Chapter 3

Nigel smiled and said.

"You two go. I'm not going." I shook my head and refused right away.

Nigel froze for a moment before asking, "No matter how important something is, you should put it off. Having dinner with Vivian is the most important thing."

"Exactly! If you don't come, then you're not my best friend anymore!" Vivian started acting spoiled.

If this had happened before, I probably would have given in. But now, her words only felt like she was trying to guilt-trip me.

"Forget it. Something came up at home."

I stopped paying attention to them. I turned around, got into my car, and drove straight to the boutique that sold the purse.

"Hello, could you please check if the serial number on this purse is the winning one?"

The employee took the purse and checked the number. Then she smiled. "That's right. Congratulations! You've won the 300,000-dollar prize. Please come with me."

The entire process was finished in less than a minute.

A bank notification appeared on my phone. After taxes were deducted, 270,000 dollars had been deposited into my account.

However, Nigel and Vivian would soon find out about the money.

The store planned to put up a sign outside next week to promote this lucky winner.

So, I immediately contacted a real estate agent and bought the riverside apartment I had wanted for a long time.

I paid for it in full.

After handling everything, I took the property deed home to tell my parents what happened.

They were shocked when they found out Nigel and Vivian had been together for a long time. But they still believed in me and supported whatever I wanted to do.

Right after dinner with my parents, Nigel and Vivian added me to a private group chat with only the three of us.

Vivian sent a voice message with a playful laugh. "Queenie, you didn't come eat fondue with me tonight. I’m going to punish you by making you pay!"

Nigel immediately agreed. "It was only 400 dollars. Just send the money over."

If this had happened before, I probably would have thought friends shouldn't care about small amounts of money. I would have paid without hesitation.

But this time, I didn't reply. I simply went to take a shower and acted like I hadn't seen it.

When I came back after my shower, I saw more than 100 unread messages in the group chat.

Vivian asked. "Queenie, why aren't you saying anything?"

Nigel followed up. "Ten minutes have passed. The restaurant is still waiting for us to pay."

Vivian continued. "Queenie has changed. She doesn't even reply to messages anymore."

The last message was from Nigel. "Queenie, you're being too cheap. Forget it. We'll pay for ourselves."

Only then did I reply. "I just finished taking a shower."

But no one answered me.

Actually, something similar had happened before. Back then, I ended up sending 100 dollars to both Vivian and Nigel before they finally stopped being upset.

Thinking back now, I felt like I had been so foolish.

But this time, I didn't have the energy to comfort them. After feeding Marmalade, I immediately opened my laptop and started working.

I improved the marketing plan and prepared my presentation for Monday's meeting.

Marmalade jumped onto my desk and looked at my screen. Then his thoughts appeared again. "The company cat told me the chairman actually loves cute pets. But he wants to keep his serious image, so he's too embarrassed to show it. He's been hoping someone would create a pet-themed marketing campaign."

I suddenly got an idea.

If that was true, then I should give him exactly what he wanted and add pet-related elements into my marketing plan.

I worked through the entire night.

When morning came, I was finally about to take a break when Nigel called.

"Queenie, you went too far yesterday. You didn't even pay the bill. We were really hurt. Vivian even cried because of it. I heard she saw a necklace at the mall that she really liked. Buy it for her as an apology."

I almost laughed from anger.

He really planned to use my money to support Vivian.