Chapter 2

She had a small mole on her index finger.

Exactly like Priscilla Cooley.

She was Priscilla Cooley!

My heart churned in an instant, and even my fingertips couldn't stop trembling.

I was afraid that if Priscilla really took this debit card, I'd never see her again.

And I also genuinely hoped Priscilla would take this debit card. She must have run into some kind of trouble, to pretend to be the valedictorian college student and come to the Cox family.

Better to take the money and leave, so she wouldn't be humiliated by Tracey Cox again.

But Priscilla did neither.

Her fingers slid slowly along the debit card to the back of my hand, and finally her whole hand closed around my wrist and pulled hard.

Caught off guard, I stumbled a step forward and fell right onto Priscilla.

Priscilla wrapped her arms around my shoulders, and her low, husky voice sounded in my ear: "Big brother, I don't want money. I only want to be with you."

My heart pounded wildly.

She wasn't the first to say that.

Tracey Cox and every person she'd sent over had said it—as long as I would accept them, it was a million dollars a time, with no upper limit.

So those people pulled out every trick they had.

Blunt seduction, coy temptation, sweet talk, playing hard to get—they had it all.

But all of it together couldn't compare to that one sentence from Priscilla.

It made me drop my armor and collapse in an instant.

By the time I came to my senses, I'd already answered, "Okay."

Before Priscilla could even react, Tracey Cox's smile faded first. Her gaze at me turned heavy, her thin lips pressed into a tight line.

She seemed unaware of her own expression, until Paddy Walker spoke up, his eyes red: "Tracey, you're hurting me."

Only then did Tracey Cox realize she'd been gripping Paddy's arm so hard it had bruised.

In an instant, her thoughts snapped back into place, and the gloom in her eyes turned into that familiar sneer as she said to me, "Allan Dudley, so you finally can't keep up the act."

I couldn't be bothered to deal with her at all, and just took Priscilla straight out the door.

I went to the hospital first, worried that the kick from Tracey Cox might have left some injury on Priscilla.

Once I was sure she was fine, I took her straight to the mall.

Priscilla had delicate skin; if the fabric of her clothes was even slightly rough, she'd break out in a rash all over.

I took her shopping for a long time before we finally headed home loaded with bags.

The moment I opened the door, I saw Paddy Walker sitting on the sofa, wearing my pajamas.

His eyes reddened as soon as he saw me, and he stood up timidly: "Big brother, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wear your clothes."

"I'm clumsy and accidentally broke the vase in the living room and got my clothes wet, so Tracey gave me big brother's clothes to wear..."

I looked over at the shelf in the living room.

Whether it was provocation or she'd genuinely forgotten to clean it up, the broken vase was still where it lay.

Porcelain shards were scattered everywhere, just like my true heart.

I thought I should feel sad.

This vase had been a gift from Tracey Cox when we first got married.

A Song Dynasty Longquan celadon interlocking-neck vase, which Tracey Cox had won at an overseas auction for thirty-six million dollars.

When a reporter asked her why she'd paid such a high price for the antique, Tracey Cox smiled into the camera: "To take home for my husband, to hold the flowers he likes."

From then on, everyone knew how passionate Tracey Cox's love for me was.

But I simply couldn't summon the slightest energy to be angry. I could even calmly say to Paddy, "It's just a vase. Broken is broken."

The words had barely left my mouth when I heard the sound of a phone dropping onto the floor not far away.

I looked up and saw Tracey Cox standing on the stairs.