Chapter 3 The Curtains Are Open

Ella's mind went blank. There was a deafening buzz in her head, drowning out everything else.

She tried her best to recall the bizarre events from a month ago, the cause of all her current troubles. That fateful night, she had had too much to drink at the dinner party. Somehow she had ended up spending the night in a hotel, and the next morning she had woken up to news of her "affair" with Charles Lin.

She remembered aching all over upon waking up, and the memory of it made her skin crawl. She had assumed it was just a bad hangover, but she wasn't so sure now. Raymond seemed to truly believe she was pregnant; was it possible that she had actually slept with Charles that night? What could have possibly led to that? She didn't even know him!

Ella was still wrestling with her inner doubts when the car arrived at the villa.

Raymond stepped out of the car and made for the front door. He entered the password on the security pad to unlock the door, but the door stayed shut.

He turned to Ella with an accusing look. "You changed the password."

"I change the password regularly since I live here alone. I'm paranoid about robbers and break-ins." It was a complete lie, but Ella was an actress and pulled it off beautifully. She wasn't afraid of robbers and thieves. She had changed Raymond's original password for a somewhat embarrassing reason. She had hoped that he would have to ask her to open the door if he ever returned to get his things. She hardly ever saw him, and would do just about anything to see him again.

But her plan had been a complete failure. Raymond had avoided the villa like the plague after their marriage.

Raymond entered the villa and went upstairs without a second glance at his wife. Ella threw herself on the sofa and lay there, absorbed in her thoughts. The events at the hotel were a complete mystery to her, and she was determined to get to the bottom of it.

Raymond was still upstairs when someone knocked on the front door. Ella rose from the sofa, surprised, and went to see who it was. She opened the door and found herself face-to-face with an unfamiliar man, who proceeded to look her over with undisguised interest.

"Oh, are you here to see Raymond?" Ella asked politely.

The man was immaculately dressed, and Ella could tell from the perfect Windsor knot in his tie that her visitor was a man of refined taste. His bright, beautiful eyes looked at her steadily, as if probing the depths of her soul, and Ella found herself fidgeting uncomfortably under the intensity of his gaze. She wanted to tell him it was rude to stare, but decided against it; he was probably a friend of Raymond's, and she had to be courteous to her husband's friend. She stepped aside and said politely, "Please come in."

Charles stepped into the villa. "I'm here to see you."

Raymond, who had just arrived downstairs with his suitcase, froze when he saw Charles. His expression darkened.

Ella went into the kitchen, and emerged a moment later with two cups of tea. She set them on the table and excused herself. "Take your time. I'll leave the two of you to your affairs."

"Ella, I'm here to see you, not him." Charles seized Ella's wrist before she could turn away, and shot Raymond a defiant look.

Raymond's knuckles tightened on the handle of his suitcase, but he brushed past Charles without acknowledging him. He paused at the table near the front door and picked up the divorce agreement he had left on it. "Ella Sheng, don't forget to sign this."

"Sign that? Are you divorcing him, my dear Ella? That's a relief. I was afraid you'd be too attached to her to divorce her, Mr. Xia." Charles grinned from ear to ear. He looked genuinely delighted at the news.

Ella stared at her visitor in confusion. She removed her wrist from Charles' grip and said, bewildered, "You're not a friend of Raymond's?"

"No, I'm his rival in love." There was an affectionate twinkle in his eyes as he gingerly caressed her hair. "I'm Charles Lin.

Have you forgotten me, Ella?" The corners of Ella's mouth twitched in annoyance. She wanted badly to slap Charles for his impudence, but she didn't have time to deal with him. All of her attention was on Raymond; she wanted to see his reaction to Charles's unexpected visit. But in the next instant, she spotted an all-too-familiar flash of light outside the window, and her blood ran cold.

The paparazzi had hounded her relentlessly on the streets for the past month, and today they had finally grown bold enough to spy on her in her own house.

Unbelievable!

With her back carefully angled towards the cameras, Ella ran to Raymond and hugged him. She whispered calmly into his ear, "The paparazzi are waiting outside. If you leave now, rumors of our divorce will be all over the news. If the reputation of the Xia family means nothing to you, I suggest that you announce our divorce to the paparazzi now and be done with it."

