Chapter 300 Divorce Sebastian or I Expose Them

Chapter 300: Chapter 300 Divorce Sebastian or I Expose Them

Emilia’s POV

My phone lit up on the nightstand, and Claudine Tucker’s name flashed across the screen.

I frowned at it. Odd hour for a call.

But Claudine had never been anything but warm to me since the day we met, so I swiped to answer.

"Claudine. It’s late. What’s wrong?"

"Emilia. I need to see you tonight. It’s important."

"Can’t it wait until morning?"

"No." Her voice hardened. "It has to be tonight."

Something in that tone raised the hair on my arms. Eve stirred at the back of my mind, uneasy.

"Fine," I said. "Where?"

"River Gauche Café."

Half an hour later I walked in, and she was already there.

"Alright, Claudine. What’s so urgent it couldn’t survive the night?"

"First," she said, "I owe you an apology. The rumors about you? I’m the one who started them."

I set my bag down slowly. My mind went blank for a beat, then scrambled to keep up.

"Say that again."

"The story. That you dumped your worthless fiancé to marry into money." She met my eyes without a flicker of shame. "That was me."

For a full minute I couldn’t get a word out. I’d sat across from this woman and called her a friend. Eve growled low in my chest.

"Why?" I finally managed. "Why would you do that?"

"To send Titus Simons a message. To let him know that Claudine Tucker is back."

"What in the Goddess’s name happened between you and Titus?"

She turned to the window, her eyes gone cold and flat. "Thirty years ago I was engaged to Titus. Then Mila, my closest friend, stole my fiancé out from under me. And the shameless pair went off and bred a whole litter behind my back."

Her mouth twisted. "I’ve swallowed that rage for three decades. It’s finally time it was paid back."

I sat very still. The information came at me too fast to catch.

I was so blindsided I couldn’t find a single word.

Mila and Titus and Claudine, tangled up in something like this? The kind of messy history that belonged in a prime-time drama, with Mila and Titus as the leads.

It was almost impossible to believe.

I didn’t want to believe her. But the hatred in her face didn’t lie. Which meant the story behind it probably was real.

The Mila and Titus I thought I knew didn’t line up with the two people she was describing.

Claudine hadn’t dragged me out here at midnight to confess for the sake of her conscience. She wanted something.

"So you got close to me on purpose," I said. "From the start."

"No." She actually looked offended. "At first I had no idea you were married into the Simons line. I liked you, Emilia. Genuinely. I still do, even now." She leaned forward. "Which is exactly why I called you here. I have a proposal."

Every nerve in me went sharp. "I’m listening."

"Mila and Titus treat you well, don’t they?"

"What’s it to you?"

"Then answer me this." Her voice dropped, silk over steel. "If they were in real trouble, would you sacrifice yourself to save them?"

"What are you getting at, Claudine?"

"I’ll be blunt. I hold evidence that Mila and Titus committed murder, three years ago. I take that to the Pack Council, and no one in the world will keep them from being punished. And if the Council somehow lets them walk?" She smiled. "Then I hand it to the media, and their reputations will be in ruins."

My breath caught. She knew. She knew a thing that was supposed to be buried. I’m not the sharpest, but even I could see now exactly what was happening.

"Abigail," I said slowly. "What’s she to you?"

"Mother and daughter, in all but blood. She’s my goddaughter. We met in France."

The room tilted. So Claudine had known, known who I was, known who my husband was, known every ugly thread of that history.

She’d been playing me from the start.

"You really are a piece of work," I said, rising. "You knew everything and you let me walk around blind. I never want to see your face again."

"Wait." She lifted a brow, unbothered. "I never once denied knowing Abigail. You simply never asked."

"You watched me treat you like a friend and you didn’t feel a thing." My hands curled into fists. "I’d bet my life you’re the one who dragged Abigail back into our lives too."

"Abigail isn’t the point. I asked you here to talk about your in-laws."

"Then go talk to them. I’m done."

"Only you can save them."

That stopped me. I turned. "What do you want."

"Simple. Divorce Sebastian, and I burn every scrap of evidence against Mila and Titus."

I could have flipped the table. "Are you threatening me? What does my marriage have to do with anything?"

"My son is fond of you."

"In his dreams." I stepped back toward her, jaw tight. "Let me be clear, Claudine. Do whatever you like. Threats don’t scare me. I was raised on them. And Mila and Titus? Whatever they may or may not have done, they’ve never shown me anything but decency. They are not people who go down easy, and I won’t stand here and let you paint them as monsters."

"This evidence alone is enough to gut Simons Imperial. If you can stomach watching your husband lose everything, then by all means. Do nothing."

"You are a poisonous woman."

I couldn’t hold it anymore. I snatched the water glass off the table and threw it in her face, then turned on my heel and walked out.

I got in my car and drove. My hands shook on the wheel. Eve paced and snarled, and I couldn’t quiet either of us.

When I finally stopped, I was outside Scott’s place, leaning on the doorbell.

He answered with his hair still dripping from the shower, a towel slung around his neck. When he saw me standing there, his whole face lit up.

"Emilia? What are you doing here this late?"