Chapter 3

The day I returned home, Julian said he was busy and didn’t come to pick me up.

Instead, I received a text from an unknown number. It was a picture of Julian.

His eyes were slightly glazed, and he smiled gently at the camera, two buttons of his shirt undone, revealing his sculpted collarbone.

Maya had never seen him look like that.

But I was completely unfazed.

I forwarded it to my lawyer, asking him to archive it.

I had just stepped inside when I heard the lock click open again.

It wasn't Julian who entered, but his idealized first love, Genevieve.

"All these years, his door code has remained my birthday, Maya. What makes you think you can compete with me?"

She looked at me with the arrogant disdain of someone who felt deeply cherished.

"Does playing doorman for us make you happy?"

Genevieve never expected me to hit back:

"Genevieve, if I hadn't gone abroad to study five years ago, none of this would have happened. You see, the moment I came back, Julian couldn't wait to see me. If you had any self-awareness, you'd pack your bags and leave immediately."

I dropped two lemon slices into a glass of warm water.

"If I recall correctly, Ms. Genevieve, you went to New York? That’s not exactly far, a 25-hour flight. Why did it end up like a parting of the ways for eternity, forcing you to break up?"

"Five years, 1800 days, 43,800 hours. He wouldn't even spend 25 hours on you, never once visited you in America. How dare you believe he loves you? Were you being manipulated by him?"

Genevieve froze for a second. "Julian couldn't afford a plane ticket back then! If he had money, would he have let you leverage his mom's life to force him to marry you?"

"So you knew Julian was a guy who couldn't even afford a twenty-five hundred dollar plane ticket five years ago? A man who clawed his way up from nothing?"

I turned, holding my glass. "Now that he's the CEO of Sterling Group, you're telling me to get lost? Heh, you're trying to commit grand theft in broad daylight!"

As soon as the words left my mouth, police sirens wailed outside.

Genevieve frowned. "You called the cops?"

I raised my glass to her. "Any normal person calls the police when they're being robbed. Just so you know."

As she was being led away by the police, she was still yelling, "Let's see what charge you can pin on me!"