A Widow's Poison, A Wife's Rebellion novel Chapter 310

"This thing with you and Herbert can't be rushed!" Darleen snapped, her head throbbing. She felt like she was going crazy. The entire situation was a mess.

"Well, is Tess even confident she can make it happen?" Xenia pressed. "Because I can't wait to slap Starla across the face!"

With Starla and Herbert so entangled, she had no official standing to intervene, and it was driving her mad.

"It's so strange," Darleen mused, her anger giving way to confusion. "Don't the Farleys know about Herbert and Starla? Why haven't they done anything?"

Herbert's protectiveness of Starla had been on public display for some time now. News like that should have reached the Farley elders' ears long ago. No respectable family would want their scion involved with a woman like Starla, especially one in the middle of a messy divorce. The Farley elders weren't fools; if they wanted to put a stop to it, they would have acted by now. So why the silence?

Unless...

Both women came to the same conclusion: the family must be unaware.

Xenia exclaimed. "Mom, maybe you should pay them a visit?"

Darleen's mind was made up. She would personally deliver the news to the Farleys.

"I will. I'll go this afternoon!" she declared. She couldn't wait another minute. That wretched Starla was dragging the Yelchin family's name through the mud before her divorce was even final. "Then let's go together!" Xenia insisted.

The Farley elders had been so vague lately; she wanted to go and find out for herself what was really going on. She had intended to visit them more often to win their favor, but Starla's drama had thrown the entire Yelchin family into chaos. Plus, after Herbert had kicked her out of the Farley Group, her confidence had taken a hit. Now that her mother was going, she wanted to tag along.

…

Herbert personally drove Starla back to Cosmos Summit. As she was getting out of the car, he gently caught her wrist.

Starla turned back to him. "What is it?"

"I'm coming over for a meal tomorrow."

As she put one foot out of the car, a thought struck her, and she turned back to him. "You shouldn't have held my hand at the auction."

"Hm?"

"I'm sure the rumors about us are everywhere by now," she said. She wasn't blind; she could see the way Herbert felt about her. But under the circumstances…

"Then hurry up and divorce Fairfax!" he stated bluntly.

Starla was taken aback. She had been trying to divorce Fairfax for half a year, and now, with her mother's death hanging over the Yelchin family, it was more complicated than ever. But Herbert’s directness…

She looked at him, a soft, sad honesty in her eyes. "You deserve better."

She was a married woman, damaged goods. She was no match for him.