The Retired CEO's Guide To Being Spoiled-Chapter 263: Ethan Caldwell really is a bastard!

Then, as if feeling that was not weighty enough to be persuasive, Gabriel Cole lightly tapped his fingers on the tabletop and slowly added: "Ethan Caldwell does not even cherish you, so why on earth should you work your fingers to the bone for him?"

Seeing the corners of Julian Sterling’s eyes narrow slightly with defensiveness, Gabriel Cole continued: "In the midst of the burning crisis, when your affairs were blown out of proportion by the media, he did not choose to delete the articles immediately, much less step forward to make a timely correction. On the contrary, he deliberately let public opinion ferment, allowing people to speculate and hurl insults at you, only then letting his public relations department publish a post. Doing so was merely to make it look like he is a magnanimous person who does not mind that you have been compromised, still grandly loving you with all his heart."

"But the real issue does not lie in what he thinks, or whether he himself feels humiliated or not, does it? It is glaringly obvious that you are the victim in this matter. Any solution should have fundamentally revolved around protecting you, rather than revolving around polishing his own image."

Julian Sterling’s demeanor at this moment clearly showed signs of wavering. He slightly clenched his hands hidden beneath the table, then slowly released them; his voice deepened a fraction, carrying suppressed anger: "Could you please stop spouting nonsense aimed at driving a wedge between us? It is clear that Ethan is using his own methods to protect me, to comfort me. Yet coming from your mouth, everything is twisted into him using me as a stepping stone to elevate his own reputation."

"Protecting you, comforting you? Is that really the case?" Gabriel Cole’s voice was brimming with sarcasm. He leaned forward slightly, pulled his phone out of his pocket, swiped a few times, and then forcefully pushed the screen toward Julian: "Here is your protection and comfort. Right in the middle of this burning crisis, he heartlessly left you alone to handle everything by yourself, while he flew off to another city, leisurely getting intimate with another woman."

Gabriel Cole’s tone was sarcastic to the extreme, as if plunging individual daggers into the listener’s self-esteem. And what struck Julian Sterling’s eyes on the phone screen was the silhouette of a man and a woman leaning closely against each other. The angle taken from a distance was somewhat blurry, but it was clear enough to see the man wrapping his arm tightly around the waist of the girl in the picture; the posture of the two was incredibly ambiguous.

Even with just a passing glance, Julian could easily recognize him. That man, with his tall physique and that familiar side profile, was none other than his legal husband, Ethan Caldwell.

Clang!

Julian accidentally knocked hard against the plate on the table, causing the silver spoon he had used earlier to eat his meal to fall straight down onto the tiled floor, emitting a sharp, piercing sound. Julian’s entire body trembled slightly, his complexion also paling several fractions, but he still tried to grit his teeth and feign a calm composure: "How did you obtain this photo? How can you be so certain that this is a recently taken picture?"

"Because this is the latest image just leaked by the paparazzi." Gabriel Cole smirked, speaking with triumphant glee: "It is highly likely that by early this afternoon, the image of your husband brazenly being intimate with another woman will be sitting squarely on all the front pages of the news outlets, from digital media to traditional print newspapers."

"Julian, compared to someone who only knows how to use you like him, I truly care and worry about you. Because you no longer remember the past, no longer remember our beautiful memories, and that breaks my heart."

Having said that, Gabriel Cole reached his hand out, his gaze full of deep affection, wanting to touch Julian’s face. However, Julian reacted extremely fast; he stood up abruptly, taking a step back to escape from that hand: "Please have some self-respect."

After speaking, he did not hesitate to turn around and walk away. But having only taken a few steps, as if unwilling to concede, Julian turned his head back, his eyes slightly reddened, gritting his teeth to emphasize every single word: "I absolutely trust my husband. I demand that from now on you stop finding every possible trick to drive a wedge between us!"

This time he truly departed decisively without looking back. It was just that from behind, falling into Gabriel Cole’s line of sight, Julian’s footsteps looked entirely rushed, staggering exactly as if he were trying to run away from the truth.

Very soon after, he and his bodyguard were settled inside the car. The atmosphere was suffocating to the point of being hard to breathe. Seeing that Julian’s complexion was gloomily unwell, the bodyguard was also extremely tactful, not daring to ask half a word of random nonsense. After receiving the instruction to head straight back to the Caldwell Empire building, the bodyguard merely gave a low murmur of assent and quietly started the engine to drive away.

Yet at this moment, when the car windows were rolled up to isolate them from the outside world, Julian’s complexion had quickly recovered its usual calm appearance, no longer possessing the slightest look of weak panic.

He also somewhat understood Gabriel Cole’s true nature; for this person to deliberately show him that photo at this exact time was precisely to deal a heavy blow to his psyche, to make him collapse. And perhaps just as the man predicted, this sensational news would definitely be plastered across the front pages of all the major and minor newspapers this afternoon to attract public attention.

His reason was incredibly clear, except deep down, Julian still could not suppress a feeling of restless unease. He took out his phone, quickly typing a line of message to send to the man who was currently far away.

Julian: [Is everything alright on your end?]

But the message just sent out was exactly like a stone sinking into the bottom of the deep sea. The screen kept lighting up and then dimming, yet after waiting a long while, there was still no sign of any reply whatsoever. It was not until the car came to a halt, and he stepped into the elevator, returning all the way back to his own office, that Julian’s expression looked hardly any better than when he was in the car.

He clearly knew very well that all of this was just a staged theatrical play, and capturing that obscure-angled photo was also very simple. All it took was for that girl to be walking closely beside him, then pretending to slip and fall; given Ethan Caldwell’s courteous personality that always maintained a gentlemanly demeanor, if they were at such a close distance, his natural reflex would definitely be to reach out his hand to support her.

Julian could even clearly deduce the entirety of the plan behind this photo, including the very words, the baseless clickbait headlines that the press was about to churn out in order to guide public opinion.

He understood all the tricks, was there any of these dirty underhanded tactics in the business world that Julian had not personally experienced himself?

But no matter how lucid his reason might be, deep within the depths of his heart still welled up an unspeakably uncomfortable, choking sensation.

Julian let his body flop down onto the soft leather chair, his gaze unconsciously darting toward the phone screen placed on the desk. After confirming that the screen remained completely blank, without a single text reply from that man, he grew so frustrated that he swung his arm, throwing the phone straight to the corner of the desk. Julian tilted his head back, exhaling a long, weary sigh, exhaustedly leaning his back completely against the chair and tightly shutting his eyes to rest his spirit.

It was just that although the space was quiet, the stream of thoughts inside his head was not quiet in the slightest. It kept spinning around, tangled up in half a dozen things, while the image of that hand gripping a waist kept flickering in his mind.

Ugh!

Emotions truly are a toxic thing. It is far too easy for them to drive a person who is usually clear-headed completely insane!

Ethan Caldwell really is a bastard!