Chapter 2 The Broken Bracelet

Mia's gaze dropped to the bracelet, and her expression turned mocking. "Wait. Don't tell me this thing is fake."

She slipped it off with obvious disgust, pinching it between two fingers as she held it out in front of me.

I reached for it, but she took one step back and dodged my hand.

'Were the Sterlings in the jewelry business? If I wasn't mistaken, Adrian wanted me to marry into that family. So why have I never heard of Mia?'

My inattention only lasted for a second.

However, that was enough to catch me off guard when Mia suddenly tossed the bracelet at me. "Fine. You can have it back if it's just a fake."

Her smile widened. "But don't forget to write that IOU for ten million."

I barely spared a glance at the smug satisfaction spread across Mia's face before turning my gaze to the falling emerald bracelet.

I immediately reached for it, but I was still too late.

A sharp crack rang in my ears.

I dropped to my knees, and the broken pieces cut into my skin. Blood ran down almost instantly, but I barely felt the sting.

That bracelet had been the token of love my father gave my mother. She treasured it her whole life. She only removed it when she was lying on her deathbed just to pass it to me.

Yet, it was destroyed because of me.

I was a horrible daughter.

I knelt there, sobbing so hard I could barely breathe.

I did not know how much time had passed before Preston suddenly grabbed my arm and pulled me up from the ground.

"It was just a fake bracelet," he snapped. "Are you seriously going to raise such a fuss because of that?"

His voice was filled with impatience.

"I'll just get you another fake one if it matters so much to you. It won't even cost much."

Then, he frowned. "Instead of wasting your time crying, you should be thinking about how you're going to pay Mia back."

I almost laughed out loud. 'Money? All he cares about is money. He's rich enough to never worry about it. Yet, he still uses such a cruel and ridiculous trick to push me into a corner.'

I shook off his hand, crouched back down, and carefully picked up every broken piece of the bracelet.

Only after I found the last fragment did I lift my bloodshot eyes to him. "Preston, I already have nothing left. Are you still not done playing with me?

My voice went cold. "We're done."

I saw Mia's eyes light up as she grinned with joy. She was acting as if she had finally gotten what she wanted.

Only now did I realize just why she had helped Preston come up with this plan to mess with me. She had wanted me to back off on my own.

At the same time, Preston froze.

He clearly had not expected me to break up with him.

He had assumed I would continue doing everything I could to pay off his debt.

After all, I loved him that deeply. I was even willing to work in the service industry for him and supported him for four years. What else wouldn't I do for him?

Preston stared at me in disbelief. "Nora, you're breaking up with me?"

Then, his expression darkened, and he let out a bitter laugh. "So this is who you are, huh? You'd run the second things get tough. I've truly misjudged you. It turns out you've been looking down on me all along."

After that, he angrily grabbed Mia's hand and walked away.

I watched him leave and understood exactly what he was doing.

He was trying to force me to give in.

That was because I had once sworn that I would never leave him just because he was penniless. I had promised I would never abandon him when he was struggling.

I wiped my tears and turned back toward the nightclub.

I had only taken the bottle-service job to support Preston. Now that I had broken up with him, there was no reason to keep working there.

Besides, I was going back to the Whitmores anyway.

When I told my manager, Carla Bennett, that I wanted to resign, she looked at me in shock. "Nora, did you finally pass the boss's test?"

Then, she sighed. "You've had it rough. The boss sent so many rich guys to harass you and test you with money."

She looked at me with a strange kind of admiration. "The fact that you resisted all of that is honestly rare."

I frowned.

There was so much information in her words that I could not process it all at once.

I wondered what she meant by rich guys harassing me with money and the boss' test.

I asked slowly, "Ms. Bennett, when you say 'the boss'..."