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"Oh, thank god, you finally answered my call!"
Chloe heard Dorothea's voice on the phone, and her body tensed immediately. She knew she had no entanglement nor sin against Dorothea, but whenever she remembered that menacing old woman, she couldn't help but get nervous.
"Chloe? Are you there?" Dorothea asked.
Chloe gulped as she tried to swallow her nervousness. She sat at the corner of the bed, putting the phone near her ear, and answered, "H—Hello."
Dorothea had a huge sense of relief after the burden in her heart had been lifted a bit. She really thought that Chloe blocked her, just like how she blocked her family and husband.
'Could it be that she still sees me as a redeemable mother-in-law, or does she just forget about me completely?' Dorothea wondered in her mind. Though, the answer was actually quite obvious.
They weren't compatible as a family and tried to ignore each other, so it wouldn't be surprising if Chloe simply forgot to block her.
Nevertheless, it was Dorothea's chance to connect with her estranged daughter-in-law.
"Chloe, before you're thinking about hanging up, I want to have a small talk with you," Dorothea said, putting the warning upfront because she didn't want her conversation with Chloe to get cut.
Chloe stared at her opened door, ensuring Mackie was still sleeping.
Mackie spent much time with her Granny, so the old woman's voice was recognizable.
She feared Mackie might get too excited hearing her Granny's vote and accidentally spill Vernon's identity.
After making sure there was no sign of Mackie waking up, she answered, "Okay…."
Dorothea took a deep breath. She had A LOT of questions, especially since she thought Chloe was just an ignorant, arrogant, ungrateful low-value woman who was lucky to marry her son.
But Vincent's unhinged attitude yesterday caused Dorothea to have nightmares when she closed her eyes. Because Vincent reminded her so much of Vaughn. Vincent was almost like a carbon copy of his father, from his malicious smirk, arrogance, and perversion whenever they saw a woman getting hurt.
It was bizarre, and Dorothea felt immense guilt because she had indirectly caused Vincent to spiral into his current self.
"Chloe, be honest with me, what caused you to divorce Vincent?" Dorothea asked without beating around the bush. After all, this was the most important question.
Chloe's breath stilled for a second. She wondered if she had to lie again.
But she was out of Vincent's mansion already. There was no need for her to hide anything…
"There are many, many reasons for me to leave him, Dorothea," Chloe replied. Her voice was shaky and hoarse. So she sounded like a woman trying not to cry. "For the past ten years, I've experienced many unpleasant things with him. But what makes me decide to leave him that day… was him sleeping with his secretary during Mackenzie's birthday."
"He missed his daughter's birthday just because he wanted to spend a night fucking his secretary," Chloe answered without hiding a thing.
Many things made Chloe want to leave Vincent for a long time. But she always stayed for her daughter. As long as Mackie had a perfect family consisting of a father and mother, she could bear anything Vincent threw at her.
But she decided to leave when she realized that Vincent would rather fuck that whore than spend a night celebrating his daughter's birthday. Because their daughter was out of Vincent's equation, Chloe had no reason to stay.
Previously, Dorothea would slam Chloe for being ungrateful for leaving Vincent just because Vincent missed Mackie's birthday.
But this was a different case.
If Vincent missed Mackie's birthday because of work, Dorothea would scold Chloe.
But he missed his daughter's birthday because of another woman… and it was way too relatable to Dorothea.
She lost count of how many times Vaughn missed Vincent's— and all of Vernon's birthday. He was always busy fucking random chicks or just going on a golf trip with his colleagues, getting drunk, and smashing a few more chicks during the activity.
She first confronted Vaughn, demanding an explanation for missing out on his son's birthdays. But he always scoffed it out and said it wasn't important, so he didn't need to attend.
Dorothea was miserable, especially when Vincent always asked where his father had gone.
"I—I see…." Dorothea's voice started shaking as the terrible memories of her life with Vaughn flashed in her mind. "Did he cheat a lot?"
"Yes, every single day, usually with his secretary, or with a random woman, or even with the mansion's female workers," Chloe confirmed the harsh truth. "Most of the time, he did it on our marital bed."
Dorothea gulped when Chloe confirmed her fear; Vincent was a serial cheater with no regard for his wife's heart.
"You told me about his cheating. I thought it was you overreacting at that time, so I didn't take it seriously," Dorothea said. "I also have a similar experience. So, I try to ignore any kind of cheating because I don't want to be reminded of my terrible past with Vaughn. I am so sorry, Chloe."
Dorothea had never been this truthful in front of anyone except Shailene.
But when she put herself in Chloe's shoes, she realized they must have experienced almost the same thing living with the Gray family. Hence, she sympathized much easier with Chloe now.
Meanwhile, Chloe was too shocked when she heard the word sorry coming out of Dorothea's mouth.
It was so shocking that she thought she was dreaming right now.
Chloe checked the caller ID again just to make sure that she was on a call with the same Dorothea Gray, who always referred to her as an ungrateful woman without ever listening to her side of the story.
'What happened? What changed her like this? Is this some kind of trap?' Chloe had tons of suspicions in her head. So she stayed guarded when Dorothea asked another question;
"You never told me about this one before, but… I know that you've been abused by him badly. What exactly did he do to your body, Chloe?"
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