Chapter 2

The guests immediately burst into murmurs. I stared up at the screen, completely stunned. I had never seen these women or those places in my life.

"Who are they? Do you want to explain this?" Stella demanded, gritting her teeth.

"I don't know them! That isn't me!" I protested, my voice shaking with panic.

"Not you?" She let out a sharp, bitter laugh. She grabbed a thick stack of bank statements and threw them onto the table.

She said, "Then take a look at this. These are the spending records from the payroll card I gave you. For the past year, every big transaction has been at the Solara Club or Golden Palace. Each visit costs thousands of dollars.

"Charles, do you know how much I earn? You really used my hard-earned money to entertain these women?"

The Solara Club had a reputation as the sleaziest place in the entire city, the kind of place any respectable man avoided.

The room erupted with judgmental whispers. "My Goodness, you really never know someone."

"After everything Stella did for him, he turns out to be such a scumbag!" someone in the crowd said.

"A typical social climber is just worthless trash that you can't fix!" another added.

Then her mother, Sophia Hodge, stormed over and jabbed her finger in my face. "You shameless, ungrateful bastard! My daughter must have been blind to fall for you!"

I could not even defend myself, feeling like the world was spinning around me. Stella stared at me, and there was not a hint of softness left in her eyes, only icy disdain and disgust.

"Charles, I really misread you." She pulled the diamond ring I had given her off her finger and tossed it onto the ground. "We're done. The car I bought you, and all the money I spent on you these past years, you're paying it all back."

Her best friend stepped forward with a document she had clearly been holding for this moment and said, "The car was 230 thousand dollars. Add your living expenses, the gifts she bought you, and all these club expenses, and the total comes to 800 thousand dollars.

"You'll repay it today."

Everyone looked at me like they were watching a man being sentenced. To them, I was just a poor guy with only a year of work experience and no money. There was no way I could pay that amount. In their eyes, my humiliation was already guaranteed.

I looked at the stranger standing in front of me, and whatever affection I had left for her finally burned out. I took a slow breath and forced down the anger and humiliation boiling inside me. Then I straightened up.

With everyone staring at me, I reached into my suit jacket and pulled out the payroll card she had given me. I placed it calmly on the table.

"Fine. If we're settling accounts, then let's settle them properly. Every last cent," I said, meeting her eyes with a cold smile.