Chapter 357

If anything else happened, she couldn’t be sure Aurora would show her mercy again.

Wendy took a deep breath, her discomfort growing the more she thought about it. She was the one who’d known Lucas first—how had things ended up like this? It was all Aurora’s fault. Every bit of it.

But with Lucas protecting her, Wendy couldn’t afford to confront Aurora head-on. Just thinking about how kind Lucas was to that woman made her burn with jealousy. For now, though, she had no choice but to stay confined to this little room, unable to step out unless Lucas and Aurora left the house. She inhaled deeply, silently repeating to herself—she had to endure this humiliation; she had to hang on.

Only once her brother arrived would there be a real turning point.

The next morning, Aurora’s anxiety grew as online rumors continued to spiral out of control. Her mother hadn’t given her much time, and she couldn’t afford to let things drag on any longer. If this went on, who knew how long the backlash would last? Just the sight of those posts made her angry. None of this would’ve happened if Julian hadn’t suddenly fallen ill that day.

Unable to contain her frustration, Aurora fired off a message to Julian. “Don’t contact me again. I want nothing more to do with you. You go your way, and I’ll go mine.”

Julian was stunned. “Aurora, what’s going on with you?”

“What’s going on?” Aurora let out a bitter laugh. “Take a look online. You really have the nerve to ask me that?”

Julian, confused, quickly pulled up the news and saw the rumors accusing Aurora of seducing him.

“Who posted this?” He still couldn’t wrap his head around it, unsure what was going on.

Aurora found it laughable. “You’re asking me? Shouldn’t you be the one who knows what’s going on? And now you have the nerve to come ask me? Don’t you find that a little ridiculous?”

Julian was even more confused. “What exactly am I supposed to know?”

“Every mention of Lucas Carter in those posts is clearly about you. And now you’re standing here playing dumb?” Aurora’s voice grew even colder.

“You better keep a close eye on yourself and on your girlfriend.” Her tone dropped to a deadly quiet. “Because if this happens again, don’t blame me for being crude. I’ve already warned you.”

“Once is a mistake, twice is pushing it—but three times? At that point, we’re all just sick of the game. Don’t you think?”

She didn’t give Julian a chance to respond. Before he could say a word, she hung up on him.

He stared at his phone, still clueless as to what had just happened. He hadn’t even managed to get a full sentence in. What puzzled him most was that Aurora had suddenly brought up Tessa. What did this have to do with her?

The thought darkened Julian’s expression. Clearly, this wasn’t as simple as he’d assumed, and he took Aurora’s warning seriously. Public scandals like this could do real damage to a woman’s reputation. He used to think being tied to Aurora might be something exciting, but now, standing in the middle of this chaos, he wasn’t feeling any thrill at all.