Chapter 142 He Only Has Eyes For Marilyn
“Oh, it’s nighttime over here. I just took a shower. I’ll head to bed in a while once I’m done drying my hair. Maria, what prompted you to make this long-distance call?” asked Genevieve as she lay on the bed and idly flipped through the book that was on the bedside table.
Maria replied worriedly, “You’ve been gone overseas for a good several days now, Ms. Rachford. I was worried that you hadn’t been eating or sleeping well. I remember there was once you went on a business trip to some far-off country and puked at the hotel.”
Genevieve felt a warm fuzzy feeling gush through her, and she smiled as she replied, “My stomach didn’t feel too well back then, so the motion sickness from traveling in the car made me want to puke the moment I reached the hotel. Things are all right this time. The hotel that I’m staying in is fairly decent as well. It’s just that I haven’t really gotten used to the food they have available here.”
“Once you’re back, I’ll cook up something nice for you to eat!” promised Maria readily. She paused for a moment and added, “Ms. Rachford, is Ms. Wood on good terms with Mr. Armand?”
Ms. Wood?
Genevieve’s heart sank, and she sat up from where she lay in bed. She crossed her legs and asked, “Which Ms. Wood? Is it Marilyn?”
“Yes,” replied Maria.
“How do you know her, Maria? Did she come over to Regality Gardens to find you?” asked Genevieve as she narrowed her eyes in suspicion.
“No, it’s not that. It’s…” began Maria before she suddenly broke off midway.
After a brief pause, she finally continued, “Yesterday, Old Mrs. Faulkner gave me a call and sent people over to escort me to her place. There, she asked me how you were doing recently and prepared several gifts for me to bring back…”
“As I was heading out, I saw several of the Faulkner family’s housekeepers place some boxes at the entrance to the residence, almost as if they were preparing to throw it all away. One of the boxes was partially open, and I happened to glance into it by accident. I saw that it contained several photos of Mr. Armand with a lady and assumed that it was his ex-girlfriend,” continued Maria.
After a brief pause for air, Maria added, “However, while the Faulkner family’s driver was sending me back, we happened to pass by a billboard. I saw that the lady’s face was plastered right on the billboard. The driver told me that she was called Marilyn Wood and was the wife of the third child of the Faulkner family.”
Genevieve wasn’t too concerned at first, but her heart suddenly prickled upon hearing Maria’s detailed recount of the situation.
“Yes, she’s Mr. Faulkner’s ex-girlfriend. The both of them dated for quite a few years back then,” stated Genevieve with her gaze lowered. She didn’t know how she had managed to summon the courage to say what she just had.
“Ah! Then… Then how did she…” began Maria.
However, she didn’t know how to continue at this particular moment. Instead, she frantically said, “I don’t have any other intentions, Ms. Rachford. I just feel that Mr. Armand shouldn’t be involved with other women now that he’s married to you.”
“He told me previously that he’s broken up with Marilyn. There’s nothing going on between them now, so it’s fine,” replied Genevieve honestly. She calmly asked, “Maria, did you happen to take a photo of the pictures you saw?”
“I did take a photo of it, but it was really because I was afraid that I had seen things wrongly due to my poor vision at my age. I wanted to snap several photos to get a clearer look…” admitted Maria.
“Send them over to me,” instructed Genevieve.
“Ms. Rachford, these are all old photos. Furthermore, the ones I snapped are rather blurry. Since they’re getting rid of those photos, I’m sure there’s nothing going on between the two of them now,” replied Maria.
Genevieve flashed a smile and said, “I know. I just want to take a look.”
Maria was unable to dissuade Genevieve any further. As such, she had no choice but to follow Genevieve’s instructions and switch on the laptop at home. She uploaded the photos and sent them over to Genevieve via email.
Genevieve opened the email the second it arrived and proceeded to download the images. Courtesy of the fairly good internet connection available at the hotel, it didn’t take long for the handful of photos to be successfully downloaded.
She surmised that Maria must have used her phone to snap images of the box directly. As Maria had mentioned, the photos taken were indeed rather blurry, but she could still pick out that they depicted a young male and female.
There were photos of them attending a dinner banquet where Marilyn clutched Armand’s hand in hers and smiled at the camera, as well as photos of Marilyn leaning against Armand and taking a selfie as he was hard at work.
Genevieve was fairly accepting of all these photos as she felt that it was normal for them to take such photos back when they were dating. Furthermore, she had taken similar photos with Cooper before as well. However, as she magnified the photos to zoom into the details, she could clearly see in Armand’s eyes the faint hint of a smile and the warmth he had toward Marilyn.
Even though he was only looking at her from the side, his face was gentle and affectionate. While his eyes weren’t visible to the viewers, it was clear for all to see that he only had eyes for Marilyn in the photos.
