Chapter 3

The veins in my forehead throbbed as panic surged through me. My voice cracked mid-sentence.

"Don’t restructure it! Please don’t do it!" I shouted into the phone. "I have money! I sold my watches and my sports car. I still have shares! Don’t let Alisha go bankrupt! Don’t let them take her to jail!"

There was silence on the other end for a full ten seconds.

It was so quiet that all I could hear was my own ragged breathing.

"Mr. Day?" Xavier finally said, hesitantly. "Are you… alright?"

I was frantic, pacing like a man on the edge, nothing like the composed, entitled version of myself I used to be.

"Mr. Shaw, I know you’re a good man. Please help Alisha. As long as you can protect her… I-I’ll step aside! I’ll let her go to you!"

As long as she’d be okay, I didn’t care about being her husband anymore because right now, all I did was spend money. I was useless.

Xavier sounded capable, like someone who could earn and save money and take care of her.

The line went completely silent.

After a long pause, he finally spoke again, cautiously, "Mr. Day, I think you might have misunderstood something. Ms. West, she—"

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The call cut off.

I stood there, frozen like a statue.

It wasn’t until Elyse tugged on my sleeve that I snapped back to reality.

That afternoon, the delivery guys came and went like movers, hauling away all my prized possessions one trip at a time.

The walk-in closet and display cabinets were left completely empty, as if the place had been looted.

Ever since that call, I’d been trapped in a constant state of dread.

When Alisha came home, I was sitting on the couch, staring into space, pale and tense. She frowned when she saw the piles of boxes and the empty displays.

"What happened? Did we get robbed?"

I pulled her into my arms, my voice rough. "Alisha, you’ve been through so much."

"What’s with you?" she laughed lightly. "What did you watch this time, some tearjerker video?"

Even after that call reached the house, she was still joking like nothing was wrong. God, it hurt to see her like this.

The comments flooded in again.

[Classic emotional manipulation. He’s trying to lower her guard before making a bigger grab.]

[Living off someone takes skill, too. Honestly, I couldn’t pull off that fake sincerity even if I tried.]

[What’s there to admire? A kept man like him? Xavier? Now that’s the kind of man worth loving.]

[What kind of mindset is that? Measuring someone’s worth by whether they’re loved?]

[Exactly. Why does everything have to revolve around being loved?]

[It’s a romance story. What else are people supposed to care about?]

Huh.

Guess not all the comments were brain-dead after all.

"Hey, what are you staring at?" Alisha asked, noticing my gaze fixed on empty air.

"Oh? Nothing, nothing." I forced an awkward laugh.

Then I remembered.

I pulled out a bank card from my pocket. "Alisha, I sold all my watches today. Between that and my savings over the years, everything’s in here. Take it."

Before she could react, I pressed the card into her hand, my expression firm. "I can’t help much with West Star Holdings… but whatever happens, I’ll face it with you."

I held her gaze, steady and intense. With how reasonable and devoted I sounded, she had to be moved.

Instead, her expression froze. Then she looked at me in disbelief. "You… you know?"

I nodded hard. "Yeah. I know everything. Xavier told me. It’s okay. Worst case, we start over. I won’t buy watches anymore. I’ll get a job. I’ll do manual labor if I have to. I’ll support you."

She lowered her head, looking a little defeated, her voice quiet. "I hid it for so long… How did he tell you? And the results still weren’t good…"

I didn’t catch the rest, but seeing how upset she looked made my chest tighten again. I was just about to comfort her when she suddenly looked up and sighed helplessly.

"Fine. I guess this just counts as giving you a heads-up. Better than you getting too excited later and passing out from it."

Excited?

Was she serious?

"But you’re being way too dramatic," she added. "Yeah, things are a little tight right now, but it’s not so bad that you need to sell your watches."

She pushed the card back into my hand. "Keep it. The black card I gave you has no limit. Use that instead."

She was still pretending everything was fine.

Fine. For the next few days, I’d just go along with her, as long as she didn’t do anything reckless.