A Matter of Wife and Love novel Chapter 371

Chapter 371 Beauty Lies in the Eyes of the Beholder

Downstairs, outside Amelie’s apartment building, Toby leaned against his car door and stared at the woman who had just fished her house keys and hopped out of the car. Then, he tilted his chin and asked, “Aren’t you going to invite me upstairs since we haven’t met for two years?”

Amelie paused in her tracks at his question and turned to look at him. A second later, a smile spread across her face. “If you would like to catch up, you can ask me out to a cafe nearby, Mr. Walsh.”

She’s still not giving me a chance, eh? he thought, and a bitter smile flashed past his clean-cut face. Nevertheless, he checked the time on his watch and said, “It’s already late. Rest well when you get home. I don’t think you can return to Lumaria immediately, so we can catch up tomorrow.”

“Sure,” she answered, agreeing to his suggestion. “Thank you for the ride today. See you.”

Toby stared until her tall and lean figure disappeared into a corner after the lobby before he looked away, but he wasn’t in a hurry to get back into the car. Instead, he called a number. “I’m back. Let’s meet up, shall we?”

Ashton, Josiah, and Louie were already seated inside the VIP room when Toby arrived at the Prix Bar.

For the past few years, the country had been doing well economically, and both Josiah and Louie had stayed in the country to build their careers. Usually, they were busy with their work, but they decided to meet up when they heard that Toby had returned today.

As usual, Josiah seemed reliable and resilient. Meanwhile, the good-looking Louie was a typical stylish man because he had previously dabbled in the entertainment industry. Since his family was in the car-manufacturing business, he was the CEO as well as the brand ambassador.

Ashton remained the same as usual. He hadn’t improved at all—a good-for-nothing that still had the gall to look down on everyone despite his incompetence.

After Toby said hi to everyone, he furrowed his brows because he noticed that Leo wasn’t there. “Is Leo not coming?”

“He’ll be here soon,” Ashton said confidently.

Over the past couple of years, Leo had turned into a man of little words, but he was comparable to Ashton when it came to being flighty in terms of romance. Naturally, this made Ashton feel that he could relate more to Leo. But, of course, that was only what Ashton thought.

After Toby received confirmation that Leo would be coming, he asked the waiter to bring them a few bottles of drinks. The four men chatted casually while they drank, asking each other about their recent developments.

“Who would have thought that the most playful one is so successful in his career now?” Josiah said with a sigh, holding the wine glass in one hand and patting Toby’s shoulder with the other.

Louie nodded in agreement. “He’s right. You’re the one who has the most potential to live an easy life based on your pretty face. It would have been so easy, but you chose to build your own career instead.”

Although Toby was working in the past, he merely did some odd jobs here and there. In contrast, he was doing so well abroad that no one else in his family could even come close. They figured that he would eventually inherit his family’s fortune sooner or later.

“What made you change? Why are you so motivated all of a sudden?” Louie couldn’t help but ask.

“The story I heard was it all started because of a woman. Aren’t you going to introduce us to that woman?” Josiah teased, shaking Toby’s shoulder a couple of times.

Toby lowered his head as he took a sip of his wine. Yet, when they asked him about the woman, all he did was grace them with a bitter smile.

On the other hand, Ashton snorted and sneered derisively, “You guys mean Amelie Dillon, right? Besides having a face that you can maybe consider pretty, there are honestly no other qualities about her that are worth complimenting. It really makes me wonder what’s going on in those people’s heads that they’d be so attracted to her that they would revolve around her as though she was the Sun to their Earth.”

Although his feelings for Elyse had dissipated over the past two years, he still loathed Amelie.

“There should be something about her if they couldn’t bear to leave her.” Toby’s usual calm expression had turned a few notches colder, and his usual smile had disappeared. He even shot Ashton a provocative glare. “She’s not any less capable than Leo.”

“Ha! That’s not true!” Ashton snapped arrogantly. “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, so everything she does is amazing to you. But she’s nothing but a piece of sh*t!”

“If she’s a piece of sh*it, what are you, then?”

Toby released him and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his trousers. “Not only was she an influencer and boss, she even created a platform called Knowlit that attracted tons of followers. The highly-educated academics around us find it very reliable and have booked a few courses on her platform.”

“Knowlit?”

Even if Ashton was uninterested in Amelie’s recent updates, he had heard of this platform before.

Knowlit had become a highly favorite platform in less than three years since its establishment. The ones who had the capability to contribute to the platform were proud to publish their books and lessons on that platform, while the ones who couldn’t do so would buy the classes and join the training offline.

Everything aside, Ashton’s family members would also often bring up this platform.

“This… It’s started by Amelie?”

Not only was she an influencer and started a company, she even made training and reading into such a popular thing.

“She can’t be so capable! Did she find herself a successful man?”

When such an idiotic question stumbled out of Ashton’s mouth, Toby laughed and jeered, “Do you think she needs to cling herself to a man? She was already a top influencer and had set up Starlight Media before getting to know Leo. After she divorced him, she created Knowlit. Speaking of which, she was at her worst during those four years when she was married to Leo. Not only was she belittled, she even gave up on her career.”

“This is…” Ashton’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets from shock; he had met way too many women who were willing to do anything for money and had never heard of someone like Amelie who was willing to give up money because of love.

Toby curled his lips into a mirthless smirk as he squeezed Ashton’s shoulders and said, “That’s why you should spend more time on learning and less on fooling around, Ashton. Stop coming to the Prix Bar in the future.”

Even though he was more tactful and considerate than Leo, the meaning behind his words was the same—Ashton should just get lost and never come by ever again.

He owned Prix Bar, and his words were akin to a lifelong ban for Ashton. Hence, he didn’t bother waiting for Ashton’s reply after saying his piece and returned to the private room.a