Chapter 3

“ Mr. Matthew. I'm going home.”

“As for whatever is going on between you and Miss Lilith, that's none of my business anymore.”

I smiled faintly and continued.

“Oh, and there's something else you should know.”

“For the past five years, every business connection and partnership your company has had was established through me.”

“The partners have already called me . Starting today, they'll be cutting all ties with you.”

There was a brief silence on the other end.

Then Matthew's voice suddenly rose.

“Eve, have you lost your mind?! I worked my ass off to secure those partnerships! What gives you the right to take them away?!”

“What gives me the right?”

I let out a soft laugh.

I didn't answer.

I gave Matthew no chance to question me further. I hung up and immediately blocked his number.

By the time the plane took off, the lights of Rome had gradually faded into a blur of distant points through the airplane window.

I leaned back against my seat and closed my eyes.

When the plane landed in Sicily, it was already well past midnight.

A black limousine was waiting outside the airport.

Beside it stood a gray-haired man in a perfectly tailored dark coat.

The moment he saw me walk out, the tension in his expression finally eased.

“Father.”

I walked over and called him softly.

He stared at me in silence for several seconds.

Then he reached out and ruffled my hair roughly.

“You've lost weight.”

His voice was slightly hoarse.

“Get in the car. Your mother made your favorite stew. She's been waiting for you for four hours.”

I got into the car.

As the familiar streets blurred past the window, I felt the weight that had been pressing down on my heart for five years finally lift.

When I arrived home, my mother hugged me and cried for a long while.

My father stood nearby, smoking with a grim expression.

So much ash had fallen onto the floor that he hadn't even noticed.

“Come to think of it, if you hadn't insisted back then, that boy wouldn't have gotten the Naples business connections at all.”

My father looked at me, his voice filled with helplessness.

“You were the one who begged me to give him a chance.”

It was true.

Matthew's very first fortune had come from the opportunity I'd begged my father to give him.

After that, every partner who worked with Matthew had been willing to offer him their best terms simply because they wanted to curry favor with the Moretti family.

But once Matthew's company finally got on its feet, he became increasingly cold toward me.

That was when I began to realize that Matthew didn't love me.

Or perhaps he simply didn't love me nearly as much as I'd believed.

Still, somewhere deep in my heart, I had held on to the smallest sliver of hope.

I never thought that, in the end, things would turn out like this.

“By the way,” my father said, “the contract we had with that boy's company has already expired.”

“Do you want to renew it?”

I shook my head.

“No.”

Back then, I had begged my father to help Matthew because of my relationship with him.

With the Moretti family's backing, no one had dared to make things difficult for Matthew.

But now, Matthew and I had nothing to do with each other anymore.

So why should I continue helping him?

I returned to my room on the second floor.

Everything was exactly as it had been five years ago when I left.

The sheets had been freshly changed, carrying the clean scent of laundry.

I washed my face and was just about to lie down when my phone suddenly rang again.

An unfamiliar number flashed across the screen.

But I recognized the area code.

I answered.

“Eve, where the hell did you go?!”

“Mr. Matthew, where I go has anything to do with you?”

My voice was calm, as if I were speaking to a complete stranger.

“Do you even know what you're doing?!”

His voice rose again, unmistakably angry.

“How can you just leave without saying a word? You're still my assistant! Your work isn't finished!”

“Eve, don't push me too far!”

Listening to his utterly self-righteous tone, I couldn't help but laugh.

“Mr. Matthew, I think you've forgotten something.”

“For the past five years, I may have been your assistant, but we never signed an employment contract.”

“And for those five years, you never paid me a single cent.”

There was sudden silence on the other end.

It seemed he'd genuinely forgotten.

For five years, the only things he'd ever given me were one empty promise after another.

I'll pay you back later.

I'll make it up to you someday.

I had stayed up countless nights with him.

I had fought through countless brutal negotiations on his behalf.

I had even poured my own money into his company more times than I could count.

And somehow, he'd forgotten all of it.