Fated Marriage Spoiled by My Ice Billionaire novel Chapter 494

Chapter 494 Testing the Waters

Chapter 494 Testing the Waters

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Damian brought a bowl of pasta topped with a fried egg from the kitchen and set it before her. “I have a strong suspicion you’ve been up to something behind my back today,”

Isabelle glanced up at him.

So his old investigator’s instincts were still sharp.

“Then guess what I did?” Isabelle smiled and picked up her fork.

Damian sat down across from her, his gaze fixed intently on her.

Isabelle felt increasingly self–conscious under his stare and slowly began eating her pasta.

Damian wasn’t letting her off easy. He continued watching her, unblinking.

“Aren’t you having any?” Isabelle asked between bites.

“No,” Damian replied simply.

Isabelle finally caved. She could never hold up under Damian’s direct scrutiny.

“Alright, fine. I admit I’ve been keeping something from you.”

Damian crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, his expression clearly urging her to continue.

Isabelle pressed her lips together. “I was just thinking… Anthony has been back for a while now, and we haven’t all gotten together properly. Maybe we should find some time to…”

“You’re sitting here, deep in thought about another man right in front of me, Isabelle? Do I even register?” Damian frowned.

That had made it worse.

“You were extremely late today, and I let that go. Now you’re telling me you were thinking about another man?”

Even if that man was Anthony.

Isabelle buried her attention in her pasta, scrambling for a way to navigate the conversation.

Damian let out a nearly imperceptible sigh. She could worry about other people, but she never seemed to spare a thought for what her own husband might be feeling.

“You want to help Anthony?” Damian asked, his tone shifting..

Isabelle paused. Well, not exactly, but

once you told one lie, you had to tell another to buck it up

“Yeah, want him to try to move past things and start fresh”

Damion fell silent, thoughtful.

Anthony couldn’t continue like this forever

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Chapter 494 Testing the Waters

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Damian,” Isabelle ventured, “do you still care about what happened back then?”

Damian raised an eyebrow “Yes.

“Do you ever think about trying to let it go?”

“I can’t just forget it.”

Isabelle put down her fork. Her appetite was gone.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

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Damian hated seeing her so withdrawn. “The only person he ever cared about was Aurora, but Aurora has Alaric now. With that anchor gone, he probably won’t find his way out of this on his own.”

“What about you?” Isabelle asked, her gaze serious.

Damian studied her. “You’re asking a lot of questions tonight.“.

“Then I’ll stop.”

Isabelle stood up, leaving her pasta mostly untouched, and headed upstairs.

Damian watched her go, then quietly moved her bowl in front of himself and began to eat.

Isabelle peeked over the railing from upstairs and saw him there, finishing the meal she’d left behind.

He hadn’t given her a direct answer–maybe he didn’t want to, or maybe he still hadn’t truly made peace with it.

This was proving to be a real dilemma.

Damian came upstairs very late that night. By the time he slid into bed, Isabelle was already asleep.

He turned onto his side, watching her peaceful expression, his hand rising almost habitually to stroke her cheek.

“I actually let it go a long time ago,” he whispered into the quiet room.

He had moved on–maybe it was when Isabelle was sick ip the elevator, or the day of her hospital check–up. He couldn’t pinpoint the moment. Perhaps he had simply laid it down without ceremony, without even noticing the weight was gone.

That night, the night of the false alarm, he hadn’t slept at all. He had thought he was going to be a father

But seeing Anthony return the way he did… that still brought a sharp pang of shared pain.

Earlier, when Isabelle brought up helping Anthony again, he had, in truth, already been turning the problem over in his own and He wanted Asihony to find freedom, too–to be released from the past’s grip, just like the rest of the

The next day, a call came from Beatrice. Two of the gowns they had delivered had seams that bad come undone and they were essential pieces for her upcoming events.

Isabelle was baffled. The garments had gone through multiple rounds of meticuloun, inspection. A basic fault like that was nearly,

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Chapter 494 Testing the Waters

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impossible. They used only the highest–quality thread; even deliberate tampering shouldn’t have caused clean seam failures like

that.

After final packing, the outfits had been sealed. They were opened and inspected upon arrival at Crowther Villa, and everything was fine. Now, upon being tried on, they had simply fallen apart.

They didn’t waste time asking questions over the phone. Instead, they grabbed their sewing kits and rushed to Beatrice’s home.

Right now, assigning blame or searching for motives wasn’t the priority. The clothes had to be repaired, and fast. The investigation could wait; they couldn’t let this derail Beatrice’s plans.

Her birthday was the following day, and she had only discovered the problem during a final fitting. The timing couldn’t have been

worse.

During the drive, Diana kept muttering to Isabelle, “Harper–Gary’s current girlfriend. Do you think she could have done it?”

The same suspicion had crossed Isabelle’s mind. Could Harper have sabotaged the gowns? But Isabelle was married now, and whatever history existed with Gary was firmly in the past. What would Harper possibly gain?

Gary’s lingering feelings were his own burden. If Harper had actually done this, wouldn’t it risk turning Gary against her completely?

Isabelle reasoned, “Harper probably isn’t foolish enough to tamper with items here. One of these gowns costs more than her annual salary. She wouldn’t dare.”

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