Chapter 79: Chapter 79: You Are Tactless, and Incredibly Insensible

"And I thought you didn’t know she was my wife?"

Tristan Lawson’s lips curled into a smirk, his gentle voice laced with a veiled threat.

That one sentence rendered Wyatt Yates speechless.

Tristan even twisted the knife. "She’s my woman. Even if I were to break her and toss her aside, you’ll never get a turn."

Noelle Sutton mustered all her strength, and from within Tristan Lawson’s arms, she raised her hand and slapped him.

After a loud SLAP.

Tristan Lawson pressed his tongue against the inside of his cheek. "You’ve got some nerve. Slapping me in front of another man, is that it?"

His gaze finally shifted from Wyatt Yates, fixing on the woman in his arms.

Noelle Sutton had passed out.

The man’s arms trembled.

"The Little Mute!"

Wyatt Yates anxiously stepped forward, but Tristan Lawson shoved him away. Bending down, Tristan slid an arm under Noelle’s knees and instantly swept her up into his arms.

His cold, dark gaze scraped across Wyatt Yates like a sharp blade.

"My woman is not for just anyone to covet, Second Young Master Yates. You’d do well to remember that."

Carrying Noelle Sutton, Tristan Lawson strode away.

Wyatt Yates took a few steps to follow but stopped.

As long as The Little Mute hadn’t divorced Tristan Lawson, she was still his wife. Wyatt had no right to step forward.

He could only watch helplessly as Tristan Lawson carried The Little Mute to his car.

Wyatt Yates pressed his lips together, his fists clenched tight.

’If I hadn’t thrown myself into the lab seven years ago and cut off all contact with the outside world, would things have been different for me and The Little Mute?’

’She and Tristan Lawson are from two completely different worlds. How on earth did she end up marrying him?’

Tristan Lawson’s car arrived at the hospital entrance. He got out and had just put his arm around Noelle Sutton’s waist when she suddenly opened her eyes.

She realized they were in the parking lot in front of the hospital.

Tristan Lawson paused for a moment but still moved to carry her out.

Noelle Sutton quickly signed, "I’m fine. I’m not going to the hospital."

"Since we’re already at the hospital, we’ll know if there’s anything wrong once we get you checked out."

Tristan Lawson’s voice was cold, yet it held a trace of concern.

After all, she had just fainted.

This was no laughing matter.

"I’m fine! I was faking it!"

Noelle Sutton didn’t want anyone to know about the cancer, especially not Tristan Lawson.

If she really couldn’t get a divorce, then death wouldn’t be a bad way to leave him.

If he found out she had cancer, he would definitely have all sorts of specialists stick tubes all over her body to treat her.

When her mother had jumped to her death, her grandmother had taken her to see her one last time.

Her mother’s body had been covered in tubes, looking so pained.

And they hadn’t been able to save her life, either.

To spend the final stage of her life needing tubes just to stay alive—that would be the most painful, most undignified time.

She didn’t want that.

If she was going to die, she wanted to die with dignity.

"So you admit it?"

Surprisingly, the man wasn’t angry. Instead, his tone had become much gentler.

She lowered her head.

Tristan Lawson took that as a tacit admission.

He released her waist and leaned against the car door. "So, the reason you faked being sick was to stop me from taking Sophie Hughes to the hospital?"

Most of Tristan Lawson’s rage dissipated.

Noelle Sutton was quite impressed by his strange logic. She raised her hands to sign, "Aren’t you well aware of what you did?"

Tristan Lawson’s brow furrowed slightly. "You’re the one who needs to sober up and think clearly about what you’ve done."

’We clearly talked it all out last night, but this morning, she just went back on her word.’

’Telling me that since I’m so rich, powerful, and virile, I should just go and aggressively snatch up my true love instead of forcing her.’

’All that nonsense about being a shield or a tool... I didn’t understand a word of it.’

’It really pissed me off.’

Tristan Lawson’s hand slipped into the inner pocket of his suit jacket. He took out a cigarette and lit it.

He smoked, patiently waiting for Noelle’s reply.

