Reborn as Mr.CEO's Fat Wife-Chapter 823: The Divorce Exposed

Catherine Ford and her daughter temporarily settled down in Rose Valley.

The environment here was unlike anything Catherine had ever lived in before, and it truly made her aware of what wealth disparity meant.

On the first day, both she and Alice were very cautious, frightened that they might break something and be unable to afford the damages.

The mother and daughter stayed in a bedroom that was larger than their entire rented house before, looking at each other in amazement, feeling like a kid in a candy store.

"Mom, this place is really beautiful," Alice exclaimed innocently, her face turned up.

As Catherine looked at the large floor-to-ceiling windows and the exquisite room, she squatted down to her daughter’s level, "Alice, mom knows this place is beautiful, but you also need to understand that we are only staying here temporarily, this isn’t ours, and just because we live here for now, doesn’t mean we are entitled to everything we see. Our future living conditions will still depend on our own efforts. Mom can’t provide such a nice living environment for you, but I promise Alice that I will work hard to make our lives a little better bit by bit, okay?"

Compared to the explanation she gave Alice when they first entered the villa, Catherine was now more serious and sincere. She was not sure how much of this Alice could understand, but she knew it was easy to go from simplicity to luxury, yet hard to return to simplicity. She worried that after living in such a beautiful house, Alice might struggle to adapt to their humble rented home again and grow resentful.

Alice nodded, only half understanding.

Catherine embraced her daughter, not knowing whether her current decision was good or bad for Alice’s future development, but it was the best option they had at the moment.

It was also probably the only time Alice would be able to interact more with someone like Benjamin Jones.

After comforting Alice, Catherine took out a few fairy tale picture books for her little girl to read by her side while she started tidying up.

Although Benjamin hadn’t made any specific demands of them, Catherine knew that wealthy people had many conventions, and she tried her best not to touch anything in the villa. So first, she changed the sheets and duvet cover to her own and then neatly folded and stored the villa’s linens.

Midway through her tasks, the phone rang. Alice put down her book and cleverly handed the phone to her, but seeing the number, Catherine’s expression became hesitant.

But the person on the other end of the call was determined to make her answer, redialling again and again after each missed call, which made Catherine’s heart clench even tighter, as she almost anticipated what was about to happen.

"Mom, is it Grandma calling?" Seeing her mom’s phone ringing continuously without being answered, Alice asked worriedly, tilting her little head.

She knew that this was the expression her mom had every time she answered Grandma’s calls.

Hearing her daughter’s words, Catherine snapped back to reality, "Alice, keep reading your book, mommy needs to take this call."

With that, she went straight to the bathroom and closed the door behind her before pressing the answer button.

As soon as the call connected, the voice on the other side urgently asked, "Catherine Ford, tell me the truth, did you divorce Foster Newman? Are you out of your mind? With what Foster Newman has to offer, what are you dissatisfied with that you had to go to the extreme of divorce..."

Mrs. Ford was already choking up as she spoke.

"Mom, I’m sorry." The grievances in her heart turned over a thousand times, but in the end, she could only utter an apology.

She knew what her divorce from Foster Newman would bring to the Ford family, but she had no other choice.

One wrong step in life leads to continuous mistakes, and all the difficulties and pain she faced now were caused by her own past errors.

No matter how much injustice she suffered, it couldn’t change the fact that she had done something wrong.

"Sorry, sorry? So you really divorced? You wretched girl, do you even realize what you have done? How can our Ford family show their faces after this? How will your brother find a wife, and how will your sister live in someone else’s home?" Mrs. Ford scolded while crying.

Catherine Ford clenched her phone and listened quietly. Although the economy of their village had improved over the years, the mindset was still conservative. A divorce in the family was thought to bring dishonor, and particularly since the Newman family was prominent, divorcing Foster Newman was like offending the Newmans, which would not bode well for her parents in the village.

But from her mother’s tone, Foster had not exposed the matter of the child. She felt a slight relief, but then Mrs. Ford, seeing that Catherine Ford did not speak, asked through gritted teeth, "Tell me the truth, why did you divorce?"

Catherine Ford did not know how to answer. Her marriage with Foster Newman had started as a marriage of convenience, but she never expected that he, appearing gentle on the surface, harbored insecurities and a violent temper. At first, he concealed it, until the night he got drunk and hit her for the first time after being dumped by his boyfriend. After that, he became reckless and unrestrained.

But she couldn’t share these things with her mother, so she remained silent.

This silence made Mrs. Ford automatically blame Catherine, and almost screaming she asked, "Could it be true, what they say in the village, that Alice isn’t Foster’s child?"

