Chapter 3

I clutched my instantly red and swollen face, looking at Ramon in disbelief.

She shook her tingling hand, the innocent, harmless expression on her face utterly gone, replaced only by malice and venom.

"You heard everything, didn't you? Andrews will be mine very soon. Why are you shamelessly clinging to him? Aren't you pathetic?"

"You love throwing yourself at men so much, why don't you go work at a nightclub?"

"Oh, right, you're so worthless, paying for love for seven years and still not getting a title. You're only good enough for broke losers."

My head buzzed. I watched her malicious face open and close, shaking with anger.

Just as I was about to speak, she suddenly let out a shriek, violently ripped the strap of her dress, and dramatically fell backward.

"Pegula!" Andrews' cold, furious voice exploded behind me.

He lunged forward, carefully helped Ramon up, and held her tightly in his arms.

Ramon cried beautifully, like a tragic actress, as if she'd suffered the greatest injustice.

"Andrews, it's my fault. I shouldn't have come between you two. It's all my fault; I'm the wicked homewrecker."

Saying this, she raised her hand and slapped herself hard twice across the face.

Andrews immediately grabbed her hand, his face contorting in pain as he looked at her swollen cheeks.

"Who told you these things?"

Ramon bit her lip hard, shaking her head frantically. "Please don't ask, Andrews, I beg you."

But her eyes flickered with terror toward me, as if I was some monstrous threat.

"A girl from an ordinary family like me can't possibly stand up to Pegula. She has so many influential people helping her; I can't fight her..."

"Andrews, please let me go. I don't want to get acid splashed on me on the street later..."

His brow furrowed, and a scrutinizing, displeased gaze fell upon me.

"Explain!"

I lowered the hand covering my face, revealing clear five-finger marks. "You should ask her what she said to me."

"Pegula!" Ramon shrieked shrilly. "Yes, I hit you, but that's because you called my parents country bumpkins and said you'd make sure they couldn't show their faces in their hometown!"

"They're innocent! If you're still not satisfied, hit me back! I beg you, don't go after my parents!"

I was so angry my vision blurred. "You're making things up! I never—"

"Enough!"

Andrews interrupted me coldly, his eyes filled with a thick, suffocating wave of disappointment.

"Pegula, I've indulged you too much."

"Do you think just because you're an orphan, I can't do anything to you?"

Perhaps my heart was already numb, or perhaps I had expected this.

I actually laughed.

"So, how do you plan to stick up for your fiancée?"

He walked toward me step by step, reached out, and slowly, deliberately, took off the necklace I had worn for seven years.

It was a birthday gift I bought for him with the prize money from my first competition.

He turned and said to his assistant, "Call the police. Tell them Ms. Ramon's design drafts were stolen, and the thief was caught red-handed."

I forgot how to react, my mind utterly blank.

Andrews was notorious in the industry for playing favorites.

He had protected me under his wings for seven years; no one in the entire industry dared to pull any stunts on me.

But now, he was the one who personally plunged the knife into my back.

Andrews clutched the necklace, his cold, detached expression appearing utterly foreign in my blurry, tear-filled vision.

"Pegula, you're too disobedient."

"This time it's stealing design drafts; what next? Are you going to ruin Ramon's hands?"

"Go spend some time cooling off and thinking about what you've done."

"Don't worry, it won't be for long. When you get out, I'll personally pick you up."

I forced a wry smile.

Watching the police approach me, as the cold handcuffs clicked shut on my wrists, I forcefully pulled my hand from his grasp.

The sudden emptiness in his palm made Andrews instinctively frown. He stared at my resolute back, suddenly seized by a panic that he might never be able to hold onto me again.

Ramon, however, was quicker. She linked her arm through his, her voice sweet and syrupy.