Chapter 45: Chapter 45: A Bit of a Rebellious Streak
Sure enough, the moment Caspian Rhodes finished asking, everyone in the room turned their attention back to Ivan Yates.
Melanie Yates was a bit slow on the uptake, but she finally caught on. "Ivan, don’t you normally hate drinking? Why were you drinking yesterday? If Rachel hadn’t been with you, you would’ve been driving drunk!"
Mr. and Mrs. Yates hadn’t thought much of it at first, but hearing their daughter, they realized something was amiss. They joined in, pressing him. "Melanie is right. We were too worried about your injuries to ask before, but now you need to tell us the truth. What were you doing yesterday? Why run off to drink in the middle of the night?"
Ivan Yates’s face went white. He never imagined the conversation would suddenly pivot to him.
"I... I..."
"’I’ what? Spit it out!"
Ivan struggled for a long time but couldn’t manage to say anything. Finally, he gave up, pulled the blanket over his head, and said in a muffled voice, "Just stop asking. I don’t want to talk about it."
But Melanie wasn’t ready to give up. Fuming, she paced around her brother’s bedside. Then her eyes landed on Arabella Donovan, and an idea struck her.
"Do you know what happened to my brother?"
"Melanie!"
As it turned out, Melanie had asked the right person.
Arabella glanced sympathetically at the beet-red Ivan Yates. She could understand his complex emotions.
’To put it bluntly, he’s just embarrassed that he was played for a fool, used as a backup boyfriend and an ATM, and then dumped. Seriously, some people are just too thin-skinned. A real playboy can get caught juggling multiple partners and not feel a shred of shame, yet here’s the victim, too mortified to speak up. No wonder she had him completely wrapped around her finger.’
Facing the curious gazes of Mr. and Mrs. Yates, Arabella made a show of calculating on her fingers. "Uh, if I’m not mistaken, this seems to be a matter of the heart."
"A matter of the heart?" Her suspicion confirmed, Melanie’s rage boiled over. "I knew it was that bitch Cassandra Lynch!" she roared.
Mr. and Mrs. Yates, and even Ivan, were startled by Melanie’s explosive reaction. Mr. Yates instinctively glanced at Zane Lynch, puzzled to see he was merely surprised and not angry at all.
Mrs. Yates blinked, confused. "Melanie, darling, weren’t you and Cassandra good friends? Why the sudden..."
Melanie pressed her lips together, looking uncomfortable. "The past is the past. I was blind back then to think she was kind, gentle, and considerate. In reality, she’s a two-faced, backstabbing green tea bitch!"
It wasn’t just the Yates family; even Eloise Donovan was baffled by Melanie’s righteous fury.
After all, back at the restaurant, Eloise had only subtly hinted that Cassandra might not be as wonderful as she seemed, and Melanie had immediately jumped down her throat.
Arabella, however, caught on quickly. She shot the Yates siblings a knowing look.
’Melanie must have found out the truth about the trashed love letter. The rose-colored glasses she had for Cassandra Lynch have shattered, and she’s gone from fan to anti.’
At this thought, Arabella grew excited.
’Oh, this is perfect. Melanie already sees Cassandra in a new light. Once she finds out that Cassandra played with her brother’s feelings, used him as a backup, and indirectly almost got him killed in a car crash, their friendship is officially over. The best part? This time, Melanie will be the one doing the dumping! Hahahaha...’
Eloise couldn’t help but almost smile at that, but the thought of Cassandra Lynch’s actions wiped the humor away.
Melanie wasn’t thinking about any of that. Once the words were out, she realized that talking about this mess made it feel less overwhelming.
So what if she’d misjudged someone and been used? She’d just write it off as a bad experience, like getting bitten by a dog.
But what happened to her brother was another story. She couldn’t just let it go.
"Ivan, tell me the truth. What happened yesterday? What exactly did that bitch Cassandra Lynch do to you?"
"...Melanie, don’t say it like that."
"Even now, you’re still defending her? Did she cast a spell on you? You’re driving me crazy!"
Things seemed to have reached a stalemate due to Ivan Yates’s passive resistance. Melanie paced back and forth, fuming, but she couldn’t get him to talk.
Just when everyone thought that was the end of it, a voice dripping with frustration and disappointment echoed from outside the room.
"After everything she did to you, you’re still trying to cover for her? When did the Ivan Yates I know become such a spineless coward?"
Everyone instinctively turned toward the voice. In the doorway sat a young man in a wheelchair, his head wrapped in bandages identical to Ivan’s and his right arm in a cast.
"Rachel! Cousin! What are you doing here?" Mrs. Yates was the first to react, rushing over to them. "Rachel, are your injuries alright?"
Mrs. Chapman, who was pushing the wheelchair, wore a look of resignation. "When this boy woke up and heard Ivan was hurt worse than he was, he threw a fit and insisted on coming to see for himself. I couldn’t stop him, so I had to bring him."
Rachel Chandler, however, felt no remorse for causing trouble. He snorted. "Good thing I came. Otherwise, I would’ve missed my ’good brother’ here acting like a turtle hiding in its shell."
The sarcastic taunt successfully provoked the moping Ivan. "Ra-chel! Chan-dler!"
"What are you yelling for? I can hear you!" Rachel shot back, giving no ground. "If you’d take the energy you’re aiming at me, go confront that woman’s fiancé, and kick that fickle bitch to the curb, I’d actually respect you as a man."
Rachel got more worked up as he spoke, slamming his hand on the wheelchair’s armrest with a loud SMACK. "So what if you got played and dumped? You acted like you wanted to die, bawling your eyes out and drinking yourself into a stupor. And when I told you a few hard truths, you pointed in my face and cussed me out. You think I don’t have a temper? Let me tell you, Ivan Yates, I am sick and tired of you!"
Rachel’s sudden outburst stunned everyone. After a moment of shock, even Mrs. Chapman couldn’t help but pat her son on the shoulder.
"That’s enough out of you."
For once, Melanie didn’t side with her brother. "Rachel, you went out with my brother yesterday. What happened?"
Before Rachel could open his mouth, Ivan cut in with a command: "Don’t say a word!"
But the target of his command had a rebellious streak. Rachel rolled his eyes right at him. "You’re telling me not to? That just makes me want to say it more."
Ivan Yates: "..." ’So infuriating!’
"Pfft..." Hiding behind Eloise, Arabella thought this Rachel Chandler was a real piece of work. ’His philosophy is basically "You do you, and I’ll do me." No wasted energy on internal conflict. What a wonderfully healthy mindset!’
"Yesterday, this brother of yours gets a call from one of that Lynch girl’s lackeys. They said she was in some kind of trouble at school and couldn’t get away. Your brother panicked and started driving like his car was a jet plane."
"We race all the way to her school, but there’s no sign of anyone giving her trouble. Instead, we find her sobbing pitifully in her fiancé’s arms. Anyone with eyes could see they were all over each other, but this idiot here actually thought the fiancé was bullying her..."
