The Triplets My Ex Never Knew About

Chapter 12: The Chief Perfumer

Editor: Henyee Translations

Noelle basked in the crowd’s praise.

To everyone present, Estelle had always been the adopted daughter who could never be introduced in polite society, a country bumpkin who brought shame to the Lockwood family.

No one knew she was the true heiress of the Lockwood family, just as no one knew she had once been Nathaniel Sloan’s wife.

A satisfied smile tugged at Noelle’s lips. After a moment, she put on a sympathetic expression and said with feigned sincerity, "Please don’t say that about my sister. She is gone, after all. We should respect the dead. I have already let go of the things she did to me when she was alive..."

"You talk about respecting the dead and letting things go, yet every few days you drag your dead sister out just to put her down and make yourself look innocent and kind."

A sharp female voice cut through the conversation.

Estelle, who was wearing a smoky-gray mermaid gown, leaned casually against the doorway, a faint smile playing on her lips. Her exquisite features and cool, elegant bearing instantly drew every eye in the room.

"Nice to see you again, Miss Lockwood."

Noelle’s expression changed instantly. Damn it. What was this woman doing here?

She bit her lip hard, her eyes immediately filling with tears.

"You’ve got the wrong idea about me. I never meant to belittle my sister to make myself look better..."

Then, she abruptly changed the subject.

"By the way, what are you doing here? I don’t believe you have an invitation. Did you use Nathaniel’s name to get in?"

Estelle couldn’t even be bothered to look at her. "You don’t have an invitation either. I can get in if you can."

Noelle’s eyes reddened further, making her look like a frightened rabbit. "That’s not what I meant..."

This remark instantly ignited the indignation of the surrounding guests.

"Miss Noelle is Mr. Sloan’s fiancée! Mr. Sloan personally brought her here to buy her perfume. Who the hell are you to talk to her like that? You must have a death wish!"

Estelle raised an eyebrow, suddenly getting interested. A bright smile spread across her face. "It seems that you haven’t introduced me, Miss Lockwood. Why don’t you tell them who the hell I am?"

Noelle looked utterly aggrieved, and her words were deliberately vague.

"Everyone, please don’t make things difficult for Dr. Lockwood. She’s... She’s staying at Nathaniel’s house right now. Nathaniel wouldn’t tell her no if she insisted on coming to the gala. Let’s just drop it..."

What she meant couldn’t have been more obvious.

As expected, her loyal supporters immediately exploded.

"She staying in Mr. Sloan’s house? Doesn’t that make her his mistress? Noelle, you’re too kind! Five years ago, it was Estelle, and now it is another Lockwood. Are all of you shameless enough to steal Noelle’s man?"

"Now that you mention it, she does look a lot like Estelle. If Estelle weren’t dead, I’d think that she was this bitch! I guess all mistresses really are cut from the same cloth."

"Have some dignity! Miss Noelle and Mr. Sloan already have a child together! Don’t you know that seducing a married man is a sin? You are even more shameless than I imagined!"

A flicker of satisfaction flashed through Noelle’s eyes. Only after everyone had spoken did she step forward with a concerned expression.

"Please don’t say such things about Dr. Lockwood. She’s not..."

She trailed off as though she was unable to find the right words. Then, she turned to Estelle with a helpless expression.

"Dr. Lockwood, maybe you should leave now. If you want a bottle of Star perfume too, I’ll ask Nathaniel to buy one for you as a gift. But right now..."

Estelle’s lips curled into a mocking smile. ƒгeewёbnovel.com

Five years ago, when she had been branded a mistress, a shameless woman, and a bitch, she had felt confused and devastated.

She hadn’t been the one in the wrong, as Nathaniel had been her husband after all, but she had been labeled the mistress while the real mistress had become Mrs. Sloan and had been praised by the whole world.

Five years later, however, she found the whole thing amusing.

"Oh? So Nathaniel is going to buy you a Star perfume?"

"That’s right. The only reason Nathaniel wants to work with Star is because I like..."

Then, Noelle stopped talking and gave her an embarrassed smile.

"Oops, I let it slip somehow. But Dr. Lockwood, you really can’t afford to offend the Star Group. If they find out you crashed the gala, I won’t be able to help you..."

Before she could finish, one of the socialites suddenly exclaimed,

"Look! Isn’t that Mr. Sloan?"

"Mr. Sloan is here!"

"Don’t worry, Noelle! We’ll have Mr. Sloan throw this woman out!"

Instinctively, Estelle turned toward the entrance.

Nathaniel stood not far away, his tall frame complemented by a perfectly tailored suit. There was no way to tell how much of their conversation he had heard.

Noelle hurried over to him first.

"Nathaniel..."

"What a lively scene. What are you talking about?"

A man’s voice cut in.

Only then did everyone notice that a handsome man with charming almond-shaped eyes was standing beside Nathaniel.

Someone immediately recognized him. "That’s Henry Kendrick! The Vice President of the Star Group!"

"Mr. Henry, you’ve come at just the right time! This woman is obsessed with being a mistress. As if it wasn’t enough that she moved into Mr. Sloan’s house, she even followed them here to harass Noelle. You should throw her out!"

Nathaniel’s eyes darkened.

Henry exchanged a quick glance with Estelle, amusement dancing in his eyes.

"A mistress? Mr. Sloan, I don’t think you have made things clear enough. From what I understand, Dr. Lockwood moved into the Sloan residence to treat your son, didn’t she? She’s simply doing her job, yet Noelle turned around and called her a mistress. If the Sloan family doesn’t appreciate Dr. Lockwood, perhaps she should resign and come work for the Kendrick family instead. We certainly wouldn’t mistreat her, nor would we allow such malicious rumors to spread."

Nathaniel’s gaze settled on Estelle. For a brief moment, the face of his dead wife overlapped with the face of Yara Lockwood.

Even though he knew this woman wasn’t Estelle, hearing Henry defend her so fiercely still made him feel like someone was trying to steal his possession.

His voice remained calm and emotionless as he said, "Thank you for your concern, Mr. Kendrick, but that won’t be necessary. The Sloan family will treat Dr. Lockwood very well."

The color drained from Noelle’s face, and everyone around them froze.

Wait... So Yara Lockwood really was the live-in doctor hired to treat the Sloan family’s sickly young boy?

But moments ago, Noelle had clearly implied...

"Nathaniel, that’s what I meant earlier. I said Dr. Lockwood was staying at our house. It seems that everyone got the wrong idea."

Noelle really knew when to back down.

She turned to Estelle and said, "Dr. Lockwood, I’m so sorry. I should have explained myself more clearly." ƒгeewёbnovel.com

Estelle almost wanted to applaud her for her performance. Noelle had deliberately led everyone to believe the worst, yet now she was extracting herself from the situation without a trace.

The socialite who had been publicly corrected flushed bright red. Feeling humiliated and resentful, she gritted her teeth before finally snapping.

"Even though you’re a private doctor, Mr. Sloan brought Noelle to this gala, not you! You don’t even have an invitation, yet you still showed up. And you expect us to believe you don’t want to become a mistress?"

A gleam flashed through Noelle’s eyes, but she remained silent.

Nathaniel frowned slightly.

"She is..."

Before he could finish, Henry interrupted with a light laugh, "An invitation? Everyone’s here for the Star perfume. Don’t you know..."

He deliberately paused before delivering the final blow. "That Dr. Yara Lockwood is Star’s Chief Perfumer?"

The moment the words left his mouth, everyone around him fell silent.