ward? I still have some things to do, so I have to go back quickly.”
Once she finished her words, she didn’t dare to look into Estella’s eyes again. She hurriedly got up as if she was running away and brought Archie and Benny into Colby’s car.
Archie and Benny still had some impression of Colby, and they greeted him politely when they got into the car, “Hello, Mr. Galloway.”
Colby gave them a warm smile. He started the car and slowly headed toward Roxanne’s house.
As Archie and Benny sat in the back row, they looked at Colby’s face through the rearview mirror and fell into deep thought.
Previously, they thought that Lucian wasn’t bad and made Roxanne choose again.
But now that Lucian was getting married to someone else, they thought that Colby wasn’t bad too.
On the other hand, when Cayden saw the news, he recognized the woman in the photo at first glance. After he saw the headlines, he immediately contacted Lucian.
“Mr. Farwell, this news… Do you want us to make a clarification on it?”
At that moment, Lucian was busy with his work. Hearing Cayden’s words, he looked up at the phone that Cayden passed to him.
When he saw the contents on the screen, his brows furrowed slightly.
He didn’t even realize that they had been photographed.
In the picture, the two of them indeed seemed like a loving couple.
When he saw the comments below it, Lucian bit his lower lip.
After not receiving a reply for some time, Cayden was puzzled and urged him, “Mr. Farwell?”
Lucian retracted his gaze from the phone and returned Cayden his phone indifferently. “There’s no need for that. Just leave it.”
If he made a clarification, it would inevitably drag Roxanne into the mess.
Recently, Roxanne had been wanting to cut all ties with him. Therefore, she certainly would not want to be involved in such a scandal.
Hearing that, Cayden hesitated for a moment before agreeing to it. Seeing that Lucian had no other orders after waiting for a while, he quietly retreated from the office.
When he heard the door to the office being gradually closed, Lucian paused his work, got up, and headed to the floor-to-ceiling window.
By then, Roxanne should have seen the news as well. However, he didn’t know how she would react to it.
Seeing that it was almost the end of the day at the kindergarten, it was only then that Lucian gathered his thoughts and drove toward the kindergarten.
Based on Estella’s habit, he thought that he might even see Roxanne at the kindergarten.
When he reached the kindergarten, he realized that he wasn’t that late. However, Roxanne came earlier than him, and Archie and Benny had already left as well.
Estella had the habit of waiting with Archie and Benny for Lucian to fetch her. But now, she was all alone, holding onto Pippa’s hand timidly.
“You’re here, Mr. Farwell.” As Pippa knew Estella’s situation, she was very cautious when dealing with Estella.
Seeing that Lucian finally came, Pippa heaved a sigh of relief inwardly.
Lucian nodded and took Estella over from Pippa.
After they got into the car, Estella was still in low spirits.
Lucian frowned and couldn’t help but ask, “Why are you alone today?”
Estella knew what he was trying to ask. She lowered her gaze, and there was a hint of grievance in her soft voice as she said, “Ms. Jarvis came to pick Archie and Benny up.”
When he heard that, Lucian’s gaze darkened slightly.
Although Roxanne wanted to distance herself from him, he knew that she always had a soft spot for Estella.