Chapter 3

Tears welled in my eyes, but I held them back. I asked, "What do you want then?"

Frederick hesitated. He looked as if he didn't know how to put it into words.

"Frederick, you promised me," Florence said as she looked at him with pitiful puppy eyes.

He let out a sigh and turned to me. "Florrie had always wanted to enter the International Gemstone Design Competition, but she never had a strong enough piece. The collection you've been working on is good. I told her that she could use it."

"No. Absolutely not!" That collection was my heart and soul. I had poured five years of inspiration and countless sleepless nights into those designs. They were important to me!

Frederick had asked me to show it to him, saying that they looked good. That was the only reason I let him see them. Who gave him the right to give them away?

However, Frederick didn't care about my feelings. "It doesn't matter if you agree or not. I'm submitting the designs under Florrie's name."

I was livid. "If you do that, I'll report her for plagiarism!"

"The originals are with me. You deleted the photo backups, didn't you? What proof do you have? Listen, Lizzy. You wronged her. Think of this as a way to make up for it," he calmly said.

His words hit me like a bucket of ice water had been poured all over me. My body went cold.

All this time, I thought that Florence may have manipulated him. Even at his worst, all I ever felt was disappointment.

But at that moment, I loathed him. He had asked me for the originals. He even told me to delete the backups, and I did. I never would have imagined that he had been planning this all along.

However, what he didn't know was that I had signed every single one of those design sheets with invisible ink. My name was on every single page.

Was he trying to build Florence up as some design prodigy using my work? Dream on.

The day the awards were announced would also be the day her theft came to light.

I bit back the fury and bitterness and said coldly, "It seems like you've already made up your mind, Mr. Kirby. Why even bother asking me? But remember, this is it. We're done. I don't owe you anything anymore."

I had never addressed him that way. All this time, I had always called him Freddy.

His brows furrowed, and he looked like he wanted to respond.

However, Florence whined that she wasn't feeling well, and all his attention snapped right back to her. He and Lennon both rushed to comfort her like two idiots competing to see who could coddle her more.

There was a time when I would have felt crushed seeing that. But now, it just made me sick. An emotionally unfaithful boyfriend, and a childhood friend who nearly got me killed over a two-faced snake. Both of them made me sick to the core!

I pushed past the discomfort and walked out of the room.

The second I stepped out, I couldn't hold it in anymore. I doubled over, clutched my chest, and threw up so hard that it felt like I was being torn apart.

How could I have even considered staying here for people like them?

That night, my mom sent over the wedding schedule and asked, "How does it look, sweetie?"

"It looks fine." I didn't care how the wedding went as long as it helped my family and got me out of Hemdeen.

I stayed in the hospital for a week while Frederick and Lennon were just next door, doting on Florence the entire time. We were barely a few feet away, yet they never came to check on me once.

However, I no longer cared.

The moment I was discharged, I went straight home and started packing my belongings. All I wanted was to leave this place behind for good.