Chapter 3

I made my way to the study after I returned home and found Clive's competition details during his college days in the last drawer of a cabinet. There were two names written on the yellowed project proposal—Clive York and Tara Shore.

Using Tara's name, I managed to track down a post about them on the college forum on Clive's old computer. It turned out that they had been a well-known college couple at the time. They had also joined an entrepreneurship competition together.

The core concept of Clive's current company had come from that competition. It was just that their project had failed at the time, leaving Clive with a mountain of debt. Meanwhile, Tara didn't hesitate to fly across the ocean to another country after she received an acceptance letter from a famous overseas college.

I was the one who was by Clive's side when he was at his lowest. Now that he had succeeded, the person who was conveniently absent when he was going through a hard time wanted to return to share his glory.

…

The door unlocked at 8:00 pm. When Clive pushed the door open, I saw Tara trailing behind him.

It was our first time meeting each other. She was wearing that red dress, and her makeup was exquisite. She was also carrying a suitcase.

"Tara doesn't have anywhere to store her suitcase for now, Elise, so she'll be leaving it in our home for a few days," Clive explained as he changed his shoes. "She's also here to pick up an investment document that was left behind."

Tara brushed past Clive and stood before me.

"Sorry for the trouble, Elise," she said with a smile. "Clive said that you're very understanding and that you definitely won't mind."

She seemed oblivious to the way that I frowned upon hearing her words, walking past me to sit in the living room.

Clive stuck by her side the entire time, completely ignoring how upset I was.

Tara made her way to the study and pulled open the third drawer as if she had done it a thousand times. "As I thought, your college yearbook is still here, Clive."

She opened the fridge and pointed at a wine bottle that was stashed at the very back, saying, "I can't believe you still have that graduation gift. I thought you drank it a long time ago."

Although Tara's tone was always polite and courteous when she addressed me, everything else that she did was clearly her way of telling me that she knew Clive's past better than I did—that she was the true lady of the house.

When she walked over to the dining table, she noticed the Crystalin vacation guidebook that I had left on the table. She pretended to be apologetic as she looked at Clive and said, "Oh, were the two of you planning to go to Crystalin?

"I wouldn't have been so stubborn if I had known. I wouldn't have insisted that you fulfill the promise that you made to me during our college days to have an underwater dinner. Please don't be mad at Clive, Elise."

Clive immediately frowned and interrupted her, saying, "We were just talking business. Don't say it like that. You're going to cause a misunderstanding."

"That's right. We were just talking business," Tara said with a smile.

When she lifted her hand to fix her hair, her sleeve slid down, revealing the silver aurora bracelet around her wrist.

I stared at the bracelet before approaching her and extending my hand. "Give the bracelet back to me."

Tara was stunned before she reflexively hid behind Clive.

Clive shielded her behind him. He shot a disgruntled look at me and said, "What do you think you're doing, Elise? It's just a bracelet. Tara likes it a lot. I'll buy you another one that's even more expensive if you care about it that much."

"You can't buy it," I said as I stared into Clive's eyes. "I spent a month designing that bracelet. I was going to give it to you as our third wedding anniversary gift."

Clive stiffened as a flurry of complicated emotions flickered in his eyes.

Meanwhile, Tara immediately took off the bracelet and placed it on the table. Her eyes were slightly reddened as she said, "I'm sorry, Elise. I had no idea. I thought Clive bought it. Please don't fight with each other because of me."

She behaved as if she were the one who was the most hurt in the situation.

As Clive took in her reddened eyes, his sympathy for her immediately overshadowed the regret that he felt toward me. He shot an irritated look at me before pulling Tara along with him, saying, "I'll see you off."

A few moments later, I received a call from Clive's mother, Freya Ashlocke.

"Did you give Tara a hard time today, Elise?" she snapped. "Tara only came back to help Clive secure more investments. She nearly became my daughter-in-law. You wouldn't even have a chance to be with Clive if she didn't leave the country. Can't you treat her with a little more courtesy?"

I couldn't help but feel how absurd the entire situation was as I gripped my phone. It turned out that Freya also knew that Tara was coming back. In our family, I was the only one who had been kept in the dark to be treated as a laughingstock.