Noelle Sutton watched his calm, stern face, sometimes blurred by the smoke, sometimes clear. But whether clear or blurred, it was handsome beyond compare.

She had to admire how he could act so nonchalant.

He elegantly, almost flirtatiously, blew a puff of smoke in her face. "Haven’t you figured it out yet, hmm?"

Noelle Sutton had no desire to be entangled with him any longer. She signed in frustration, "Let’s resolve the issues between us, by ourselves. Don’t take your anger out on other people. As long as you promise me you won’t go after the Yates Family, I swear I’ll get out of your sight immediately. I’ll get out of Westhill Villa."

Tristan Lawson’s gentle, handsome face suddenly darkened. He took a harsh drag from his cigarette, then exhaled a perfect ring of smoke. Pinching the cigarette butt, he leaned halfway into the car.

Noelle Sutton instinctively pressed her back against the seat.

But she saw Tristan Lawson toss the cigarette butt into the car’s ashtray.

’This man... even his civility and elegance were unnerving.’

Just a moment ago, he had been pinching the half-smoked cigarette between his thumb and forefinger, so annoyed he looked like he was about to angrily flick it away.

But he still hadn’t just thrown it on the ground.

His upper body, already inside the car, didn’t pull back. Instead, he moved closer to Noelle Sutton, his slender fingers gripping her chin. His voice carried an unidentifiable chill. "You know what? Not only are you tactless, you’re also utterly clueless!"

"Dad!"

Tristan Lawson pulled out of the car.

Noelle Sutton’s view was now unobstructed. Through the front windshield, she saw Joshua Lawson holding Sophie Hughes’s hand.

Sophie Hughes pretended not to see Noelle Sutton in the passenger seat. The first thing she said to Tristan Lawson was, "Tristan, I asked you to go find Noelle. How are you back so soon? Did you find her? How is she? Is she sick?"

Tristan Lawson snorted. "The sickness was an act. I brought her back. She’s in the car. Let’s go, time to go home."

Tristan Lawson opened the rear car door.

Sophie Hughes and Joshua Lawson got in.

Sophie Hughes immediately asked with concern, "Noelle, it doesn’t look to me like you’re faking. Are you all right?"

Noelle Sutton had thought that by discovering Tristan Lawson’s secret early on and accepting his betrayal of their marriage, her heart would no longer react.

But Sophie Hughes’s hypocritical act still managed to get under her skin.

She hated people who acted one way to your face and another behind your back.

If she couldn’t afford to provoke them, could she not at least hide from them?

Just as Tristan Lawson opened the driver’s side door, Noelle Sutton pushed open the passenger door and got out.

"Noelle..."

Sophie Hughes called out.

Joshua Lawson rolled his eyes and pouted.

’Mom is so unreasonable. Sophie is trying so hard to be nice to her, and she just ignores her.’

’It’s unbelievable.’

Tristan Lawson’s gaze darkened even more.

’She really doesn’t know what’s good for her.’

’She slaps me, she yells at me.’

’I was willing to be tolerant and not hold it against her. I asked if she faked her illness to stop me from taking Sophie to the hospital. If she had just admitted it, I would have let it go.’

’A woman being petty and a little jealous can be a fun part of a marriage.’

’She’s not just clueless, she’s hopelessly stupid.’

"Tristan, maybe I should get out. Noelle really doesn’t seem to like me."

As she said this, Sophie Hughes reached for the door handle, but Joshua Lawson immediately grabbed her hand.

Tristan Lawson said indifferently, "It has nothing to do with you. She’s the one making a scene. Don’t worry about her. In a few days, once she’s thought it through, she’ll come back on her own."

"Yeah, Sophie, my mom has been acting a little weird these past few days. Let’s just give her some time to cool down."

Sophie Hughes said, looking troubled, "Alright then."

Tristan Lawson started the car and drove off, leaving Noelle Sutton behind.

Noelle Sutton walked to the roadside outside the hospital gate to wait for a ride when a car pulled up and stopped smoothly beside her.