Chapter 4

Back home, I wrote out the IOU and signed it.

Faith happened to get a call from one of her girlfriends right then.

"I heard your Sebastian's startup crashed and burned again?"

"Yeah. Failed."

"Ha, the guy really can't catch a break."

"Everyone else makes it. He's the only one who flops."

Faith shot me a glance, her eyes full of disdain.

"He's just slow."

"Honestly, maybe he's just not cut out for business."

"Faith, you should stop pushing him too."

"If it really doesn't work, just have him go get a job somewhere."

"What's the point of bankrolling him day after day?"

"No way!"

Faith refused flat out. "I've invested so much in him, poured so much money into him. If he dares not to succeed, I'll haunt him from the grave before I let him off."

Here we go again.

I sighed.

The startups were her idea, forced on me. I never once asked for any of it.

But once they failed,

every bit of blame landed on me.

After she hung up,

Faith dug up a stack of entrepreneur success stories, memoirs, and videos and told me to memorize them.

The old me would have watched every one of them, nerves on edge, then memorized them all.

But this time,

I dumped the whole pile straight into the trash.

Faith stared at me like she couldn't believe it.

"What are you doing?"

"You keep forcing me to study other people's lives. I can't learn to be them."

"Can't you show some backbone, let me hold my head up just once?"

"Sorry. I'm just me."

"From now on, I'm only going to be myself."

I turned and went back into the room.

Faith was shaking with rage.

That night, she deliberately slept on the couch, refusing to share a bed with me.

She meant it as punishment, but I felt nothing but light.

The next day, she cooked a whole spread of good food herself.

"Sebastian, these are all your favorites."

"Eat up."

I shook my head. "I don't like them."

"What?"

Seeing the confusion on her face, I smiled. "I used to say I loved them because you made them with your own hands. Even when they were too salty to swallow, I told myself they tasted like heaven."

With that, I ordered delivery right in front of her.

She watched me dig in like I was enjoying every bite.

Her brow knotted deep. "I want you to succeed, and you want to leave me. Do you have any idea how many men would kill for a chance like this?"

I made a face. "I don't know whether they would or not. All I know is I don't want it."

"You won't let me go? Fine. Then I'll drag it out with you."

"Drag it out until you're old and worn."

"As for the startups..."

"To hell with them."

"Whoever wants to do it can do it."

"I'm never starting another business."

Faith bit down hard on her lip, tears spilling over.

"So you're happy to be a nobody your whole life?"

"I just want to breathe for once."

Faith went quiet all of a sudden.

After a long moment,

she seemed to come around to something. "Since you don't want to succeed, I won't push you anymore. You can't polish dirt into gold anyway. Once you've paid back every cent you owe me, we're done, no more ties between us."

"But let me remind you. You've got no money. The only way you'll manage it is to sell your grandmother's old house."

"She's almost eighty, and she'll be out on the street."

"You sure you really want to split up?"