Chapter 3

On the way back to the hotel, it started raining. The rain felt so cold it seemed to pierce into my heart.

Brooks was already waiting at the hotel entrance.

When he saw me, he got out of the car with an umbrella, his face wearing its usual smile.

"Alexis, when will you break the habit of forgetting your umbrella in the rain?"

I stared at the hand holding the umbrella. Brooks was still wearing the ring from when he proposed to me.

I found it laughable, but I was too exhausted to laugh.

The wet, sticky coat clung to my body, making my voice tremble when I spoke:

"Brooks, how far do you have to go before you'll stop?"

"I used to like you, depend on you, but I never did anything to hurt you, did I?"

"On our anniversary, I'd been preparing for quite a while."

"The gift I got you—I saved up half a year's salary for it."

"Back then I even thought, I'm about to get my full-time position, and once things stabilize, we can move to a slightly bigger place."

"Why," I looked up at him, "why do you have to treat me this way? Why does it have to be me?!"

Brooks didn't respond. His eyes fell on my hand instead. "Where's the ring?"

The ring he'd proposed with in the rental apartment. I'd worn it for six whole years.

It wasn't that he'd never bought me new rings, but I just loved that one.

"I lost it." I turned to walk back inside. "Do whatever else you want, Brooks. My answer won't change."

Unexpectedly, Brooks backed down.

He said he could stay out of my employment situation, but he had one condition.

"What?"

He gestured at the increasingly heavy rain. "It's cold. Can we go inside to talk?"

The hotel I'd found on short notice was very basic.

Brooks waited until I changed out of my soaked coat before speaking.

He sent me an address, saying there was a reception tomorrow night and asking me to come for a final goodbye.

But on the way there the next day, for some reason, my heart suddenly started pounding violently.

It was a high-end club, the kind of place I wouldn't normally even glance at.

Brooks's private room was on the top floor.

I saw many people inside.

I saw that the bottles of alcohol they casually opened could buy my cheap rental apartment.

In that moment, I finally had a concrete sense of Brooks's current status and the gap between us.

There, I also saw Laurient from the Tony family.

She sat beside Brooks, beautiful and radiant.

Before I could figure out why Laurient was there, I suddenly heard her say she had a surprise for Brooks.

Vaguely, I seemed to hear my name.

I suddenly tensed up.

Laurient knew about my existence.

I watched her casually make a phone call to someone.

After a few brief sentences, the smile on her face grew even brighter, carrying the satisfaction of a successful prank.

She tilted her head, studying his expression as she asked,

"I accidentally got Alexis fired. You won't blame me, will you, Brooks?"

I stood there numbly, feeling coldness slowly penetrate my limbs.

Until it climbed to my heart, bringing sharp, tingling pain.

So Laurient's "surprise" was destroying the job I'd just gotten today.

Brooks sat beside her, watching her calmly.

He didn't interrupt, didn't blame Laurient, didn't even change his expression.

I'd never found that indifferent face of his so disgusting.

He'd clearly promised me he wouldn't interfere with my work.

I suddenly remembered what I'd said yesterday.

I remembered that inscrutable smile on Brooks's face before he left yesterday.

I'd thought that because of what I said, he was slightly moved, had the tiniest bit of pity for me.

But there was nothing.

When Brooks smiled then, was he laughing at me like I was a pathetic, ridiculous clown?

A clown who used to be played by him, yet was busy planning an impossible future with him.

But now this clown still had to go find him.

Because I saw Laurient reach out and pull a jade pendant on a black woven cord from around Brooks's neck.

I slowly blinked.

Finally seeing clearly what was in her hand—it was the pendant my mom left me, my only keepsake of her.

So when Brooks suggested going to my hotel room yesterday, it wasn't because he was cold, and it wasn't because he was actually willing to back down.

It was to find this.