Chapter 91 You Shouldn't Doubt Daffy
Not long after she sent the message, her grandfather's call came through.
Daphne answered quickly, "Grandpa."
"Hope I'm not disturbing you," he said.
"Not at all."
"Do you have any plans tomorrow evening?" Grandpa asked. "Your parents just came back from dealing with some issues, and seeing that you and Charles are about to get a divorce, we thought it might be nice to have dinner together again."
There was a moment of silence on Daphne's end.
They had just had dinner on Friday...
Even though it was only with Rex and Grandpa, it counted as time spent together.
"Your mother has been missing you," he added, "She's been talking about you since she got back. Why don’t you catch up with her?"
"No need," Daphne declined, knowing she couldn't withstand Laura's sweet talk, "I'll come over tomorrow evening."
"That's wonderful," Grandpa cheered up instantly.
After telling him to get some rest early, Daphne hung up the phone, thinking about the upcoming dinner at the old house. Feeling suddenly exhausted, she massaged her temples, placed her phone on the bedside charger, and went off to freshen up. It was going to be a long night.
She was out like a light.
Maybe it was the day's flurry of activity that completely drained her, but as she sunk into a deep slumber, Charles lay in bed, wide awake. He didn't even try to parse whether Kayla's subsequent words were a lie. His mind buzzed with thoughts of Daphne being with Evan. Did she truly know what kind of man Evan was? The more he pondered, the more tangled his emotions became, until finally, sleep's heavy curtain fell over his thoughts, and he drifted off.
The next day.
Daphne had the housekeeper freshen up the room while Charles went off to the company. At precisely ten o'clock, Evan showed up at the Lancelot Group's entrance. After stating his name, he was granted access inside.
Mark personally escorted him to meet his boss. Watching the two men of equal presence seated in the office, Mark's heart hammered in his chest. He feared they might come to blows right there. Judging by their height and build, he couldn’t say who had the upper hand.
" Go handle your work," Charles instructed Mark. "I have some business with Mr. Winston."
"Sure thing, boss," Mark replied with a quick exit. He caught the subtext in his boss's voice loud and clear—do not let others disturb them during their conversation.
The moment the door clicked shut, Charles rose and moved to sit on the sofa across from Evan, "If I were you, I wouldn't have the guts to show up again."
"What do you mean by that, Mr. Lancelot?" Evan feigned ignorance, deliberately playing coy.
"Do I need to remind you of what happened with Daphne yesterday?" Charles retorted, his eyes narrowing with a chill not usually present.
Evan adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, a slight curve to his lips. Charles loathed this facade. Evan always discussed matters with the lightest tone and demeanor, even if you saw right through him. His typical response with a dismissive smile would be: 'So what?'
Sometimes Charles couldn't understand why Daphne would entangle herself with someone like Evan. Did she not realize this man was a wolf in sheep's clothing?
"Daffy told me," Evan said plainly, leaving Daphne's name at that, "that you think we slept together at the hotel."
Charles remained seated, "And didn't you?"
"If Daffy were to divorce you now, I'd say yes, just to tick you off," Evan said, half-joking with a teasing smile and sagely eyes. "But she is still your wife, and I have no intention of tarnishing her reputation."
"You'll see what really happened when you watch this video."
With that, Evan pulled out his phone, opened the copied video, and handed it over.
Charles took the USB drive, focused on the screen as the video played. Evan spoke beside him, "I've edited the video to just the highlights. If you want the full version, I can send it to you. But just a heads-up, it's over an hour long."
Charles remained silent, his eyes not leaving the footage. The video showed several people entering a room, followed soon after by Daphne. The scene shifted, and a person wearing a mask and a cap, dressed in work attire, knocked on Evan's door, leaving a key card and a letter on the floor. The person's face was indiscernible on the video.
Next up was Evan stepping out to get the letter and, after reading it, he too entered the room where Daphne was. Ten minutes passed without a sign of either of them, until they both left the room. The video continued, capturing Evan walking Daphne to the hotel entrance and then to her car.
"The timestamp is on the video, so you can check it out," Evan suggested, guessing Charles had seen enough.
"So what?" Charles retorted, not easily fooled by Evan's calculated demeanor. While he found the video believable, Evan's methodical nature irked him.
"Evan continued straight to the point, "The time I spent with Daffy in that room was less than ten minutes. Not even enough time for a shower, let alone anything else."
Charles cracked a wry smile and said deadpan, "Five minutes for a shower, two for business. It's not impossible."
Evan adjusted his glasses with a grin, "Seems Mr. Lancelot speaks from experience."
Charles was at a loss for words, his frustration simmering. He handed back the phone with a cool remark, "I'm assessing you."
"Except on the business front, your judgments tend to be off-base," Evan replied with a double entendre.
Charles usually had a comeback, but not this time. He knew Evan was hinting at the false accusations against Daphne.
Interested in shifting the subject, Charles asked, "And those people who were in Daphne's room beforehand? Did you find out about the person who delivered the letter?"
"We're working on it," admitted Evan, not concealing the truth this time. "Spent all of yesterday trying to recover the surveillance footage. As for those who entered Daffy's room, they're just regular folks who got paid to stir up trouble, thinking Daffy was bad news."
At that moment, Evan sensed the timing was right.
He told Charles everything that had gone down at the hotel. It wasn't to justify anything, rather some things were better off investigated by Charles himself. Although Evan could dig up certain facts, others were tricky for him to uncover.
After ten minutes of listening, Charles had gotten the full story. It was almost identical to Daphne's version, and he realized this wasn't a fabricated story cooked up after the fact. Knowing this was indeed the truth made him that bit more uneasy.
Yesterday, she was wrongfully blamed once again for a trivial matter right outside her neighborhood—accused of only caring whether the marriage certificate was destroyed or not. It's no wonder Daphne would despise him.
"Daffy's character—after being her confidant for two years, you should know better," Evan countered, slightly defensive. "You may question me, but not her. She's beyond reproach."
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