Chapter 4

"Looking at storefronts? You are opening another location already?"

She nodded, her excitement impossible to hide.

"Yep. My boyfriend is a senior executive at a major company, so I cannot fall too far behind, right?

"You know, he even took a whole day off just to go look at storefronts with me."

My hand tightened into a fist at my side.

"Did you know your boyfriend already has a family?

"He did not take the day off to look at storefronts with you. He took the day off to take his wife home to visit his in-laws."

The moment I said that, all the color drained from Whitney's face.

My suspicion had been confirmed.

"So you actually knew all along that your boyfriend was married."

"No. I did not know." She panicked and tried to force me out of the shop, but I snatched her phone away.

Whitney had recently started doing online flower-arranging classes, and she went live at exactly four every afternoon.

The timing was perfect.

I turned the phone's camera toward her face and spoke sharply.

"Whitney, the money your boyfriend used to open this flower shop for you and buy flowers for you came from marital assets. As his legal wife, I have the right to demand my share of that money back."

Her face went deathly pale and she kept avoiding the camera.

"When you knew he had a wife and still chose to get involved with him, did you ever think about how your actions would hurt someone else?

"You are young and beautiful. Why go after a man who already belongs to someone else? Do you really think something is better just because you stole it from someone?"

The livestream was instantly flooded with vicious comments, most of them directed at Whitney. She obviously saw them too, because she could not hold back her sobs.

"Turn it off! Turn it off right now!"

Before I could say another word, someone suddenly snatched the phone from my hand and smashed it against the floor.

A second later, a powerful shove sent me crashing to the ground.

My elbow slammed hard against a nearby flowerpot. Pain shot through my arm, and cold sweat instantly broke out across my body.

"Joshua, I did not. I did not."

Whitney threw herself into his arms, crying so hard her whole face was streaked with tears.

After calming her down, Joshua turned to me. The look in his eyes was the kind I would give an enemy I could never forgive.

"Lucia, you have lost your mind!

"Get online right now and clear things up for Whitney. Tell everyone you were just fooling around because you lost a bet with a friend. Then give her a proper apology."

"Why should I?"

He was silent for three seconds. Then he spoke coldly.

"Because I am the one who got the special medication your mother is taking. It’s imported through a friend.

"Unless you want to watch your mother suffer from her illness every day because of your stubbornness."

Joshua completely ignored the disbelief on my face. He carefully helped Whitney over to the couch and lowered her into the seat. Then he leaned down and whispered something to her. His voice was too soft for me to hear.

However, I could see his hand resting on her back, gently patting her over and over. The gesture was so tender, like he was soothing a frightened baby.

He was certain I would give in. That was why he did not look worried in the slightest.

When Whitney's sobs finally began to fade, he turned back to me.

I pushed myself up from the floor. My elbow was burning with pain. When I looked down, I saw that I had scraped off a patch of skin and tiny beads of blood were beginning to seep from the wound.

Joshua's eyes fell on my elbow. He paused for a moment, then looked away.

"Go live right now and clear things up. Whatever you said just now, find a way to explain it away."

Whitney lifted her head from his arms. Her eyes were red, and she had bitten her lips until they had gone pale.

She glanced at me, then nervously edged closer to Joshua.