Chapter 2

"Owen!" Lucinda hurriedly steadied Owen, then frowned at me. "Warren, I'm the one who brought Owen here. If you're going to get angry, take it out on me."

Clenching my fists, I ignored them and dumped all the junk onto the floor. A document fluttered down and landed at Owen's feet.

He picked it up and glanced at it, his eyes instantly turning red. He then dropped the paper and turned to leave.

"Owen!" Lucinda grabbed his hand.

"Let go! You two are already engaged!" Owen shouted, pulling his hand away.

I looked down. It was the engagement agreement between me and Lucinda.

Lucinda held tightly onto Owen's hand. Although he looked heartbroken, he hadn't actually taken a single step out.

Unable to hold him back, Lucinda frowned at me. "Warren, apologize to Owen right now."

"Why should I?" I asked, stunned.

"If you hadn't made this engagement agreement in the first place, would Owen be this heartbroken now? You pretended to be cleaning up, but you actually did it on purpose so he'd see, didn't you?"

I laughed out of sheer exasperation.

"Lucinda, I never realized just how stupid you are."

She was stunned.

I turned to Owen. "Can you tell that she and I live together, or do you not know that we're together? That being the case, why did you ask earlier whether I was angry? You clearly know everything, so who exactly are you putting on this act of being wronged and kept in the dark for?"

Owen frowned. He made a show of turning to leave, but Lucinda pulled him back.

"Warren, just zip it, would you?"

I ignored her and continued packing.

Owen continued to put up a struggle. "Don't stop me! Warren has gotten the wrong idea about me! You two are engaged—I never should've come!"

"Warren!" Still holding Owen's wrist, Lucinda frowned at me. "Apologize to him, now!"

I clenched my fists tightly. "No."

"Are you sure about that?"

I jutted out my chin. "Yes!"

Lucinda stared at me for a few seconds, then bent down and picked up the engagement agreement.

"See, you really don't measure up to Owen at all. Besides scheming and vying for attention, what else can you even do? Figures you've never been abroad—you're nowhere as worldly as Owen."

After saying that, she tore the engagement agreement in half.

"Since you refuse to apologize, then I'm calling off our engagement. You can keep this worthless piece of paper for all I care."

She ripped it to shreds in two quick motions and flung the pieces in my face. With that, she turned and walked off, pulling Owen along without so much as a backward glance.

I smashed the photo of her and me onto the floor. The broken glass split the two of us apart, and I kicked it over to the trash can.

Lucinda and I didn't contact each other for three days.

She and I used to chat every day. The habit had lasted more than two thousand days. It was just that for over a thousand of those days, I was the one who started the conversation.

But now, we didn't chat anymore.

I was at the hotel sorting out handover paperwork when Lucinda called me out of the blue.

"You didn't come home?"

I continued with the work in my hands. "Is something the matter?"

She sent me a picture of the home.

The trash hadn't been taken out. Even though the dishes on the table seemed to have been washed, grease stains were crusted over them. Her wrinkled and unironed clothes were piled messily on the bed.

"Once you've had enough fun outside, come home. The house has been like this the whole time. It's about time you paid it some attention."

"Isn't Owen there?"

"As much as he wants to help, he's just no good at housework. Besides, why should he have to do this kind of work, when he's been living in comfort abroad?"

I had no energy to argue with her. "With all your money, you could hire a housekeeper in no time."

Lucinda was silent for a moment.

"Even the best housekeeper could never be as attentive as you. Owen has high standards for how he lives, so none of them would do."

"You're really out of your mind!"

With that, I hung up.

Lucinda called again, but I blocked her.

Before long, a notification came that my bank card had been frozen. It was the card Lucinda had given me.

When her business failed, I never gave up on her and kept cheering her on. After I helped her pull herself together, I took on the role of stabilizing the home front and turned down promotions time and again.

Six years passed, and she became the CEO whom everyone looked up to, while I was still a low-level employee.