Chapter 4

They walked off with the files, smug and pleased with themselves.

I curled my hands into fists, my eyes turning colder by the second.

Sarah tilted her lips into a smile. "Why not come work for me? Same position, and I'll pay you a hundred times better."

I shook my head. "No. Better to rely on myself than on anyone else."

I borrowed the legal team from Sarah's company.

Once I'd handed the lawyers every piece of evidence I had of Rufus's affair, along with all the other documents,

I went to the Gilbert Group.

My former coworkers stared me down, muttering behind my back.

I ignored them, packed up my things, and turned to leave.

Flora blocked my way.

"I suspect you're walking out with company secrets. Someone, search her!"

I knocked away the man who stepped toward me. "What proof do you have?"

A coworker snatched my bag. "Proof? Who needs proof?"

"Our director standing right here is proof enough!"

"She's an overseas PhD. You're just a run-of-the-mill college grad. What are you acting so high and mighty for?"

I let out a cold laugh. "Aren't you a run-of-the-mill college grad too? Barking because your master lets you."

He backed off, red-faced and furious.

Flora lifted her nose in the air. "Someone as broke and shabby as you, of course you'd walk off with company secrets. This is perfectly reasonable suspicion."

"You little thief. You stole another woman's boyfriend, and now you're stealing company secrets too!"

She lifted a cup of coffee and poured it straight over my head.

Most of my clothes were soaked through, and she laughed like a lunatic.

I slapped her across the face.

She shrieked, cursing between her teeth.

The next second, Rufus rushed over, pulled her behind him, and raised his hand to hit me.

Then stopped it midway down.

"Pauline, can you not make a scene here?"

The onlookers chimed in one after another.

"Exactly, a whore trying to play the saint!"

"Homewrecker! I used to think she and Mr. Gilbert were a couple. Turns out she's been the one chasing after him this whole time! Shameless!"

My throat felt stuffed with cotton. I swept my eyes over them, turned, and walked out.

When I got home, I found my parents standing outside the door in tears, covered in bruises.

My things were piled at their feet, smashed beyond recognition.

The moment they saw me, they pulled me into their arms.

"It's our fault. If your father and I amounted to something, he'd never have thrown you away."

My expression darkened. "He's the one who cheated. This has nothing to do with you."

I keyed in the code, but it kept flashing an error.

The old code had been our wedding anniversary, Rufus's and mine.

I called Rufus.

"Rufus, do you have any conscience at all? My parents helped you, and you actually sent people to beat them!"

"I didn't..."

Rufus's voice caught, and Flora's voice came through the receiver.

"Who told them to barge into my home? They got what they deserved!"

His voice changed pitch. "Pauline, keep your parents in line!"

Then he hung up.

I settled my parents into a hotel.

The next day, I stormed straight into the press conference.

The reporters camped out there and the passersby surged toward me.

Pointing and whispering.

"Shameless homewrecker! Bullying the real girlfriend, breaking up a couple, then crashing their wedding. Heaven should strike down trash like you!"

"Die, you bully!"

I went straight for the microphone on the stage.

"I admit I was wrong."

"My mistake was believing Rufus truly cared about me."

Rufus froze, then lunged forward to grab the microphone.

My bodyguard hauled him up by the waist.

"Now, I'm going to reveal the evidence of this shameless pair's affair."