I Refuse to Be Your Second Choice novel Chapter 88

Bruce Ward picked it up.

"A museum exhibition?" he scoffed. "You really know how to pick a gift. Do I look like the cultured type? But what do you mean, 'no use for them anymore'? Were they never for me in the first place?"

Alexander Ramirez had known for two weeks that Cabinda was hosting a new antiquities exhibition. He had Aaron Lee contact the organizers to offer a sponsorship from The Ramirez Group. No one had ever been proactively offered their sponsorship before, and the organizers were so thrilled they sent over two complimentary tickets.

Alexander had been holding onto them, waiting for the right moment to ask Natalie out. But then, Eugene Ramirez beat him to it. The moment Natalie accepted Eugene’s tickets, these two were sitting in his pocket.

"If you don't want them, throw them away," Alexander said, his every word laced with disdain and a chilling coldness.

Bruce Ward quickly snatched the tickets. "Who said I don't want them? I'll give them to my grandpa. Maybe it'll stop him from nagging me for a change."

With that, he clinked glasses with Alexander and thanked him.

After finishing her work, Natalie Watson glanced at the time in the corner of her computer screen. It was past eleven. She shut down her computer and had just laid down when her phone, resting on the pillow beside her, buzzed with a new message.

She opened it. It was a video from Arianna Mitchell.

The angle suggested it was secretly filmed through a crack in a door. Inside a dimly lit private room, Alexander Ramirez sat with his legs crossed, leaning back with a lazy yet calculating look in his eyes.

Natalie pressed play.

"I just don't get it," a voice said. "Aren't you still hung up on Camila White? She's been back for years, and you haven't made a move. You're still not divorced from Natalie Watson. Are you starting to have regrets?"

The voice was clearly Bruce Ward's, though he wasn't visible in the video.

Alexander swirled the liquid in his glass, his eyes half-lidded, a smirk playing on his lips. "Have I ever regretted anything?"

The video ended. As she exited the player, a voice message from Arianna arrived.

"Can you believe it? I was at BlueNight with some colleagues and saw Alexander Ramirez. I even overheard him say that. I was thinking, if he genuinely regretted it and felt bad, maybe I'd go a little easier on him. But that bastard still doesn't think he's done anything wrong!"

Leaning against the headboard, Natalie recorded her reply. "He's Alexander Ramirez. He never regrets anything he does."

Charlotte watched the two of them sitting across from each other—one eating silently, the other rubbing his temples without a word. The faint smell of alcohol seemed to hang in the air.

"Have you been drinking?" she asked Alexander.

He had drunk quite a bit last night. Aaron Lee had picked him up, but it was so late that he ended up spending the night at a hotel instead of coming home.

Before he could answer, Charlotte asked in surprise, "Weren't you working late at the office? Why were you drinking?"

At her words, Alexander looked up, his gaze meeting Natalie's.

After a few seconds, he explained, "I was. But then a last-minute business dinner came up."

"Natalie hurt her foot last night, and you left her home alone? How could you?" Charlotte said, dissatisfied. "Is work more important than your wife?"

Alexander's deep gaze returned to Natalie.