Chapter 6

Vivian's POV

Yvonne was shocked.

"Vivian, where could you possibly go? Your home is here. Raymond, Rosalind, your company, your friends—everyone is here. Where can you go?"

"Next week, Raymond, Rosalind, and I are emigrating."

I looked at her and explained gently.

"We won't be coming back."

Yvonne's tears spilled over instantly.

"Vivian... are you giving up on Sean?"

"He was the one who betrayed our relationship first."

Yvonne panicked and desperately grabbed my hands.

"Vivian, can you please give Sean one more chance? He might just be temporarily confused and hasn't realized what he's doing. Once he wakes up, he'll definitely regret this for the rest of his life!"

My expression darkened.

"Yvonne, he's been having an affair for a year already."

"What?"

The clutch in Yvonne's hand slipped and clattered to the floor.

She didn't even bother to pick it up. She just stood there, dazed and utterly bewildered.

"A year? How is that possible? He loved you so much."

Yes, he loved me so much.

He had loved me since we were children. His love was so legendary that everyone in Los Angeles knew about it. Even Yvonne, his own sister, couldn't believe he would ever have a change of heart.

I let out a bitter, self-deprecating laugh.

"Yvonne, don't tell Sean that I'm leaving. If you do, I won't be able to get away."

Yvonne understood what I meant.

Given Sean's ruthless methods and obsession, if he found out beforehand, I wouldn't even be able to step out of my front door.

Even Raymond and Rosalind would likely be dragged into it.

She threw her arms around me and sobbed.

"I'm so sorry, Vivian. Sean is such a bastard! How could he do this to you?"

"If you leave, does that mean I'll never see you again?"

I gently patted her back to comfort her.

"Of course not. I'm just moving abroad, not going into hiding. You can come visit me anytime you're on break."

Though I said that, we both knew in our hearts that things would never be the same.

We used to be best friends, and even more than that, we were family.

Now, Yvonne would always be the sister of my cheating ex-husband. The dynamic would be incredibly awkward.

Yvonne sobbed until she could barely breathe.

For the next few days after the gala, Sean acted like he was throwing a petulant tantrum. He didn't come home once, nor did he contact me.

Or rather, he was deliberately throwing a fit.

He was furious that I had "bullied" his side chick in public. He was angry on her behalf, so he was giving me the cold shoulder on purpose to teach me a lesson.

I didn't bother looking for him, yet I was never short of updates about him.

Joy's Moments were updated every single day.

During the day, she accompanied Mr. Sterling to meetings and handled office work; at night, she joined him for business dinners and social events.

Late at night, she would post a dimly lit photo of a shirtless man sleeping on the pillow beside her.

The caption read:

[Our own sweet little moments.]

After reading it, I quietly exited the screen.

My heart remained completely undisturbed.

There was only one thing left that could affect my emotions now.

The Vance Group's very last project—the Marina New District Development—was up for bidding next week.

I had been working on this project for over six months, revising the proposal dozens of times.

Winning this bid would be the perfect grand finale for the Vance Group, allowing Raymond, Rosalind, and me to leave with peace of mind.

I was absolutely determined to win this contract.

But on the day of the bidding, the colleague who went to submit our proposal returned with a deathly pale face.

"Ms. Vance, we lost."

"How is that possible?"

I stood up abruptly.

"A new company showed up at the evaluation. Their proposal was almost identical to ours in concept, even matching our phased development plan. But their quote was slightly lower. When the two proposals were compared, they were cheaper, so the judges had no reason to choose us."

"Which company?"

"A small company called Jiaoning. We've never heard of them before. They seem to have just been established."

I didn't have time to dig into the shady details of their quote and proposal.

The consequences of losing this bid were severe, and I had to resolve this crisis immediately.

For this bid, the Vance Group had invested a massive amount of capital upfront, draining all the cash from our accounts.

With the project falling through, any hope of recovering those funds vanished. The banks immediately tightened our credit line, and our partners sent urgent payment notices overnight.

Our cash flow was on the verge of breaking; the Vance Group was in critical danger.

With red-rimmed eyes, the CFO reported that the remaining funds on our books were barely enough to cover this month's payroll.

I immediately called an overnight meeting with our executives to discuss self-rescue measures.

We applied to the bank for a loan extension, but they politely declined.

We scheduled meetings with investors to discuss capital injection, but they turned us down politely as well.

As every single avenue closed off, my father's life's work was on the verge of going up in smoke.

In my dark office late at night, I opened the contact list on my phone.

The screen hovered over Sean's name.

I knew that with just one word from Sean, the Vance Group could be brought back to life.

But I didn't want to have anything to do with him ever again.

I wanted to leave cleanly, cutting all ties once and for all.

Yet, I couldn't bear to watch my father's lifelong hard work go down in ruins either.

My finger hovered over the screen, unable to press down.

Just as my fingertip was about to touch the dial button, the phone suddenly rang.

It was the investigator I had hired to look into Jiaoning.

"Ms. Vance, I've found something."

The investigator's voice sounded incredibly tense.

"Jiaoning was only registered last month. The legal representative is Joy Foster, and the source of their registered capital is... the Sterling Group."

The Sterling Group?

It was Sean.

In an instant, everything clicked.

He was the one who set up a new company for Joy, helping her steal the Vance Group's project.

Perhaps he didn't know that this contract was the Vance Group's final lifeline.

But he certainly knew that I had been busy with this project for over six months, and that I had stayed up late for months on end revising the proposal.

And yet, he simply packaged it up and handed it over to his little mistress.

I burst out laughing.

Sean, you really are something else.

You even went through the trouble of registering a shell company. Were you afraid I'd find out? Afraid I'd be heartbroken?

You can't get any more considerate than that.

As I laughed, tears began to stream down my face.

My chest felt tight and agonizingly painful, and my stomach suddenly churned violently.

I leaned against the edge of the desk and dry-heaved, retching until my vision began to go black in waves.

I tried to brace myself against the corner of the desk, but my hands were so weak I couldn't muster any strength.

As the world spun wildly around me, I lost consciousness.

When I woke up, I was in a hospital ward.

My assistant was guarding my bedside. The moment she saw me open my eyes, her eyes immediately welled up with tears.

She hesitated, but in the end, she spoke up anyway.

"Ms. Vance, the doctor said... you're pregnant. It's been nearly two months."

I froze instantly.

Slowly, I raised my hand and placed it on my lower abdomen.

Flat and warm beneath my palm, a tiny new life had already taken up residence there.

Since the day we got married, Sean and I had longed to have a child.

I had even picked out a name long ago—Yuan Yuan, signifying reunion.

We had waited for five long years, but a child never came.

Now, my company was on the brink of collapse, my husband was sharing a bed with another woman, and my bags were already half-packed.

And of all times, this was when the child finally arrived.