Chapter 439: This Makes You the Third Party 1

No wonder Theo Heston wanted her to repaint that painting.

The Banyan Jenkins bamboo painting on display at the art gallery—no, her father’s painting, rather—was going up for auction after the exhibition.

The painting’s market price had already reached fifty million. She couldn’t help but want to laugh. What would they all think if they knew the painting was a fake?

A price of fifty million would certainly earn the art gallery a hefty sum.

However, just one day before the auction, a rumor suddenly started spreading that the painting was a counterfeit.

And the real painting was in the hands of a woman named Faye Everett.

If she wasn’t mistaken, that must be the painting she had done.

She was only responsible for the painting; Theo Heston’s people handled the forgery process.

Expert appraisers were brought in, certifying that the painting in the art gallery was a fake and the one in Faye Everett’s possession was the real one.

Everyone was stunned when the news broke.

After all, the painting on display at the gallery had previously been authenticated by experts and declared genuine.

Nancy Hughes sneered. ‘There’s definitely some foul play involved in this.’

For the past two days, it was as if Dylan Heston had vanished. There were no texts, no calls, and he hadn’t shown up to see her at all.

She couldn’t get through when she called him. He must have gone abroad again.

On Monday, she went to work with a heavy heart, carrying a bad premonition about the day ahead.

As soon as she got to the office, Gwen Gunn sent her out to meet a client.

She didn’t get back until that afternoon.

She’d had a persistent low-grade fever over the weekend, and her head still felt groggy.

After running around outside all morning, she felt even more dizzy and out of it.

Gwen Gunn noticed her pale expression. “Are you sick? Do you want to go see a doctor?”

“I’m fine, just a low-grade fever.” She pressed a hand to her forehead and laid her head on the desk. All she wanted right now was to rest for a bit.

After resting for a little while, she regained some energy and got back to work.

For some reason, she felt like everyone was giving her strange looks that afternoon.

She wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination, but even when she was far away, she could still feel eyes on her back.

In the restroom, she pressed a hand to her burning forehead. ‘This won’t do. I need to stop by a pharmacy after work and get some cold medicine.’

‘Otherwise, this fever will get even worse.’

The women’s restroom was a paradise for gossip.

She’d never imagined that one day, she would become the subject of it.

“I bet that Nancy Hughes has no idea. Otherwise, how could she be so calm!”

“Not necessarily. Maybe the calmer she looks on the outside, the more she’s panicking on the inside.”

At first, she couldn’t understand what the women outside were talking about, not until they brought up Dylan Heston and Rose Everett.

This morning, Dylan Heston had dropped Rose Everett off at work. The gossips said they were acting intimately and had even kissed in the car.

No wonder she was the topic of their gossip.

Dylan Heston’s background was extraordinary, while everything about her was utterly ordinary. When the two of them were together, others could only assume Dylan Heston was blind. But Rose Everett was a different story.

Ever since her school days, Rose had never lacked suitors fawning over her. She had the figure and the looks; she was a hundred times better than Nancy in every respect.

Rose Everett and Dylan Heston getting together was both a little unexpected and, at the same time, seemed perfectly normal.

It was as if the two of them were the ones who were supposed to be together.

Except, she refused to believe Dylan Heston would get together with Rose Everett.

‘When you love someone, you have to trust them completely.’

Pretending she hadn’t heard a thing, Nancy Hughes walked out of the restroom.

As if by a cruel twist of fate, the person you least want to see is always the one you end up meeting.

She had just gotten back to the office when she saw Rose Everett, who never came to their department, had appeared.

Rose Everett was clearly there to see her, standing right next to her desk.

She walked past as if she hadn’t seen her, sat down, and busied herself with her own work.

Thoroughly ignored, Rose Everett grew visibly awkward. Unable to take the loss of face, she broke the silence first. “Nancy, I have something I need to talk to you about.”

Nancy looked up with a blank, confused expression. “Oh, you were looking for me?”

She picked up a thick stack of documents from the side of her desk. “Sorry, I’m a little busy. What did you need?”

Rose was there to gloat. She pulled a watch from her pocket. “Mr. Heston accidentally left something at my place. I figured since you’re his girlfriend, you could return it to him for me.”

The sweeter and more tender the smile on Rose Everett’s face, the calmer Nancy Hughes felt inside.

‘So this is what a provocation from a love rival feels like,’ she thought.

It was strange. In the past, whenever she saw Rose Everett with Zane Lennox, she would always get angry and jealous.