Catherine Ford was startled, her body tensed, and although she opened her mouth, in the end, she did not manage to speak the words in her defense.

Not getting an answer, Mrs. Ford suddenly howled, "You heartless and shameless creature, how could the Ford family have given birth to a filthy thing like you? Do you know what you are doing? Disgracing us, are you trying to drive me and your father to our graves...?"

"Mom, don’t talk about sister like that, she’s not that kind of person!" By the side, as Mrs. Ford cried and cursed, Gabriel Ford snatched the phone away, "Sis, is it that bastard who bullied you? Did he hit you? I heard you fought a divorce lawsuit and he lost, it must be that bastard’s fault, right?"

Catherine Ford could endure her mother’s scolding, but hearing her brother’s unfounded defense, her eyes instantly reddened. She held back her tears, looking up and comforting her brother, "Sister is fine, take good care of mom and dad."

After saying that, she hung up the phone with a snap.

Mrs. Ford, hearing the beep of the call ending, panicked, "She dares to hang up? She’s turned the world upside down... How could I have given birth to such a shameless thing..."

While cursing, Mrs. Ford kept trying to redial Catherine Ford’s number, but she had already turned off her phone. Mrs. Ford, furious, almost threw her phone. Even her usually beloved son Gabriel appeared irritating, "What was the meaning of what you just said? How could Foster hit your sister? Even if he did, it would only be because she was not behaving properly!"

Mr. Ford, who had been smoking, listened and clicked his lighter by the side. The entire room was filled with the thick smell of smoke, choking Gabriel Ford until he coughed a few times. Then, indignantly, he said, "I secretly heard Blackie, who came back from Swallow City, talking about it. He used to live not far from my sister’s place. He said he heard people talking about how her husband, drunk, beat my sister to an inch of her life. Everyone around knows about it, and my sister, along with her kid, has been moving from place to place to avoid him..."

"How could that be possible, Foster is such a good kid, graduated from a top university, and looks so refined!" Mrs. Ford couldn’t believe it.

Gabriel Ford stomped his foot angrily, "So you really believe that your sister has cheated on your brother-in-law, ugh, cheated on that bastard? Don’t you know what kind of person your sister is, even if others don’t, we’re family, don’t we know?"

"Family? Has she ever treated us like family in the years since she got married?" Mrs. Ford cursed furiously before turning to her silent husband, "Old fool, say something, what do we do now? The woman from the Newman family was standing at our doorstep today, mocking us with a sneer!"

"We’re divorced now, what’s the use of talking about it?" Old Ford, who had been smoking the whole time, finally looked up but could only squeeze out such a response.

"What’s the use? What’s the use? Old fool, if this mess can’t be sorted out, what will happen to our Gabriel?" Mrs. Ford quivered with anger.

Having been pampered and grown robustly at home, Gabriel Ford, who was delayed in starting school because the family was reluctant, was just twenty years old when he took the college entrance exams. The peers in the village were either married or studying and working outside. Hearing his mother’s words, he angrily put his hands on his hips, "I just took my college entrance exams, why think about getting a wife or married? I won’t!" and with that, he dashed away.

"You get back here!" Mrs. Ford bellowed furiously, but her son had already vanished without a trace.

Mr. Ford bowed his head and continued to puff away at his cigarette. Watching him, Mrs. Ford grew even more enraged and paced in circles inside the house, muttering to herself, "This won’t do. It takes two to clap; even if it’s our daughter’s fault, we can’t just admit it. I have to go and have it out with those Newmans."

"You come back..." Mr. Ford tried to stop her, but before he could finish, his wife had already stormed out the door.

Soon, the divorce of the children from both families spread throughout the village, and everyone in Newman Village gossiped about it after meals.

Catherine Ford, though she wasn’t in Swallow City to see these things, knew the people of the village well enough to fear that her affair with Foster Newman would soon become common knowledge.

Sitting on the toilet, Catherine Ford took a while to adjust her emotions before calming down. She stood up, washed her face, and coming out, she saw Alice standing at the bathroom doorway trying hard to reach the doorknob on tiptoe. When Alice saw her, she immediately hugged her leg, "Mommy, mommy..."

"Did Alice miss mommy just because I was away for a little while? What will you do when mommy goes to work later on?" said Catherine Ford, picking up her daughter and intentionally teasing the little one to cast away all the unpleasant feelings.

Little Alice looked up with her pretty little face and earnestly spoke to Catherine Ford, "Mommy, don’t worry. Alice can take good care of herself, and mommy, you work hard to earn money for Alice to spend."

