Secret Marriage: The CEO's Pampered Wife

"Classmate?" The word truly startled Georgia Thorne. ’Did I have a classmate this young?’

Georgia carefully reviewed her former classmates, from kindergarten to university. As far as she could remember, none of them had started school early.

"You really forgot? And I still remember you!" The girl scratched her head. "I’m Chloe Gardner!"

Chloe Gardner? Georgia Thorne thought back carefully. The name did ring a faint bell.

Then her eyes widened as she looked at her. Chloe Gardner said with a look of pleasant surprise, "You remember now?"

"You’re that little delinquent, aren’t you?" The words slipped out before she could stop them, accidentally blurting out Chloe Gardner’s old nickname.

Chloe Gardner’s face fell. "I finally run into an old classmate, and that’s what you call me!"

Georgia Thorne gave an awkward laugh. "Sorry."

"It’s fine. That was years ago, anyway!" Chloe Gardner said, looking unconcerned. "By the way, what are you doing here?"

"I’m here to deliver some clothes."

"Are you a celebrity’s assistant?"

"No, I’m a designer."

"Oh, okay. I’m here to meet someone."

Georgia Thorne didn’t have many memories of Chloe Gardner, and most of them were bad ones—like the "little delinquent" thing.

Later, she transferred away after graduating high school.

She’d heard from Selena that Chloe Gardner had supposedly been involved in some kind of sordid affair with a boy. Her family was ashamed, so they had her transfer to a school far away.

But the contrast with the Chloe Gardner before her now was just too great. She looked like a girl of seventeen or eighteen. ’How has she grown younger over the years?’

Chloe Gardner was now dressed like a good, obedient girl. Georgia Thorne asked curiously, "What are you doing now?"

"Does being a student count?"

Georgia Thorne nodded. "For a master’s degree?"

"No way!" Chloe Gardner’s eyes went wide, and she ground her teeth in frustration. "I’m in college! A freshman!"

Uh... They had been in the same grade. Georgia had already graduated and started working, yet Chloe Gardner was still a college freshman.

Reuniting with an old classmate like this felt like a kind of fate. The two of them exchanged phone numbers.

Chloe Gardner waved at her. "Georgia Thorne, we should hang out some other time!"

She still remembered, not long after they started their first year of junior high, the boys at school had rated all the new female students, and the most prominent and beautiful one was Chloe Gardner.

The first year of junior high was precisely the age when puppy love begins to blossom.

Many students were secretly dating, though some were bolder about it.

Chloe Gardner’s beauty captured everyone’s attention. Every day, many boys would intentionally linger and wander around in front of her.

Back then, Chloe Gardner happened to be in her class, so every day, a good number of people would crowd around the classroom windows to look at her.

As a new first-year, Chloe Gardner didn’t have a good reputation and had a relatively explosive temper.

Selena Sheridan had even secretly told her about Chloe’s antics outside of school, about how many boys she had hooked up with.

By the end of their third year of junior high, it was rumored that Chloe had dated over thirty boys.

It wasn’t just boys from school; she supposedly had a whole bunch of ’little gangster’ boyfriends from outside of school, too. The ’little delinquent’ nickname had spread before anyone knew it.

At the time, Georgia Thorne had only wanted to focus on her studies and didn’t dare provoke someone like Chloe Gardner. In the three years they shared a class, they had exchanged fewer than ten sentences.

Georgia Thorne shook her head and returned to the dressing room to wait patiently for Iris Warner.

While she was waiting, Wendy Young called. "You’re not back yet?"

"Nope!"

On the other end of the line, Wendy Young grumbled about how Iris Warner was such a diva. If it weren’t for the endorsement deal, they would never have hired her as a model.

’When did Iris Warner become a spokesperson for Archetype Company?’

Georgia Thorne really wanted to replace Iris Warner, preferably with someone with a better temperament.

Iris Warner came out of the livestreaming studio and rested for a while. Georgia Thorne spoke up, "Miss Warner, are you able to try on the clothes now?"

Iris Warner took a sip of water and, right in front of Georgia Thorne, took off her clothes.

She was a model; changing in front of the designer was a normal thing.

After changing into the first outfit, Iris Warner looked in the mirror. The hem of the deep blue dress trailed on the floor. She curled her lips into a smirk. She had to admit, Georgia Thorne was quite talented.

Wearing the beautiful dress put Iris Warner in a reasonably good mood.

Iris Warner was wearing ten-centimeter heels, but the dress was still a bit long. Georgia Thorne frowned. "Miss Warner, was the height you gave me your actual height?"

Iris Warner immediately got angry. "What are you trying to say!"

"Miss Warner, please don’t misunderstand. I’m just curious. You told me you were 175 cm, but this dress seems a little too long on you, don’t you think?"

Iris Warner’s official public height had always been 175 cm, but judging by the dress, it was obvious she had lied about her height.

Of course, Georgia Thorne wasn’t foolish enough to expose this. She just said, "Miss Warner, the dress has a small flaw. I can take it back and alter it!"

