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Chapter 3

作者: Smiling Eyes
Sean’s face burned with embarrassment.

His phone rang. The caller ID was “Miss Baum (Client).”

I reached over and put the call on speaker.

Sean could not stop me on time.

Monique’s voice came through loud and clear.

“Sean, are you done with the performance? Did she cry?”

The surrounding chatter fell silent. Disdainful eyes swept over Sean.

His face darkened. “Shut up!” he growled.

Monique chuckled. “Don’t be like that. I made you some soup, so come home soon.”

I ended the call and handed the phone back to him.

“Your client certainly knows how to take care of you.”

Sean grabbed me and dragged me outside.

“Happy now?”

He shoved me up against the car.

“Zoe, what the hell are you trying to do?”

“Wasn’t it exhausting, Sean? Pretending to be broke for five years? You and Monique spent five years playing your little game, calling it a test of my love. Did you enjoy making a fool out of me?”

“Zoe, since you’ve found out, there’s no point in hiding it anymore. How much do you want?”

I clutched my chest. The pain was so intense that I could barely breathe.

I remembered the day my parents sold their house. Sean had stood before them with tears in his eyes.

“Mr. and Mrs. Evry, I swear I’ll treat Zoe right for the rest of our lives.”

My mother pressed the check into his hand.

“We can rent another place. What matters now is helping you get through this.”

His hands trembled as he took it. His eyes were red with tears.

Today, he was asking me how much money it would take to make me go away.

He stepped closer and lowered his voice. “Zoe, I don’t want this to end badly. I know I’ve wronged you, but I can’t force myself to love you anymore. I’ll pay back the money from the house over time.”

“How long?”

The question caught Sean completely off guard. There was disbelief written all over his face.

“What?”

“I asked how long it’ll take you to pay me back.”

“Don’t push me.”

“Do you always raise your voice when someone asks you to repay a debt?”

His expression turned livid.

“You were never this mean before.”

I lifted the bouquet of white roses off the hood and tossed it into a trash can.

Sean flinched.

I turned and walked away. He called after me, “Zoe, if you walk away now, we’re really over.”

I looked back. Hope flickered in his eyes.

I pulled our photo out of my purse and tore it in half. Then, I tossed the half with his face into the trash.

Sean did not come back to our apartment that night.

He sent me more than a dozen messages.

They went from anger to apologies, then declarations of love, and finally desperate pleas. I did not reply to any.

At 8 p.m., Monique knocked on my door.

She smirked as she said, “Zoe, you really scared Sean today. You might not care if you make a fool of yourself, but he does.”

“How exactly did I make a fool of myself?”

“You wasted five years on a man, lost a house and a baby in the process, and after all that, he still wouldn’t marry you.”

I snorted. “Are you really going to sink this low?”

Monique lost her composure. “He doesn’t love you anymore, Zoe, but you still won’t let him go. Have you no self-respect?”

As I looked at the spite on her face, the tearful little girl I remembered faded further and further away.

“Monique, in the ten years we’ve been friends, have I ever done anything to hurt you?

“When your ex threw you out, and you had nowhere to go, I took you in and covered all the bills. When you said you needed new clothes for job interviews, I gave you half my paycheck.

“I never expected your gratitude, but did you really have to repay my kindness by sleeping with my fiance?”

Monique’s face went pale. She forced herself to hold her ground and said through gritted teeth, “So? If you love someone, you fight for them. Sean and I are in love. You’re the one who refused to let him go!”

“Was it your idea to pretend to be broke? How long have you been sneaking around behind my back?”

“It’s your own fault for being stupid enough to believe everything we told you!”

Slap!

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