"Our Alice is the best." Catherine Ford gently rubbed Alice’s cheek, sincerely praising her daughter.

Alice was happy and reached out to hug Catherine Ford.

After playing with her daughter for a while, Catherine Ford organized their meager belongings and took Alice to buy groceries.

On the way, she asked the property management staff and learned that the complex had its own supermarket. She walked down the tree-lined path to reach the supermarket, planning to buy more vegetables, fruits, and meat to invite Lawyer Jones for dinner as thanks for his repeated help. But...

Catherine Ford always thought that the products left by their company for the supermarket were expensive, but only after going around the supermarket in the complex did she realize her ignorance. She never knew that a small bottle of mineral water could cost as much as twenty-one yuan, that meat was sold by the gram instead of by the pound, and that the fruits had individual prices - the cheapest she saw were apples, eighteen yuan each.

After moving here for half a day, Catherine Ford truly regretted it for the first time.

She felt she had been fooled; three thousand yuan wasn’t even enough for a week’s worth of vegetables here!

Calculating the meager balance on her bank card, Catherine Ford looked at her daughter with an embarrassed smile and said, "Alice, how about we have something simple for dinner tonight?"

Although Alice was young, she had become quite sensitive to numbers because her mother was a penny-pincher who did accounts every day. Seeing her mother’s expression, she probably had some idea and obediently nodded her head.

Relieved, Catherine casually picked up two bags of expensive but affordable imported instant noodles from the shelf, and with a heavy heart weighed eight eggs, and bought Alice a large box of milk.

Any thoughts of playing hostess were cast to the back of Catherine’s mind. That evening, she and her daughter marveled over the untried but incredibly tasty instant noodles, sighing, "Money really is a wonderful thing."

Once Alice had fallen asleep, Catherine sat under the lamp she brought with her and started to do the accounts.

She definitely couldn’t afford to shop at the neighborhood supermarket; otherwise, she would go bankrupt in less than half a month. So, except for her commute, she urgently needed to find the nearest farmers’ market. She could use the villa’s refrigerator and buy a week’s worth of groceries at a time, which could save quite a bit of money. Commuting to the office would require changing buses twice, incurring a monthly travel expense of three hundred. And there was also Alice’s dance class; the classes here certainly weren’t an option, so she needed to find...

Catherine stayed up until late at night jotting down in her little notebook before finally going to bed.

She thought she would have trouble sleeping due to all her worries, but perhaps it was the villa’s comfy bed – she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Waking up refreshed in the morning, she saw Alice had already climbed down from the bed and was standing on a little stool brushing her teeth at the sink. Catherine joined her, and mother and daughter brushed their teeth together.

After brushing their teeth, Catherine fried an egg for both herself and Alice, toasted two pieces of bread, and watched as Alice drank half a glass of milk. Then she let the little one play by herself as she knocked on Benjamin Jones’s door.

The door opened automatically, and upon entering, she saw a man jogging on the treadmill in the living room. It was the first time Catherine saw Benjamin wearing anything other than a suit – a grey t-shirt and beige sweatpants filled out his post-first snow, heated villa figure. A light sweat had formed on his forehead from the jogging, dampening his short hair on the forehead, looking more sensual and handsome than his usual stern appearance.

His physique made Catherine envious; she snapped out of her daze and, with her pale face turning pink, awkwardly asked, "Lawyer Jones, what would you like for breakfast?"

"There’s food in the fridge, just make something," Benjamin replied casually, continuing his run without letting the addition of another person disturb his pace.

But this left Catherine overwhelmed. Just make something? How?

Although she had interacted with Benjamin a few times before, her knowledge of him was limited to his privileged background, good looks, and outstanding job performance. As for his personal preferences, she knew nothing. Gossips at the company only touched on him briefly because of his professional aloofness, so this response from Benjamin stumped her.

And what was harder is that when she entered the kitchen, she found the man’s fridge was fully stocked.

She had thought that since he mentioned having ingredients, they must be to his taste, and cooking would be straightforward. But facing the double-door fridge full of various food items, she swallowed hard, thinking his tastes were too broad, not to mention the question: doesn’t buying so much cost a fortune?

Tsukkomi aside, Catherine knew Benjamin Jones’s work schedule and didn’t dare dawdle. Her mind quickly ran through a few options, and it wasn’t long before Benjamin’s usually quiet kitchen became a hive of activity.

After finishing his run, Benjamin heard the noise and frowned lightly – preparing breakfast, and what’s with the commotion as if setting up for a state banquet?