After Divorce I Married a Tycoon-Chapter 32: What Brand of Plastic Bag Can Be So Full of It?
Although Julian Mercer had never been particularly fond of his adopted daughter, Claire Mercer, the way Gavin Sinclair was humiliating a daughter of the Mercer family still left a bad taste in his mouth.
His already expressionless face was now tinged with displeasure.
"Is everything you said true?"
"Of course it’s true." Claire Mercer nodded.
"For the specifics, you can ask your precious biological daughter."
Judith Caldwell shot her a glare.
"This is between you and Gavin Sinclair. What does Scarlett have to do with it?"
Claire Mercer let out a soft laugh.
Her gaze flickered to Scarlett Jewel, whose expression had already turned strange.
She spoke airily.
"Because... she’s the mistress."
At these words, Julian Mercer and Judith Caldwell stared, dumbfounded.
"What did you say? Scarlett is the mistress?"
"Yes." The smile vanished from Claire Mercer’s face, her gaze turning icy in an instant.
"She’s the mistress who knew exactly what she was getting into."
"Impossible," Judith Caldwell immediately denied.
"Scarlett is so sweet and well-behaved. How could she possibly be a mistress?"
Despite her words, Judith felt her breath catch in her throat. She immediately looked at Scarlett Jewel.
"Scarlett, is she just slinging mud at you?"
Scarlett Jewel didn’t deny it. She just lowered her gaze, bowed her head, and bit her lip hard.
"What exactly is going on?" Julian Mercer growled.
He was certain Claire Mercer wouldn’t dare to slander his biological daughter like this.
Seeing that his own daughter didn’t deny it, he already had a sinking feeling he knew the truth.
Scarlett Jewel seemed startled by his growl, and her shoulders trembled.
When she looked up at Julian Mercer, her eyes were already beginning to glisten with tears.
She looked so pitiful, as if she had suffered a terrible injustice.
Claire Mercer coolly observed Scarlett Jewel’s typical damsel-in-distress act and said sarcastically,
"Just look at my dear sister’s pitiable act. You’d think she was the one who’d been terribly wronged."
"Anyone who didn’t know better would think *you* were the wife whose marriage was destroyed by a mistress."
"Scarlett, are you really... with Gavin Sinclair..."
As if mustering all her courage, Scarlett Jewel admitted, "Yes."
"Gavin Sinclair and I are together, but I’m not a mistress."
"Dad, Mom, I’m the one Gavin Sinclair has always loved."
Julian Mercer and Judith Caldwell were completely baffled, exchanging confused glances.
Scarlett Jewel wiped the tears from her face and said, "We got together years ago."
"When he had his car accident, I was injured trying to save him."
"On top of that, the Sinclair family matriarch was against me marrying him, so I went abroad to get away."
Claire Mercer laughed at that. "Right. You went abroad when Gavin Sinclair was crippled."
"And just as his legs healed, you came back."
"Knowing full well he was married, you shamelessly crawled into his bed."
"No." Scarlett Jewel denied it, her voice trembling with emotion. "He was the one who asked me to come back."
"If he hadn’t called me over and over again, and even made a special trip abroad to find me..."
"I never would have come back to disturb his life."
Claire Mercer sneered.
’What a performance,’ she thought. ’I wonder what brand of plastic bag she is, to be so full of it.’
"And that’s your excuse for coming back to be a mistress?"
Although Scarlett Jewel hated Claire Mercer’s guts,
she had always been a master actress. She immediately broke down in tears in front of Claire, confessing and apologizing.
"Sister, I’m so sorry. I know I did something wrong."
"I shouldn’t have destroyed your marriage. I shouldn’t have stayed with Gavin."
"I can only blame myself for being too young, too impulsive, too soft-hearted..."
"I couldn’t bring myself to reject him over and over. I couldn’t bear to see the pain and sorrow my rejection caused him."
"So..."
"So you shamelessly got a hotel room and had an affair with him."
"You even deliberately cut me off, letting him abandon me at the scene of the accident just to show me how important you are to him."
"And while I was in the hospital, you sent photos to provoke me, to flaunt it in my face."
"For a mistress, don’t you think you’re a little too brazen?"
As she spoke of these things, Claire Mercer could no longer maintain her calm and composed demeanor.
Although her heart no longer ached, a furious rage still burned in her chest.
Even though she no longer had any feelings for Gavin Sinclair,
the pain they had inflicted on her was very, very real.
And Scarlett Jewel, a paragon of feigned innocence,
immediately rushed forward, grabbed Claire Mercer’s arm, and cried,
"Sister, I know it was wrong of me to destroy your marriage."
"But you know it too—Gavin Sinclair clearly doesn’t love you."
"Since he doesn’t love you, why are you clinging to a loveless marriage?"
Claire Mercer couldn’t be bothered to watch her pretentious act any longer and coldly tossed out a final remark.
"If you’ve got the ability, then get Gavin Sinclair to sign the divorce papers."
Then she left the Mercer residence without a backward glance.
Julian Mercer and Judith Caldwell were stunned into silence by the revelation that their biological daughter was a mistress.
They paid no attention to Claire Mercer’s departure.
Their biological daughter, who had just returned to the Mercer family, had actually become the mistress of their adopted daughter’s husband.
For a moment, Julian Mercer didn’t know how to describe what he was feeling.
Heaven knows how thrilled the Mercer family had been when the Sinclair family had taken a liking to Claire Mercer and had her marry Gavin Sinclair to ward off his bad luck.
A daughter of their Mercer family had beaten out all the other high-society debutantes to become the Young Madam of the wealthiest family...
In those days, he walked with a swagger in his step.
Now, his own biological daughter had destroyed his adopted daughter’s marriage...
If this got out, what would outsiders think of the Mercer family?
What’s more, Claire Mercer was the one personally chosen by the Sinclair family matriarch.
If she were to find out that the Mercer family’s true daughter, just returned home, had stolen the "fake" daughter’s husband...
Julian Mercer’s head throbbed.
"How could you be so foolish..." 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺
Judith Caldwell also looked heartbroken.
"How could you become someone’s mistress?"
If it were anyone else’s husband, it might have been manageable.
But the person she’d wronged was Claire Mercer.
If Claire Mercer really divorced Gavin Sinclair, and the Sinclair family still refused to let Scarlett Jewel marry in...
Wouldn’t that be a double loss?
"Your mother and I were originally planning to find you a match from another wealthy family in Rhonia."
"Someone who could ensure you a life of comfort and also help the Mercer family’s business."
"But who knew you’d get involved with Gavin Sinclair..."
As a businessman, his own interests naturally came first.
He had two daughters. One was Young Madam Sinclair.
Although the Sinclair family had never explicitly supported the Mercer family’s business, or even partnered with them,
ever since Claire Mercer’s marriage, he’d found it much easier to negotiate business deals.
If this other daughter could marry into another powerful and wealthy family...
Then the Mercer family’s status in Rhonia would only continue to rise.
"Blaming Scarlett now is pointless. We should think about how to salvage this."
"I just heard Claire Mercer say the mistress was pregnant."
Realizing her slip of the tongue, Judith Caldwell coughed and asked Scarlett Jewel,
"Scarlett, are you really pregnant with Gavin Sinclair’s child?"
Scarlett Jewel nodded. "Yes. And the doctor said it might be a boy."
Hearing this, Judith Caldwell’s eyes instantly lit up.
