Rubbing my eyes, I opened my phone and instantly woke up.
Dick had sent a video.
In the dimly lit private room of a restaurant, Eden was toasting with Hale and his sister.
"Congratulations on your wedding, Eden! Goodbye to single life!"
They clinked glasses and drank in one go. Hale's eyes were red, seemingly upset.
Lillian sighed.
"Hale, you need to let the past go. If it weren't for Daniel, you and Eden wouldn't have met again. It's just fate."
Eden's thoughts seemed to drift upon hearing this. She sighed and said.
"Yes. Who would have thought my high school first love would end up being my boyfriend's good friend."
Hearing this, Hale downed another glass, his face showing bitterness.
"If it weren't for your parents' disapproval, we should be together now!"
"They just think I'm not as successful as Daniel. I've tried my best. Why couldn't you wait for me?"
I was stunned.
So they knew each other even before I did. They had been together since high school!
"With only us three here, I'll be honest. Hale, you understand me better than Daniel. I haven't completely forgotten our past, but Daniel treats me very well, and my parents prefer him, so please, forget me! After today, we're just normal friends."
This seemed to hurt Hale. He downed another glass of wine, looking even more bitter.
Lillian patted his back, sighing.
"I also hoped you'd become my sister-in-law, Eden. But since you're marrying Daniel, you should avoid getting too close to my brother. You should avoid suspicion."
"Avoid what? We've known each other much longer than she has known Daniel! Why should we avoid each other?!"
Hale seemed drunk and yelled angrily.
A flicker of pain crossed Eden's face, and she asked Lillian to leave the room for a moment.
Lillian sighed, shook her head, and walked out.
The camera shook, and the door quickly closed.
The screen went black, as if the phone had been put in a pocket.
Two minutes later, the screen brightened, and the door to the private room was pushed open a crack.
The scene inside made my blood run cold.
Hale was holding Eden's face with both hands, kissing her passionately.
Eden didn't struggle. She just let him kiss her wildly, and a tear rolled down her cheek.
That tear sparkled under the light.
"Hale, it was wrong of me to keep seeing you behind Daniel's back."
"But now I've decided to marry him, and I won't be with you anymore..."
She couldn't finish her sentence as her mouth was blocked again.
When they separated, Eden's lips were a bit swollen.
Hale had bitten them.
"I won't allow it. I can't accept it! We love each other. Why can't you keep seeing me behind Daniel's back like before? Don't listen to my sister. She doesn't understand our love!"
Hale's voice was choked with tears.
As expected, they had been cheating on me all along!
The screen shook, and the video ended.
I called Dick and asked what was going on.
Dick said he was almost caught but managed to escape.
At last, we had solid evidence.
I hung up the phone and went to find John to show him the video.
John was furious at their shamelessness, venting his anger for a while.
The poor orchid, its leaves were almost all torn off.
"Don't worry, you know my hosting skills. I'll make sure they are utterly disgraced tomorrow!"
After making this fierce promise, John called the brother in charge of the projector and instructed him to play the video at the right moment.
They exchanged a signal. John would snap his fingers to cue the video.
However, we didn't expect that later that night, Dick sent an even more explosive video!
The video showed the hallway on the 8th floor of a hotel.
The four of them had returned to their rooms after drinking, Eden entered room 801, and Lillian and the bridesmaid entered 802.
Hale had also booked a room and went into 809.
Half an hour later, Eden came out of 801 in a silk robe.
She clutched her phone, looked around, and walked to the door of 809, knocking on it.
Hale, wrapped only in a towel, pulled her inside.
Dick said this was filmed at one in the morning.
Then, he sent a second video.
In this one, Eden was seen hurriedly leaving 809, looking around again before returning to 801.
"Damn! Her hair was up when she went in, but it was down when she came out!"
"And that's not all. The bow on her robe's belt was on the left when she went in, but it was on the right when she came out!"
John and Dick both noticed the discrepancies.
My face turned completely dark.
Though I knew Eden had betrayed me, seeing it with my own eyes felt different.
It was like having a lump of cotton stuck in my chest, neither up nor down.
I treated her so well and loved her so much.
I worked hard to make money, giving it all to her, just so she could be happy and do what she wanted at home.
Yet, she took my money and, while I was working overtime, fooled around with Hale.
When I was on the verge of life and death, needing ten thousand dollars to save my life, she took all the money and bought a house with Hale.
Anger ignited that lump of cotton, making my heart burn painfully.
"These shameless scumbags, Daniel, you need to fire Hale tomorrow!"
"And get back all the bride price and money they took, damn it!"
They were both indignant.
I took a deep breath, forced myself to calm down, and asked John to make sure the videos were made public tomorrow.
He patted his chest.
"No problem! I'll edit it well, so everyone can see how disgusting these two are!"
