Chapter 3

I opened my eyes and tapped into the ticketing app.

“Yesterday, I entered a livestream where they were giving away money. I’ve gathered enough. We can go back home together.”

In the glow of my phone, her brows furrowed slightly, and irritation flashed through her eyes.

She hadn’t expected me to come up with the money.

After all, I had given her everything I had yesterday morning to pay off her debts. I should’ve only had the two hundred and twelve dollars she sent me at night from dishwashing.

However, the irritation lasted only a moment. She hugged me tightly, her cheek buried against my neck.

“That’s great. We can go home together again.

“Aran, thank you.”

She still wasn’t telling the truth.

I locked the screen, and the bedroom fell into darkness.

Her fingers found the tear mole under my eye, gently rubbing it as if she were petting something.

…

The day before New Year’s Eve, I took leave, but didn’t tell her.

Matt said he was tired of staying in the villa, and his sugar mommy was going to take him shopping to cheer him up.

When I arrived at the mall, a Maybach had just pulled up at the entrance.

The driver respectfully opened the rear door, and Wren stepped out.

She wasn’t wearing her service uniform. Instead, she had on a high-end custom dress with a luxury scarf draped over her shoulders.

Never could I have imagined that the poor girlfriend who had muttered that morning about going to wash dishes at a barbecue restaurant was actually the only daughter of the Smiths, a well-known family in the capital’s real estate circle.

As I stood there in a daze, the door on the other side opened. Matt smiled and reached out his hand to her.

“Taking me shopping like this, aren’t you afraid your boyfriend will see?”

Wren rose on her toes and bit his lips in public.

I stood behind a tree not far away, watching my girlfriend share a passionate, lingering kiss with another man.

It took a long while before she pulled away, only to peck him again twice.

“What’s there to be afraid of? He has work today. I watched him get on the bus myself.

“And what if he sees?

“If he sees…”

Wren narrowed her eyes slightly, unconcerned.

“At worst, I’ll just return the little money he’s earned over the years.”

Matt laughed boldly, wrapping an arm around her as they walked into the mall together.

I should have chased after them.

I should have grabbed her clothes and demanded why she lied to me and betrayed me. However, in just two days, my heart had already gone numb.

My legs wouldn’t move. So I just stood there, watching Matt post updates one after another.

[This French restaurant is just average. Not as good as the French chef my sugar mommy hired for me.]

[My sugar mommy brought me shopping. She said I could buy whatever I wanted. She transferred another million to me. I’ll go live at ten tonight and give money away!]

Someone in the comments asked him, [Aren’t you afraid the sugar mommy’s boyfriend will catch you?]

“I wish he would,” Matt replied. “She said if he finds out, she’ll just return the little money he’s made over the years. What a loser. Five years and he’s only made six hundred and fifty-three thousand dollars.”

Six hundred fifty-three thousand. So that’s how much I’ve earned over these five years.

I found it laughable, but when I tried to smile, I couldn’t.

Two hours later, Matt posted his expenses for the day.

[As for me, my daily income is 1.2 million!]

I don’t even know how I got back.

By the time I came to, I was already sitting on the sofa. Wren had just walked in, having changed back into her service uniform, her hair messy.

“Aran, you haven’t had dinner yet?”

She rolled up her sleeves. “I’ll heat the meals in the fridge. It’ll be ready soon.”

Her tone was no different from usual, still gentle and considerate.

I held my chopsticks, countless words stuck in my chest.

Why did she lie to me and say she was from the same hometown as me—a poor kid from Sitka County, with a family burdened by massive debt?

I stayed with her from freshman year to graduation and then followed her here to struggle in the capital.

I saved every penny, worked one full-time job and three part-time jobs, just to give her everything I earned, just hoping she could pay off her debts sooner and get married without worry.

However, in reality, she was a wealthy young heiress of the capital, spending millions as she pleased, publicly dating me while secretly keeping another man on the side.