Chapter 288: Chapter 288: The Legitimate Spouse

She was halfway through her irritable tirade when her gaze swept across the chaotic crowd and landed on the middle-aged woman standing with arms akimbo in front of Ethan Caldwell’s door. She completely froze, her face filled with utter astonishment: “Helena? Why are you here?”

Helena Thornton was in the heat of the moment. Suddenly turning her head to see her own niece, Gemma Thornton, standing in the flesh right at the door of the adjacent room, the older woman also startled in shock. She hurriedly walked over to Gemma, her face revealing an expression of extreme bewilderment: “Why are you here? This afternoon, your assistant swore up and down that you went to a networking banquet and hadn’t returned yet. He even had the audacity to claim that you and your father were busy negotiating a very important investment contract, absolutely forbidding me from calling to bother you. But whatever, never mind what he said, it is even better that you are right here. Follow me, let me immediately show you with your own eyes the true, brazen face of that promiscuous woman whom you constantly disobey our family to defend…”

The rest of her sentence did not even have the chance to escape her mouth before she was forced to swallow the words right back down into her stomach.

Because a petite silhouette had just timidly stepped out from behind Gemma Thornton, causing the older woman to become as stunned as if she had turned to stone.

Thea Lockwood had hastily thrown on a long robe, stepping out from that very same room with a bashful demeanor. As soon as Thea saw Helena glaring at her, she immediately lowered her head, shyly calling out in a tiny voice: “Helena…”

Looking at the messy wrinkles on her clothes, it was obvious enough that she had just frantically and hastily put them on, but at least her attire was not as casually and loosely draped as that of Ethan Caldwell.

The clothing was pulled high to cover her entirely from head to toe, yet the ambiguous hickeys imprinted on the pristine white skin of her neck simply had no way of being fully concealed, not to mention her face that was still beautifully flushed pink from the lingering afterglow of passion.

It should be known that the architectural design of Gemma Thornton’s room and Ethan Caldwell’s room were separated by a hallway leading to a scenic glass window, making the spaces completely isolated from one another.

There was absolutely no way they could sneak through a secret passageway or across some balcony to secretly cross into each other’s rooms. This served as irrefutable proof, meaning that from the very beginning until now, Thea Lockwood had always been inside the room with Gemma Thornton, having absolutely nothing to do with the man standing opposite them.

However, facing this glaringly obvious truth, Helena Thornton stubbornly refused to believe it. With her mind completely blank, she pointed her finger at Thea Lockwood, stammering for a long time before she could finally form a coherent sentence: “You, how did you… how did you go out from inside her room?”

“What a ridiculous question to ask.” Gemma Thornton frowned, her irritated grimace clearly displaying her protectiveness: “If my lover is not in my room, then whose room would she be in? It is the middle of the night, what kind of crazy fit are you having after all, bringing a whole bunch of total strangers here for no reason to make such a raucous scene? Does my father at home know about this absurd situation?”

“And as for you…” Shifting her gaze, she directed this sentence in a harsh, grating tone straight at the man holding the camera, who was sneakily attempting to point the lens toward Thea Lockwood: “Get the hell away right now and put that camera away, or else I will snap your arm right here and now. Who gave you people permission to arbitrarily bring equipment in here to film and take pictures in this VIP area? Where is the security management, are they all standing around dead? What kind of business is this hotel running if they do not know how to manage this bunch of trash?”

Being scolded right to her face by her own biological niece in front of so many people, Helena Thornton was still unwilling to let the matter go. Clinging onto the last shred of her dignity amidst Gemma’s shouting, she still stubbornly shrieked in an ear-piercing voice: “If she is in your room, then what about the person hiding in his room? Who is it?”

As she screamed her accusation, she aggressively pointed her finger straight at Ethan Caldwell, who was standing at the door of the opposite room.

“Hubby…”

At this moment, a sweetly coquettish call echoed from Ethan Caldwell’s room, causing everyone to turn their heads to look. They only saw a young man tightly bundled in a coat walking out from a hidden corner of the room. The moment Ethan saw the young man, he reached out his hand to support him, letting the youth lean his entire body against his own.

That young man had a slender figure, and as if he possessed no bones at all, he softly and completely leaned into the sturdy chest of Ethan Caldwell.

The dark silk hotel bathrobe draped over his body was not too long, fundamentally unable to cover the entirety of his long, slender legs. Under the brightly glowing lights of the hallway, his smooth, snow-white calves were completely exposed to the eyes of the countless people who were staring intently.

Yet the most eye-catching detail of all was the series of glaringly red hickeys and ambiguous bite marks imprinted upon that layer of pristine white flesh, serving as the clearest testament to an intense session of passionate lovemaking that had just occurred, requiring no further words to be spoken.

He obediently nestled deep into Ethan Caldwell’s protective embrace, blinking his round, tear-filled eyes as he glanced over the strangers crowding the space in front of them. Then, as if he suddenly noticed the camera lens pointing directly at him, carrying an incredibly natural expression of bashfulness, he shrank his shoulders back and shyly buried his small face deep into the warm chest of the man.

He completely hid his face, only leaving exposed the rim of his ear, which was blushing an adorable shade of pink, along with a section of his neck scattered with red bruised marks. Accompanied by this was a voice that was clear yet deliberately drawn out in a coquettish, sweet manner, rising up amidst the silent atmosphere: “Hubby, who are those noisy people out there?”

Ethan Caldwell’s large hand rested on his waist and gave a gentle squeeze, as the older man slightly lowered his head to tenderly coax the person in his arms.

His thin lips pressed close to the young man’s ear, and it was unknown what sweet nothings he was intentionally whispering, but one could only see the shoulders of the person against his chest trembling slightly. Right after that, Ethan Caldwell slowly lifted his head.

The gentle gaze from just a moment ago vanished instantly upon facing Helena Thornton, replaced instead by a bone-piercing coldness. His deep voice, carrying the heavy weight of a thousand pounds, rang out clearly word by word: “The person currently in my room is none other than my lawful spouse. I wonder, with this status, does Madam Helena have any further questions or any opinions she would like to impart?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep