Chapter 3
He was the one who had someone come after me–yet now he dared to twist the story like that.
At that moment, I finally accepted it–Sebastian, the gentle and kind man I once knew, was gone.
After copying all the surveillance footage from the presidential suite, I handed in my resignation to the company.
The boss tried everything to keep me from leaving. In the end, he just sighed and said sincerely, “A lot of people look down on our industry, but we’re not the ones creating obscene content. We’re the ones cleaning up the mess online.
“What we do matters.”
When I first joined this field, it was all about the paycheck–way better than an average job. I never really thought about the purpose behind it.
And yet, somehow, I found myself back at the Wyndham Hotel.
The lavish decor made me feel completely out of place in my cheap T–shirt and faded jeans. I couldn’t even bring my- self to walk through the front door.
I snuck in through the service corridor while housekeeping stepped out to take the trash, then wandered the floors pre- tending I belonged.
By the time I reached the largest suite at the far end of the top floor, my heart was pounding so hard it hurt.
I was trying to figure out a way in when, to my shock, the door swung open on its own.
Courtney stepped out, completely recovered, and dressed in a designer gown worth more than my entire wardrobe. She froze when she saw me, then let out a mocking laugh. “Are you stalking me or something?
She gave me a once–over and sneered, “Look at those rags. Do you seriously think you belong in a place like this?”
That’s when it hit me–maybe they weren’t just renting this suite by the hour. Maybe they were living here full–time.
A single night in this place probably costs more than what I made in two weeks.
And that dress she was wearing? Worth more than the secondhand wedding gown I wore when I married Sebastian.
“Whatever. I’ll be generous and let you have a peek. Consider it charity. Might as well open your eyes a little.”
Inside, the walls were covered with photos of them together–smiling, embracing, kissing.
There was even one of them down on one knee, proposing.
Everything was beautifully framed and professionally shot–much better than the cheap, awkward wedding photos we
took.
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Chapter 3
208 Vouchers
“Sebastian’s been treating me like a queen. He won’t even let me lift a finger while I’m pregnant,” she whispered in my car, like the devil himself.
And here I was, thinking about all those years I’d stood by him without complaint. Cooking for his buddies, pinching every penny to support him–what a joke.
Not only had his business succeeded, he’d made a fortune….
But he never spent a dime on me.
I ran out of that hotel like my life depended on it and fled straight back to our dingy apartment.
I clutched the half–finished divorce papers in my hand and signed my name without hesitation.
It wasn’t much, this little apartment, but I’d poured my heart into making it a home–hanging up his favorite Picasso print, and fixing the old clock he liked.
I did it all to make him comfortable. But now I realized, the thing he didn’t want to see in this house was me.
While packing, I found an old red string tucked deep in the back of the closet.
A clumsily tied knot–the love knot I’d made back in high school for a craft class.
After school that day, Sebastian had asked for it so earnestly, promising to treasure it forever.
Now it was covered in dust and tossed aside like trash.
The only thing he kept carefully in his desk drawer was a diary–every page filled with sweet nothings, and Court- ney’s name taped right on the front.
Before I left, Sebastian asked me to stop by the Souza’s residence one last time.
I figured I owed Casey and his father, Mark Souza, a proper goodbye, so I hid my luggage and went with him.
Sebastian acted unusually warm and poured me drink after drink.
I wasn’t in the mood to resist. Part of me wanted to drown in it—just get completely wasted for once and let it all out.
When I woke up again, I was back in the apartment.
And that’s when the man with glasses lunged at me, eyes gleaming with something sick and twisted. “I told you, did- n’t I? You were always mine!”
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