She let go of Raymond and pretended to help him straighten his tie like a loving, dutiful wife.

Raymond shot her an icy glare, but obediently set his suitcase down. As he made his way back to the living room, he said in an indifferent tone, "The curtains are open, by the way." Ella whirled around to look. He was right; she had forgotten to draw the curtains. Her little slip-up had allowed the paparazzi waiting outside a clear, unobstructed view of everything going on inside the villa.

The paparazzi were going to have a field day with this.

She was used to the gossip tabloids twisting the facts, but Ella was worried about what the Xia family would think about Charles' scandalous visit. Something told her that Raymond's family would pressure him to divorce her to save their reputation.

Charles had been watching Raymond and Ella with an arched eyebrow. After a moment, he unfolded his arms, picked up his teacup, and sipped his tea with a leisurely air. "Ella, this barely tastes like tea. You should get a different tea."

"Sorry, but that's all we have." Ella rolled her eyes at his impudence as her heart hammered in her chest.

The situation was absurd. Why were the three of them, the main actors of the love triangle the tabloids had been writing about for the past month, having tea together?

Ella wasn't in the mood for tea.

"This is all you have? Well, you deserve better. I have West Lake tea, the tea leaves are of the finest quality. You can have them as a gift." There was a teasing smile on Charles' lips as he nonchalantly set his cup down on the table.

Ella glared at him. She took a sip of the tea she had prepared for Raymond. "That's quite alright. I like my tea."

"Oh, is that right? And what about you, Mr. Xia? What do you think?" Charles arched an eyebrow at Raymond.

Raymond reached for the teacup Ella had prepared for him. He lifted the cup gracefully to his lips and took an elegant sip. "The quality of the tea leaves doesn't matter. You have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy your tea. Why are you here, Mr. Lin, if you're already convinced that your tea is better than everyone else's? You seem to be wasting your time."

"That's a good question." Charles paused to give Ella a long, meaningful look. "I'm here for Ella. She's coming with me to the Lin family."

Raymond sipped his tea nonchalantly, but his lips curved into a sardonic smile, and there was a dangerous glint in his eyes. "You're getting ahead of yourself, Mr. Lin. Perhaps you should slow down."

"Slow down? Why would I do that? The last thing I want is for you to change your mind and call off the divorce while I drag my feet." Charles leaned forward in his chair as he returned Raymond's icy glare with one of his own.

Ella couldn't believe her ears when she heard what Charles had said about taking her with him to the Lin family. She suppressed her urge to throttle him as she said dubiously, "Excuse me? Why would I go with you to the Lin family?"

"You're pregnant with the next heir to the Lin family. Where else are you going to go? Surely you're not going to let my son call this uncultured swine here his father?" Charles' every word was a calculated jab at Raymond.

"Wait, who says I'm pregnant with your baby?" Ella sputtered indignantly.

"You've been married for two years, with nothing to show for it. There are rumors that Mr. Xia here can't perform in bed, if you catch my drift. If the baby isn't mine, whose is it? It's obviously mine," Charles said confidently.

There was a loud thump as Raymond's fist shot out and connected with Charles' face.

Charles fell off his chair and onto the floor. Before he could get up, Raymond grabbed him by the collar and snarled into his face, "Watch yourself, Charles Lin. Don't test my patience!"

The Xia family was extremely powerful and influential. They were virtually untouchable in J City.

Charles wiped the blood from his mouth. Instead of losing his temper, however, he grinned and said, "Mr. Xia, I've heard of your many talents. But so what? You failed to marry the woman you loved, and now you've failed to keep the woman you married. You're a loser."

As soon as he finished saying that, he kicked Raymond off him and got to his feet.

Ella was so angry her eyelids had started twitching. She flung her teacup to the floor, shattering it to a million tiny pieces. In the awkward silence that followed, she said icily, "I've had enough. Get out! The both of you, out!"

"Okay, okay. Calm down. You shouldn't get angry when you're pregnant, it's bad for the baby." Charles' parting reminder to Ella was his downfall. Before he could turn to leave, Raymond tackled him, slung him unceremoniously over his shoulder, and tossed him out the door.

Ella didn't have to look at the expression on Raymond's face to be able to tell that he was absolutely furious.