Chapter 3

Stephanie wasn't sleepy at all in the middle of the night.

She was starting to get thirsty, so she exited her bedroom for a glass of water. But when she walked past Tyler's bedroom, she found out that there was a gap in the door. A dim yellow light could be seen spilling from within the room.

After overhearing the phone call last night, Stephanie had used her discomfort as an excuse to move to the guest bedroom for the time being.

At that moment, faint sounds could be heard coming from Tyler's bedroom. They sounded awfully suggestive.

Soon, Tyler's quiet, breathless words were punctuated by a pant. "Kiki, stop messing around. We're in my home right now."

"What? Are you worried that she might find out about us?" Kiara's honeyed voice soon followed. "Ty, what are you afraid of? We're the ones who are legally married to each other."

"Kiki!" Tyler's voice suddenly became stern. "What happened between us is a thing of the past."

"Ty—"

"I wouldn't have married you if not for the fact that I needed to help you shake off your abusive ex-husband. I've dated Steph for five years. She's my girlfriend, Kiki. In the future, she will become my actual wife. Once your matter is resolved for good, we'll get—"

The rest of his sentence completely vanished. More suggestive sounds came from Tyler's room once again.

Having regained her senses, Stephanie finally realized how badly her hands were shaking at the moment. A trace of mockery was quick to cross her eyes.

Tyler was a man who was six feet and two inches tall. If he didn't want to have anything to do with Kiara, there was no way she'd be able to kiss him by force.

If he truly wanted to help Kiara get rid of her abusive ex-husband, was marrying her really the only option?

Those two shameless bastards just wanted to screw each other in bed, yet they felt the need to come up with such reasons just to justify their actions!

"Ty, don't you miss us being a couple? Stephanie can't even pleasure you the way I do!"

"Kiki…" Tyler's voice was extremely hoarse at that point. Clearly, he was extremely horny for Kiara.

After that, sounds of the couple being entangled in each other's passion could be heard coming from Tyler's bedroom.

Stephanie had already recorded their conversation with her phone. All she felt at the moment was nausea and disgust. Finally, she rushed into the bathroom and began dry-heaving into the sink repeatedly.

How disgusting… and ridiculous.

Upon leaving the bathroom, Stephanie received a text from the client. Apparently, a problem had emerged in the project, so she needed to make changes to the details overnight. She was already exhausted by then, but she had no choice but to burn more midnight oil for the project.

After turning on her computer, Stephanie suddenly recalled a memory from the past. Back then, Tyler had joined the election campaign to become the next student president. She busied herself running around canvassing votes for him, already losing count of how many times she put on forced smiles or how much effort she had put into helping Tyler.

Once Tyler successfully became the student president, she ran herself ragged, dealing with everything there was in the student council. After their graduation from university, she joined his company and burned herself out for the sake of his career.

Stephanie's stomach was starting to hurt. The pinpricks of pain were what snapped her out of her memories.

This would be the last time she helped Tyler. Besides, she wasn't doing this entirely for him—she wanted to wrap up this project purely because she and her team members had spent half a year working on it.

Countless memories flashed through Stephanie's mind. She remembered the five years' worth of contributions she had made toward Tyler, the immense pain she had suffered in the car accident two years ago, the pain of losing her leg, as well as watching her dream to dance shatter before her eyes, as well as the lewd sounds made by Tyler and Kiara when they were screwing in Tyler's bedroom earlier.

After Stephanie investigated everything related to the car accident, she vowed to make the shameless couple pay the price.

…

Early in the morning, Stephanie smelled the delicious aroma of freshly-cooked food the moment she stepped out of her bedroom. She turned around to see Tyler frying eggs in the kitchen. There was also bacon being fried on the side.

Kiara stood at the kitchen doorway while gazing at him smilingly. "It's been so many years, Ty. In the end, the breakfast that you make is the most appetizing to me."

"Wait for me at the kitchen table."

As Tyler spoke, he turned around to look at Kiara, only to accidentally make eye contact with Stephanie.

"Steph!" He smiled at her gently, just like how he did every morning in the past. "Good morning."

Stephanie's lips merely curled into a self-deprecating smile.

Tyler had never cooked for her over the past three years. Even when she drank too much to the point her stomach hurt during business negotiations on his behalf, he had never served her breakfast. All he did was order someone else to bring food over.

All this time, Stephanie had thought that Tyler wasn't the type who knew how to cook. It turned out that she didn't deserve to be pampered like that.