Chapter 4The Professional Gold Digger

I bought several sets of luxury designer clothes.

From underwear to outerwear, head to toe, I got everything.

I also called the French restaurant.

When they told me the fifty-thousand-dollar deposit was non-refundable, I almost had a heart attack.

I tried to negotiate with them: "Can I just get half back?"

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but no."

I said: "Then how about this: I'm not coming tomorrow night, but you can just cook the food and deliver it to me right now."

"Make whatever, but make sure it's good."

"The address is in the Eastside Estates..."

After handling the food and clothes, I double-checked to see if I missed anything.

And I did find a glaring omission.

A full belly leads to other desires.

I went online and ordered some 0.01mm ultra-thin protection.

I guessed the size.

Smallest available.

Hopefully, it fits.

If it didn't, he couldn't blame me.

It's not like Julian ever showed me.

When I got back to the villa, Chloe seemed to have cried herself to sleep.

Her eyes were closed, her hand gripping Julian's sleeve tightly.

Julian was in the exact same position he had been in when I left. He had just stayed by her side, barely moving an inch.

When I pushed the door open, Julian was leaning down, about to steal a kiss from Chloe.

Wait.

Couldn't he wait until she woke up?

Was he really that desperate?

It scared me so much I almost walked in backward.

I quickly shut my mouth tight.

After thinking about it, I quietly placed the "essentials" on the floor inside the bedroom.

Then, I gently pulled the door shut.

Before leaving, I sent Julian a text:

[Mr. Sterling, I left the clothes and food in the living room.]

[You can come out and get them when you guys are finished.]

While typing that message, I couldn't help but see our previous texts.

It was a message Julian had sent me while he was at work.

He was complaining to me about the old executives on the board of his company.

Then he whined and asked me to go bungee jumping with him, said he was going to take me to Miami to see the ocean the day after tomorrow, and that we were going to Aspen to ski at the end of the year to de-stress from work.

Perhaps because the future is so uncertain.

People always love to make plans for it.

I had replied with one word: [Received].

He had gotten annoyed and sent a sticker of an angry kitten.

I searched for a long time before finding a sticker of someone petting a kitten's head to send back.

Afraid he was actually mad, I added: [What do you want for dinner?]

But calculating the time, he probably saw the news about Chloe right around then, and he never replied.

An abruptly ended conversation seemed to be the perfect announcement for an impending breakup.

It started my freshman year of high school and ended the second year after I graduated college.

I couldn't help but feel a little nostalgic.

Julian was overbearing, childish, selfish, and stupid.

But there was no denying he wasn't a bad guy, and he was very generous.

At his engagement banquet.

He had a bit to drink and proudly declared: "Hazel, I'll allow you to stay by my side forever."

For a while, I genuinely thought we were actually going to get married.

Looking at it now, I had definitely misunderstood.

The cold, hard numbers in my bank account were the only things that truly warmed my heart.

I took off the engagement ring I had been wearing and gently placed it on the living room table.

Funny how things work out.

I told the French restaurant they didn't need to follow my custom menu, just to make whatever.

But they kept the cake I had ordered.

Written on it was—

[Julian, Happy 5th Anniversary!]

My engagement ring was left right next to the cake.