Rift in the perfect picture

Chapter 0168

Suddenly, my vision went black. I leaned painfully against the gravestone, clutching my head as if a silver needle hat pierced through my temple. Some long–forgotten memories wly resurfaced…

Jasmine… No wonder she seemed so familiar. No wonder I felt like

I’d seen her somewhere before.

Nicholas was attractive, came from a wealthy family, and had more admirers than I could count. I never paid them much mind, thinking. that someone like him, a favored child of heaven, couldn’t be pursued by ordinary people.

But there was an exception. Once, he casually saved a girl who was being bullied by her classmates. After that, to protect her, he allowed her to get closer to him and even sponsored her to study abroad….

At the time, I thought he was not only handsome but also kind- hearted. So that girl was Jasmine, huh?

Claudia responded indifferently, “Compared to her, I still like you better.”

She laughed lightly, reminiscent of her once innocent self. “Ariana, Nick has been with you for so many years, yet he still hasn’t fallen in love with you.

“He’s just playing with you. You should take this chance while he’s not bored of you yet to eliminate all the obstacles around him!”

J mulled over Claudia’s words in silence, but my mind was already spinning with countless thoughts. Even Claudia could see the truth,

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but I was too close to realize it. I was so pleased with myself over Nicholas’s confession….

I closed my eyes, and when I opened them again, I smiled sarcastically. “Are you one of those obstacles too?”

“Ari, what are you talking about? Aren’t we the best of f. ds? The obstacle I’m talking about is Jasmine! Her real name is Stella. Cooper. She changed her name and came back–she’s definitely up to no good.”

I remembered a fable where the main character, Nicholas’s, favorite flower was jasmine. Now it all made sense.

Not wanting to lose my composure in front of Claudia, I feigned nonchalance and said, “She’s just a student he sponsored.”

“He already gave her money, so why doesn’t she just stay away? Why come back?” Claudia continued, “Let’s team up and drive her away. You wouldn’t want any other woman around my brother, right?”

When Claudia said this, she didn’t treat me like an outsider. It was as if she hadn’t been the one targeting me in the past. I almost believed that she truly thought we were close, so much so that she didn’t guard herself against me.

Was the foe of my enemy really my friend? A bold idea suddenly came to me. “Was it you who arranged for Jasmine to go abroad?”

Claudia’s voice was filled with smugness as she quickly admitted, ” Of course! I didn’t like anyone clinging to my brother!”

“What are you planning to do?” I asked her.

“Lure her to my ward, and I’ll handle the rest. I’ll make sure she goes back to wherever she came from!” Claudia’s voice was dripping with

malice

was des

A shiver raced up my spine. How old a 22–year–old, raised in a warm and loving family, harbor such malicious it shocked by how much Nicholas occupied her Me

He said Claudia was willing to date her male classmates, but now! even suspected that she did so deliberately to attract his attention

It was terrifying, Didn’t anyone in the Hawk family notice her almost pathological obsession? Did Nicholas really not know, or did he also condone Claudia’s twisted feelings for him?

I was suddenly startled by my own thoughts. Why did Nicholas start to distance himself from me and grow cold after we got married?

“Claudia, I’m curious. How did you deal with me when I first got together with Nicholas?”

Anger got the better of me out of nowhere. Maybe everything–my marriage, my love life reaching this point–was all related to Claudia!

I clenched the phone and demanded, “Answer me!”

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