NovelEnglishChapter 297
Not that | needed to explain any of this to them.
“Mr. Knox,” Rachel said with a practiced smile, “my engagement to Blake has its reasons.”
Her tone remained polite but cool. “We've only met twice. We're business partners, not friends yet. | don’t think
we owe you explanations about our private matters.” She turned to me. “Blake, don’t you agree?”
| shifted my gaze away from the woman with Audrey's face. “Yes. Maybe when we becactual friends, we'll
explain our engagement. Right now, these questions seem inappropriate.”
“What are you talking about?” Adrian sneered. “You think | care why you're engaged?”
“I'm just curious if you two betrayed Audrey Sinclair while she was alive.”
“Audrey died ten months ago,” he continued. “You announced your engagement with a lavish ceremony just
three months later. Is that enough tfor a man who supposedly loved his wife to move past grief and get
engaged to her best friend?”
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| clenched my fists, feeling my control slipping. Rachel quickly placed her hand on mine, subtly shaking her
head.
“Of course, you can keep saying it's private,” Adrian pressed. “But since we're discussing a business partnership,
| need to understand who I'm working with.” He leaned forward. “Did either of you betray Audrey Sinclair while
she was still alive?”
| stared at Rachel's hand on mine, then looked up toward Audrey’s double. She was calmly pouring tea for
Adrian, completely
uninterested in our conversation.
Her indifference squeezed something in my chest. Though | knew she wasn’t Audrey, her complete lack of
interest still hurt, making
Rachel tightened her grip on my hand. “Mr. Knox, letbe clear.”
“My engagement to Blake isn’t based on romantic feelings. It involves family interests and business
considerations. Neither of us ever betrayed Audrey. Her death is a wound we haven't recovered from. There's no
romantic relationship between Blake and me. Even if we eventually marry, it won't be about love.”
Rachel took a deep breath and looked Adrian straight in the eye. “Does that answer your question, Mr. Knox?”
She then turned to Evelyn. “Mrs. Knox, if we'd betrayed Audrey, would we go through all this trouble just to
understand her creative process through your similar designs?”
Evelyn waited a moment before responding. “I believe you.”
She glanced at Adrian. “Let’s drop it. We've spent enough ton other people’s personal business.”
She stood up and walked over to Emma, who was playing with her stuffed bear in the corner. She scooped her up
and headed for the bedroom. “Dr. Clarke's expecting us soon. | need to get Emma ready.”
“Handle the business details without me. | don’t need to be there for that part.”
At the doorway, she stopped. “I look like his ex-wife. That's it. I'm not her.”
“Whatever they did or didn’t do to Audrey Sinclair has nothing to do with me. | don’t want to hear about this
again.”
After the door clicked shut, Rachel smiled tightly and handed the agreement to Adrian. “Since your wife's out,
let's go through these
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terms.”
Adrian cleared his throat and started reviewing the paperwork with us.
| couldn’t focus. My eyes kept drifting toward the bedroom door.
The muffled sounds of laughter filtered through.
| couldn’t help thinking: if I'd known about Audrey's pregnancy sooner, if I'd known about her illness...
Maybe our baby wouldn't have died before it had a chance to live.
If our child had survived... would it have been a girl?
Would she have laughed like Emma?
“Blake?”
Rachel's voice pulledback. | blinked, frowning. “What?”
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