Chapter 31

When I saw Isabella standing beside him, my heart lurched painfully. I quickly lowered my gaze, doing my best not to look at them. My arm instinctively nudged Sophie. Sophie noticed the couple not far from us, and her smile immediately faded, replaced by a cold, disdainful expression. We walked over and greeted them. "CEO Hawthorne." Alexander merely nodded, indifferent. It turned out that today’s meeting hadn’t been arranged with Julian, but with Sophie. "Vivienne, Miss Sophie," Isabella said, surprised to see us. She hurriedly added, "Vivienne, I didn’t expect you to be here. I’m sorry, I—Alexander and I..." Seeing how carefully Alexander was watching Isabella, a twinge of pity crept up in me. When Isabella first returned to the country, she’d been gentle, calm—almost ordinary. But now, the changes in her made me think of her knowing about Alexander’s marriage. She didn’t want to be apart from him, but morally, she saw herself as a homewr