Chapter 3

Yale now lived in what had once been the Scott family mansion.

Stepping inside again, Lauren found everything painfully familiar, yet nothing was the same.

Yale tossed a flimsy, cheaply made maid's uniform at her feet. "From now on, this is the kind of cheap trash you'll be wearing."

He had never forgotten the look on Lauren's face during their first date, when she'd taken one look at his old, faded clothes.

"Come on. I'm taking you shopping," she'd said, her eyes full of disdain. "Anyone dressed like that has no business standing next to me."

Those words had cut deep, destroying the small warmth that had begun to grow in his heart, along with what remained of his youthful pride.

Lauren bent to pick up the uniform, a bitter smile tugging at her lips.

So that was how he'd seen it. Back then, she'd bought him expensive clothes because she couldn't bear the thought of anyone laughing at him for being poor. She'd wanted to spare him that humiliation, never realizing that her generosity had been a humiliation in itself.

Just then, Yvonne returned with both arms loaded with shopping bags from luxury boutiques, eagerly showing off everything she'd bought.

Yale affectionately stroked her hair. "Buy whatever you like, sweetheart. Only the best and most expensive things. Your boyfriend can afford it."

Lauren had once said those very words to him.

Now that Yale had made something of himself, he could finally say them too. Only this time, he was saying them to Yvonne.

Lauren changed into the cheap polyester uniform. Static crackled against her skin, and before long, an itchy red rash had spread across her body.

Meanwhile, Yvonne, dressed in silk, was rummaging through a jewelry box for something to match her dress. When she lifted out a strand of pearls, Lauren's eyes widened in shock.

It was her mother's necklace.

Her grandmother had passed it down to her mother, who had left it to Lauren. It was the only keepsake Lauren had of her.

"Where did you get that necklace?"

When the Scott family went bankrupt, their mansion had been seized before Lauren could retrieve it. She'd asked Yasmin to keep an eye on the auction listings, but they'd never managed to track it down.

"Yale gave it to me." Yvonne casually twirled the necklace around her fingers before sitting down and wrapping it around her ankle. "What do you think? Would it make a cute anklet?"

The instant the pearls touched Yvonne's foot, Lauren lunged forward.

Hearing Yvonne scream, Yale rushed over to find her sprawled on the floor while Lauren clutched the necklace, her eyes blazing.

"Yale, she stole my necklace!"

His face darkened. "Lauren, you still have the nerve to bully Vonnie? Give it back."

"It belonged to my mother. It's all I have left of her." Lauren bit her lip as she spoke.

Yale hesitated, but Yvonne gave a scornful snort. "How vain can you be? Every time you see something expensive, you claim it belonged to your mother."

Disgust returned to Yale's eyes, and he reached for the necklace.

"You really haven't changed a bit, have you, Lauren?"

He tried to wrench it from her hands, but Lauren refused to let go. In the struggle, the strand snapped, scattering pearls across the floor.

Each one seemed to strike Lauren straight through the heart.

Yvonne gave another dismissive snort. "Yale, if Lauren wants it that badly, let her have it. Of course, now that it's broken, I'm afraid our precious Miss Scott will have to crawl around and pick up every last pearl herself."

Yale lowered his gaze, his expression impossible to read. Then he suddenly caught Lauren by the chin, his voice low and hoarse.

"Lauren, tell me you were wrong. Tell me you should never have abandoned me. Beg me. Do whatever it takes to please me. Make me want to treat you well."

Lauren suddenly laughed, wild and full of mockery.

"Yale Sutton, I'll tell you one more time. I did nothing to wrong you back then. My family forced me to break up with you and get engaged to Henry Hartwell."

Something dark stirred in Yale's eyes. Slowly, he straightened and brought his foot down on one of the pearls, grinding it against the floor.

"No!"

Lauren cried out in horror and grabbed his foot with both hands, but she couldn't budge him.

"If you don't start crawling, I'll crush every last one."

Panic-stricken, Lauren scrambled across the floor on her knees, gathering the scattered pearls one by one. Her tears fell among them as she picked them up, clutching each one tightly in her palm.

Yale watched her with an expression so conflicted it was impossible to tell what he was thinking. Finally, he turned and left, his face thunderous.

Lauren had just reached for the final pearl when a lavishly decorated high heel came down hard on her hand.

It was Yvonne.

"Doesn't seem fair, does it, Lauren?" she whispered. "Yale's rich and successful now, and after everything you did to help him get there, I'm the one who gets to enjoy the rewards."

She pressed down harder.

"So what if you were born into privilege? Look at you now. You're still beneath my feet."

Her voice was barely audible, low enough that only Lauren could hear.

"And you know what's even better? All those things you secretly did for Yale, all the sacrifices you made and everything you suffered for him? He thinks I did it all. He's so grateful to me."

Yvonne ground the pointed toe of her shoe into Lauren's hand, sending excruciating pain shooting through her fingers.

Lauren trembled from head to toe, but somehow, she managed to lift her head and meet Yvonne's gaze.

"Yvonne, hate is just another form of love. The more Yale hates me, the more he loves me."