Iris Warner’s face turned livid. Last time, Georgia Thorne had called her fat; this time, she was questioning her height.

In fact, even a small height difference could change the entire feel of the dress.

Iris Warner said angrily, "No need. I can wear higher heels!"

Georgia Thorne thought for a moment, then said, "Alright then!"

"Miss Warner, does any part of it feel uncomfortable? I can make more alterations for you."

Iris Warner tried on the five outfits Georgia Thorne had brought, which were long dresses of different styles.

Georgia helped her cinch the waist. Aside from the length of the skirts, there were basically no other issues.

Georgia Thorne folded the clothes and put them in a bag. Nearby, Iris Warner watched her. "I hear you and Elliot Sheridan are married?"

Georgia Thorne’s hands paused. "What do you think?"

Iris Warner scoffed. She naturally didn’t believe it. ’It must be a rumor.’

’Someone like Georgia Thorne could never catch Elliot Sheridan’s eye.’

After Georgia Thorne went back, she altered some more details on the dresses before taking them to Iris Warner to wear again.

When she was almost finished, there were only four days left until the exhibition. Excluding the two weekend days, that left only two days.

She breathed a sigh of relief. After continuous overtime, she could finally go home and get some proper rest.

People really shouldn’t relax too much. The moment she let her guard down, certain things and certain people would easily creep into her mind until they completely occupied her thoughts.

The weekend should have been a chance to catch her breath, but Georgia Thorne’s mood was gloomy.

She hadn’t seen him since they came back from the congee shop that day.

She had no idea what he had been up to recently. It was as if he had vanished from the face of the earth.

She woke up just after eight on Saturday morning. Georgia Thorne glanced at the wall clock and sat up in bed, startled.

Then she remembered it was Saturday and she didn’t have to go to work.

When she tried to go back to bed, she couldn’t fall asleep again, so she just got up early and went for a run outside.

The area outside was quite nice. She came back sweaty after a lap, took a shower, and made breakfast.

Her original plan was to stay home, but she was called out by a phone call from Chloe Gardner around noon.

In her memory, Chloe Gardner, though born with the makings of a great beauty, had been brazen and domineering. Back then, Georgia had been a good girl at school, and the two of them rarely interacted.

Georgia Thorne thought about it for a moment, then changed her clothes and went out.

They had arranged to meet at a milk tea shop near the university Chloe Gardner was attending. Chloe was resting her head on the table, a milk tea in her hands, looking around boredly.

When she saw Georgia walk in, she happily stood up and waved. "Georgia Thorne, over here!"

Chloe Gardner was dressed very much like a student—pure and well-behaved. It was a huge difference from her younger self, but she was still a beauty.

In the past, she hadn’t spent much time with Chloe Gardner out of fear. Now, after just a day together, she found that Chloe had a great personality, aside from the occasional curse word that would pop out and startle her.

Chloe Gardner just smiled at that. "I’m trying to change, but it’s really hard!"

After spending some time with her, she realized you really can’t judge a book by its cover.

At the same time, what surprised Georgia Thorne even more was that Chloe Gardner was actually a single mother.

Single mothers weren’t common these days. Georgia Thorne couldn’t imagine how she managed to raise a child.

"By the way, do you have any plans for Christmas?" Chloe Gardner asked excitedly.

Georgia Thorne shook her head. ’Probably not.’

Christmas was the day after the exhibition, and the company was giving them a week-long break. She was thinking of either resting at home or taking a short trip.

"Then I’ll introduce you to my son!"

"How old is your son?"

"Four years old!"

"You really don’t look like a mother with a child!"

"I know, right? My university classmates all think I’m only 20!"

Georgia Thorne was the same age as Chloe Gardner. If her son was four, that meant she had gotten pregnant five years ago.

"I’m so envious!" ’I would have had a child too, if only I’d been a little more careful.’

Chloe Gardner frowned, grabbed her hand with great seriousness, and said, "Once you have a kid, you’ll find out they’re just here to collect a debt."

Chloe Gardner was raising her child alone, being both a father and a mother. She shouldered almost everything by herself.

Georgia Thorne burst out laughing. "Aren’t you afraid your son will hear you!"

"Nope. I’m planning to go back and see my son for Christmas. Want to come along for fun? We get a lot of tourists where I’m from every year!"

"Sure!"

The day of the exhibition drew closer and closer.

For some reason, Georgia Thorne felt increasingly uneasy.

On the day before the exhibition, Georgia Thorne called Tina Griffin and learned that Iris Warner was out of town for a shoot and would be back that night.

She was absent-minded during lunch. Nancy Hughes poked her. "Do you know where Elliot Sheridan went on his business trip these past few days?"

Georgia Thorne snapped back to reality. "He’s on a business trip?"

"You don’t know? Didn’t you two make up?" Nancy Hughes stared at her in surprise, then, thinking she had misspoken, obediently shut her mouth.

Georgia Thorne’s expression darkened. ’No wonder I haven’t seen Elliot Sheridan since that day.’

In the afternoon, they had a meeting to go over the final plans for the next day’s exhibition.