Chapter 2

I picked up the promissory note.

Braxton sneered at me, "It's right there in black and white. You can't just pretend the debt doesn't exist!

"When her stepfather died, he left behind a mountain of debt. I was the one who dealt with the debt collectors. I gave her food and a place to live, and I paid for her education. She promised she'd pay me back once she started working.

"Now she's dead, and you were her fiancé. That makes the debt your responsibility!"

Evelyn's biological father had died of an illness when she was ten. When she was thirteen, her mother remarried and took her to live with her stepfather. Two years later, her mother and stepfather were killed in a car accident.

The Cobb family had always told people that Evelyn survived because her stepfather's older brother, a man who was not related to her by blood, had generously supported her after she became an orphan.

However, I was the only one who knew that his so-called generosity had never come from the goodness of his heart.

I looked Braxton straight in the eye.

"Evelyn worked her way through all four years of college. She tutored students in three different households every day. In the dead of winter, her hands were covered in painful chilblains.

"She paid for even the cheapest bread with money she earned herself."

Braxton's expression flickered, but he quickly recovered and shouted, "Without my help, she would've starved to death!

"Enough excuses! Hand over the 600,000 dollars and the studio's bank accounts, or I'll sue you for misappropriating a dead woman's assets!"

I clenched my fists. "The studio was Evelyn's life's work. I won't let you lay a finger on it."

Macy pulled out her phone, opened a video, and waved it in my face.

"Everybody, look! A rich kid is trying to steal an orphan's inheritance!

"He drove his own girlfriend to jump off a building, and now he won't even admit what he did!"

Soon, a crowd of curious onlookers gathered in the hallway.

Macy wiped away tears as she shouted, "My dad sacrificed everything to raise her. He even neglected his own daughter because of her!

"Then she got into college, hooked up with a rich guy, and turned her back on the very people who raised her!

"Now that she's dead, this rich brat wants to steal the studio she left behind!

"Where's the justice in that?"

Whispers spread through the crowd as people pointed at me.

"He looks like a decent guy. Who knew he'd stoop so low as to steal from a dead woman?"

"That poor girl. She must have been pushed to the edge to jump like that."

Even a few of the cleaning staff shook their heads and sighed.

My chest felt so tight I thought it might explode.

While she was alive, Evelyn had worked herself to the bone. After opening her studio, she practically lived at the office, sleeping no more than four hours a night. She kept meticulous records of every transaction and knew exactly where every dollar went.

Last month, she transferred 600,000 dollars into my account.

By the time she handed me the bank statement, she had grown so thin that she looked like little more than skin and bones.

I had told her from the beginning that the 500,000 dollars I gave her to start the business was a gift. I had never expected her to pay me back, and I did not want her to feel indebted to me.

That day, she had wrapped her arms tightly around me and said, "Seth, I've paid you back. I didn't take your money for nothing. I just want you to promise you won't hate me someday."

How could I ever hate the woman I loved?

At the time, I had assumed her pride simply would not let her accept my help without paying me back. However, now, staring at that three-million-dollar promissory note, I suddenly realized that Evelyn had been trapped in a cycle of exploitation from the very beginning.

She had worked herself nearly to death, and every dollar she earned might have gone straight into Braxton's bottomless pit.

I turned an icy stare on him.

"A three-million-dollar promissory note? She just turned 18 five years ago. You're telling me she owed you three million dollars as soon as she started college? Where are the bank transfers? Where's the loan agreement?

"Without any supporting evidence, this piece of paper is worthless."

Braxton's eyes darted away. A moment later, his expression twisted with rage. "So what if I don't have the paperwork? That's her real signature! If you don't pay up today, I'll smash that studio to pieces!

"And I'll show up at your company and raise hell! I'll make sure everyone knows that Seth is a filthy animal who drove his own girlfriend to her death!"