Chapter 217

Evelyn froze for a second. She glanced down at her phone. Nathaniel.

Her head snapped up as she replied smoothly, "Oh, it's nothing. Just a spam call."

Alexander's brows furrowed. "Who's bothering you?"

Was it Nathaniel, that divorced bastard?

Evelyn bit her lip before coming up with a plausible excuse. "I've been getting calls about home renovations lately. You know, since I just moved."

Alexander nodded. So that was it.

His gaze lingered on her. "Evelyn, if anyone gives you trouble, you tell me."

"I will."

She muted her phone and walked to the kitchen, ignoring the buzzing completely.

Meanwhile, Nathaniel was glaring at his phone. How dare she ignore him?

Hadn’t she been so bold in her text earlier?

He rubbed his temples as he reread her message. Then he dialed Penelope.

She picked up after several rings.

"Na-Nathaniel?" Penelope’s voice was cautious. "What is it?"

His tone was sharp. "Penelope, was cutting off your credit card not enough? If it weren’t for your mother begging on her knees, you’d be in police custody right now."

Penelope stammered, "I-I haven’t done anything wrong!"

"Do you think I’m stupid?"

She trembled on the other end of the line.

"Evelyn just got lucky with that house demolition. It wasn’t even hers! It belonged to her adoptive parents. I had nothing to do with it!"

Her voice shook, but she sounded defiant.

Penelope truly believed she was innocent. The blame lay entirely with Beverly, Walter, and Cassandra.

Nathaniel’s expression darkened. "Apologize to Evelyn. Now."

"No! Why should I? You’re still taking her side even though you’re divorcing her. Or have you actually fallen for her?"

His voice turned icy. "If you refuse, face the consequences."

"I won’t! You’ll have to drag me there yourself!"

Nathaniel hung up without another word.

He turned to Charles. "Look into the demolition issue where Evelyn used to live. Schedule a meeting with Geoffrey. I need to speak with him."

Charles nodded and left.

Nathaniel pulled out his phone again. It hit him then—Evelyn had blocked him.

Their last exchange had ended with a hundred-thousand-dollar transfer, and now his messages weren’t going through.

Finally, he typed, "I had nothing to do with what Penelope did."

She deserved to learn her lesson the hard way.

Evelyn had just finished dinner when she checked her phone. A smirk curled her lips at Nathaniel’s reply.

So that was his defense.

She grabbed her laptop, pulled up a video from her flash drive, and sent it to a notorious tabloid without hesitation.

"Interested in exclusive footage of a socialite’s wild night out?"

She attached a screenshot.

The reply was instant. "Absolutely."

Evelyn sent the video.

If Penelope wanted to play dirty, she’d play dirtier.

After three years of marriage, Evelyn knew all the Whitmore family secrets—especially Penelope’s. The girl was nothing but a reckless troublemaker.

In the past, Evelyn had cleaned up her messes out of obligation to Penelope’s mother.

Not anymore.