Chapter 272: Unraveling Gossip

Tem's move didn't require much guesswork for Edric; she knew exactly why he did it. Immediately, Edric shot Tom a displeased look.

Tom, under Ellis's watchful gaze, pretended not to see Edric's annoyance and cheerfully led Ellis to another couch.

The chat between Edric and Ellis had left the atmosphere a bit awkward. However, the discomfort didn't last long. Everyone present was well-mannered and tacitly moved past that part, engaging normally in eating, drinking, and having fun.

As the gathering neared its end, the group naturally drifted into discussing the latest gossip from the upper echelons of Stonebridge. It couldn't be helped: gossiping was a favorite pastime, inherent in human nature.

Suddenly, someone exclaimed in surprise and seriously asked, “The Brooks family is offloading assets at low prices; are you guys interested in buying?”

“The Brooks family? Which one?” Edric, a bit tipsy, couldn't immediately recall which Brooks family of the Stonebridge elite was being referred to. “What assets are they selling?”

Ellis was the first to respond, “Are you talking about Victoria’s family?”

The person who brought up the topic scratched his head awkwardly upon hearing Ellis’s question. Having the former Mrs. Easton here and discussing the misfortune of the almost-Mrs. Easton’s family seemed a bit like rubbing salt in the wounds.

“Uh… this…”

As his friend hemmed and hawed, Tom, who was rather impatient, bluntly helped out, “Yes, it’s Victoria’s family! Their situation is dire, teetering on the brink of collapse. They’ve erupted with problems all at once recently and need a significant amount of money to pay off debts, hence the asset sell-off.”

Could it be that fate had heard my prayers and brought disaster upon Victoria’s family? Ellis’s eyes sparkled slightly, hiding a trace of schadenfreude.

The trio of Victoria, Easton, and Ellis had been the subject of much gossip in the upper circles this year. Tom, not close to Victoria and instinctively disliking anyone who disrupts a family, naturally sided with the original partner.

Seeing Ellis trying to suppress a laugh, Tom playfully winked and continued, “It’s said the Brooks family initially wanted to flee abroad with their money, to continue living in luxury while leaving their mess behind, but they were stopped by the authorities who mandated that the Brooks family must settle their debts first.”

It was an old story; businesses overextend, run into serious issues, and the owners try to flee abroad with the cash before the crisis fully unfolds, leaving behind chaos that ruins many lives and impacts the entire environment. The government used to be slow on the uptake, but nowadays, those loopholes are being closed. The Brooks family had only one option left: clean up their mess, even if it meant selling everything they owned to pay off debts or face liquidation and jail time.

As soon as Tom finished, someone asked, “With the Brooks family in such a bind, isn’t Easton helping?”

There’s a saying about not poking at someone’s wounds unnecessarily. At his friend’s question, Tom couldn’t help but give him a disapproving look.

Ellis, caught up in her amusement, missed Tom’s expression and followed up, “Can’t the Brooks family find anyone to help?” Tom hadn’t expected Ellis to be unfazed by mentions of her own painful past. “The Brooks family’s problem isn’t small; even throwing a few million dollars at it might not make a dent.”

Back to living paycheck to paycheck, Ellis silently counted how many zeros were in a few million.

Easton had once been willing to pay a billion dollars in ransom to save his first love, but a million compared to a few billion… He had already proposed remarrying her, clearly not planning to marry Victoria, which showed his feelings for Victoria weren't deep enough to spend billions to save the Brooks family.

Besides, Easton’s personal fortune might be in the hundreds of billions, but that wasn’t liquid cash; it included various assets, and liquidating them quickly wasn’t easy. He couldn’t pull together that much cash on short notice.

That said, Easton might not have to use his own money; he could find other ways.

For a moment, she pushed aside the fact that Easton was someone she had once loved and didn’t think about him being her annoying ex-husband. She only cared about whether the Brooks family would collapse completely so that Victoria would lose her means to harm her, allowing her to live without constant fear.

“East…” She uttered a word, but something felt off. Others might enjoy the spectacle, but she shouldn’t become fodder for gossip. The thought of stopping the conversation flashed through her mind, so Ellis closed her mouth.

Tom caught Ellis’s hint and immediately changed the subject. The others were quite interested in the Brooks family’s fire sale of assets; finding a bargain wasn’t an everyday occurrence, and the discussion shifted to whether or not to buy.