Chapter 3

When we got home, Charlie opened the car door for me.

Under the dim courtyard lights, I studied that handsome face and suddenly remembered the first time he met my father.

My father had been drinking coffee, asking him what his plans were.

He'd said he wanted to start a business, to help me expand the family empire.

My father had smiled and simply said, "Ambitious."

Later, he'd delivered on that promise.

The subsidiary company he managed had launched a new brand.

In just five years, the brand's valuation had increased tenfold.

The people in our social circle who'd once mocked Charlie for marrying into my family now addressed him respectfully as "Mr. Charlie."

Too bad shortcuts have a way of making you forget how you got to where you are.

I looked at Charlie standing before me and brushed an invisible speck off his shoulder.

"By next week at the latest, transfer Audrey to the European division."

Charlie frowned. "She's still managing core projects—"

I raised my eyes, my voice calm. "I'm informing you, not asking for your input."

Charlie pressed his lips together. "Laura, you know nothing's happened between Audrey and me."

I nodded, looking down to smooth the pale fabric of my dress.

"Charlie, do you know why I passed over so many excellent strategic matches and chose to marry you?"

Charlie's expression turned uncomfortable.

Back then, when we'd gotten together, he'd been the one to push open my bedroom door and offer himself.

I smiled, unconcerned.

"Because you're smart. You knew you had no background, no connections—but your ambition and hunger were strong enough that you refused to settle. So you came to me."

"And what I valued was exactly that refusal to settle. People who refuse to settle claw their way up. They treat the family business like their own life, fighting for it with everything they have. I needed someone like that."

He stood in the shadows, his expression dazed.

I touched his face.

"Charlie, these past five years you've exceeded my expectations. I trust you won't disappoint me going forward, will you?"

He stood in the shadows, silent. I couldn't make out his expression.

I smiled and walked past him into the house.

If he knew when to advance and when to retreat, I wouldn't mind helping him climb even higher.

The next morning, the butler told me Charlie had stood in the courtyard for half the night.

I sipped my coffee and raised an eyebrow at the latest personnel announcement on my phone.

Rushed and bare-bones, but apparently effective immediately.

Audrey had been transferred to Europe.

The matter should have ended there, naturally.

But a year later, during the holidays, I found Audrey at Charlie's parents' house.

She answered the door, then casually took the gift bags from my assistant's hands with familiar ease.

"Miss Laura, long time no see."

She smiled warmly, wearing an apron and the slippers I usually wore when I visited.

"Come in, come in. I'm cooking today—don't be shy, eat as much as you like."

Charlie's mother stood in the living room, wringing her hands nervously.

"Laura's here... come in, come in..."

I lifted my chin slightly, my face cold as I stared at Audrey.

"Are you going to leave on your own, or should I have someone help you leave?"

Her lips twitched, but she maintained her composure as she spoke.

"Miss Laura, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have come."

"I've always treated Charlie's mother like my own. I used to visit often to keep her company, go shopping with her."

"This past year I was transferred to Europe, and I felt so empty inside. So the moment I got time off, I wanted to come back to see her, and to see... everyone."

I let out a cold laugh, seizing on her deliberately ambiguous tone.

"Audrey, do you think I'm an idiot?"

"I let you off once. Did you think that made me soft-hearted and merciful?"

"Last time. Are you leaving or not?"

I raised my hand slightly. Security guards nearby moved in closer.

"Miss Laura!"

Audrey's voice turned sharp and shrill, her face showing undisguised defiance and humiliation.

"I know you look down on me. You were born with privilege, with luck, with an amazing husband like Mr. Charlie. But what gives you the right to trample me underfoot?"

"People like us aren't like you. We fight with everything we have just to get a little bit. We cherish every little thing we manage to get. What's wrong with that?"

The living room fell silent.

I turned my head toward Charlie, who'd just finished a phone call and walked in.

"When she says 'us,' does that include you?"