He Chose the So-Called Sister Chapter 265: Sent Away

He quickly pushed those thoughts aside.

Damn Wendy and her nonsense, making his mind wander like that.

But it only made him dislike her more. She was like a stain on his record—proof he'd misjudged someone. And he was never wrong about people. "Someone as vicious as you deserves what's coming."

"I'm sending you to Zalari. Don't ever come back. Live out your days there."

Wendy couldn't believe her ears. "Gilbert, how can you do this to me? We had something these past two years! You can't send me to Zalari! Do you have any idea how hard it is to survive outside?

"How can you be so cruel?"

"Cruel?" His laugh was cold. "Compared to what you did to Julia, I'm being generous. If it weren't for our history, I'd send you to a war zone."

Women there didn't last long, and when they did, their ends were ugly.

Wendy's face went white as paper. "Please, don't send me to Zalari. I was wrong, I know I was wrong. I'll do anything!"

She collapsed at Julia's feet. "Julia, you felt bad for me before, didn't you? That's why you kept quiet? Can't you feel bad for me now? Please, talk to Gilbert!

"Or is this what you wanted too? Is your heart just as hard? Was all that forgiveness just an act?"

The more Wendy ranted, the more desperate she became. But she knew that look on Julia's face—it meant nothing would move her.

These people just didn't get it.

George shoved her hard. "If you weren't technically still her sister, you'd disappear from public view and reappear in pieces."

George was a man of his word.

Wendy went numb with terror.

As they dragged her away, she finally snapped back. "No! I won't go to Zalari!"

Might as well be dead.

But no one cared.

"Gilbert, you'll regret this! One day you'll see Julia for who she really is! And I'll be there watching you regret it!"

Regret?

Why would he regret anything?

Everything was under control. Sherry wasn't like other women—easy to handle.

She'd been naive enough to believe a man who said he loved her.

If not for the debt he owed her, someone like Sherry never would've married into the Bodes.

Naive.

The longer you stayed in this game, the more you appreciated capable women. They had real charm. They earned respect.

Women who only caused trouble? Nobody wanted them around.

"Don't beat yourself up too much. She was someone you once cared about." Henry clapped Gilbert on the shoulder.

Gilbert had plenty of fair-weather friends, but Henry had always been there.

They'd disagreed recently over Sherry, both convinced they were right.

But now he understood her attitude.

Even when she was upset before, she'd never worn it on her face and let on that she disliked someone.

He'd noticed Sherry seemed different lately—couldn't quite put his finger on how—but watching everything unfold, it finally clicked.

She'd gone to stay at another man's house and become his assistant. Was that the official kind of assistant?

If the guy weren't so young, so accomplished, so ridiculously good-looking, he'd suspect Sherry was cheating.

But the way she'd acted—it completely disrespected Gilbert. What would people think?

Gilbert made mistakes, sure. She could hash that out at home. She shouldn't embarrass her man publicly.

A man like him had a reputation to protect. Sherry's behavior? Out of line completely.

He'd known she'd cause trouble eventually. He just didn't think it'd come this fast.

"Don't hate Wendy too much. Yeah, she messed up, but think about why things turned out this way. Why would she target Julia for no reason?"

Julia was one of the three of them who grew up together. Back then, he'd been kind of ugly and scary-looking, so he always figured Julia was afraid of him and kept her distance.

Then his family moved away for a while. So he didn't really know what happened back then.

But this time, when Julia came back, she didn't run away when she saw him.