All Chapters of The Gold Digger Who Left: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Early the next morning, I started packing.Three years of my life fit into two suitcases.I'd just zipped the second one shut when the apartment door opened. Vivian walked in with Tristan behind her. Everyone who'd laughed at me the night before came in after them.Not one of them looked embarrassed about letting themselves in. They circled my luggage and started offering opinions."He actually packed.""If you're going to put on a show, commit to it. Those cases are probably empty.""I say he folds before tonight.""Tonight? That's generous. Three hours."Tristan held up one finger, completely sure of himself."One hour."All Vivian has to do is offer him this apartment and he won't go anywhere."Someone gave him a thumbs-up."Leave it to Tristan. Right in his wheelhouse.""He lived off rich women for years. Of course he can spot one of his own."They all cracked up.I ignored them, crouched down by the suitcase, and slid my ID and passport into the inner pocket.Vivia

Before heading to the airport, I'd arranged for a courier to take the boxes I'd packed to the Vivian.Somehow they were taken to the private club. Somebody posted an unboxing video in the group chat.The scarf, the keychain, and the tie Vivian had given me were all in there, along with the handful of cards she'd written me over the years.At the bottom was an itemized statement.For three years I'd written down every dollar Vivian covered on meals, trips, and the time we shared the apartment. After subtracting my share, the balance came to fifteen thousand eight hundred dollars.I transferred it to her account, every cent.In the video, someone picked up the statement and doubled over laughing."What is this, an invoice? Three years of companionship, itemized?""Fifteen grand out of a rich woman in three years. He must feel robbed.""No wonder he's pretending to move out. He's trying to get Vivian to raise the rate."Tristan pulled the statement away and skimmed it."He made

Adrian's POVIt was afternoon locally when I landed.A coworker the company had sent helped with my luggage and grinned at me."Mr. Harris said you turned down two of these before. What made it click this time?"I looked out the car window at streets I'd never seen."There's nothing left back home I can't stand to leave. Makes the decision easy."On the way to the project office, my phone rang.Whoever it was stayed silent for a few seconds before speaking."You made it?"It was Vivian. Her voice was quiet and rough, like she'd been crying."I did.""When are you coming back?"I almost laughed. She hadn't asked if I was all right or how the trip was. She'd just decided I ought to come back."The contract's clear. Three years.""Don't hide behind the contract."She sniffed, and her voice went soft."Adrian, if you want the apartment, take it. If you want to get married, I'll say yes."Just don't leave me here on my own, okay? I don't even care if you are a gold digger.

Vivian tightened her grip on the phone."I found out the truth about the necklace.""All right.""You saved for six months.""And?"She clearly hadn't expected me to sound so calm."I didn't know at the time.""You didn't know, or you never once thought to find out?"I stood in the corridor outside the project office and watched the sun drop behind a skyline I didn't recognize."Denise was standing right there and the receipt was in my hand. One question would have told you everything."But Tristan called me a gold digger, and you believed him.""He got in my head.""The first time too?"I kept my voice low."He called and said you'd been in an accident. I came through that hospital door in tears, and you were sitting there laughing with them."The second time, my mother was in the hospital with a fever that scared me. I rode five hours to get back to you, and you watched them laugh again."Did Tristan get in your head every single time?"Vivian's breathing went tight.

Vivian's hands froze in the air."I can change.""You've said that before."After the first fake accident, she promised nobody would pull that again.After the second, she said Tristan just talked too much.At the mall, she said she'd only gone too far, and told me to take her card and buy something I liked.Every time, she thought the problem was how she'd said it.Not that she had never once believed me."I'll make a public statement," she said. "I'll tell everyone you were never a gold digger.""I don't need that.""Then I'll stay here with you.""I don't need that either."She finally broke."Then tell me what to do! Adrian, whatever it is, I'll do it.""I told you. Many times."I'd told her those jokes cut deep.I'd told her I didn't want Tristan walking into our home whenever he felt like it.I'd asked her to stop testing us with fake emergencies.I'd told her I was with her for her, not for the money.She never listened to any of it.Now that I had nothing le