Chapter 4

The moment the bottle exploded, the whole private room went dead silent.

"Ah, my head! It hurts like hell," the guy wailed.

"There's blood." Everyone was dumbfounded.

Stella's shirt was all rumpled from the guy yanking at her. Her hair was scattered and wild, making her look more desperate.

She stepped back, her heels clacking loudly against the floor. Tears of panic threatened to spill from her eyes, but she blinked them away, refusing to let them fall.

She drew a sharp breath, whipped out a card, and smacked it right onto the guy's blood-soaked head. "I'll pay for your hospital bills."

With those words, she strode out of the room.

Stella's whole body was trembling as she reached the corner. She looked up and froze.

Two familiar figures suddenly appeared right in front of her, catching her off guard.

Arthur had Margaret pinned against the wall, his hand gripping her chin tightly, tilting her head back as he kissed her hard, over and over.

Stella's tears burst out before she could stop them. She never expected that while she was being harassed by his friend, Arthur was on the other side of the wall, fooling around with Margaret.

It felt like something inside her head snapped. Rage flooded her, unstoppable as a broken dam.

She wanted nothing more than to rush over and rip that fake, hypocritical mask right off Arthur's face. But her rational mind finally dragged her back from the edge.

Arthur was itching to see her humiliated, to watch her fall apart in front of everyone at the shareholders' meeting.

She wiped away her tears, her eyes filled with hatred, as she thought, 'If he wants to give me a surprise, then I'll make sure he gets a payback he'll never see coming.'

*****

That night, Stella came down with a fever again.

The next morning, she woke up feeling weak and started rummaging through all the things Arthur had given her over the past five years.

It included colorful motorcycle models, cheap trinkets from flea markets, and so on. She used to treat every single one like a treasure.

But now she saw it clearly. None of these gifts ever required any real effort or care.

She numbly packed everything into boxes, about to call a maid when the front door was suddenly kicked open.

Arthur appeared, his face cold as ice. Without a word, he hauled her up from the floor and dragged her straight toward the door.

"Ah, Arthur, let go of me," Stella cried, her face twisting in pain.

His hand was gripping the exact spot where the man from last night had scratched her.

Feeling her resistance, Arthur stopped dead, his eyes hard and sharp as knives.

"Did you hit someone with a bottle last night?" Arthur demanded.

Thinking about last night made Stella shake with anger. She glared at Arthur.

Arthur cut her off before she could even get a word out. "Do you know the guy you smashed was Margaret's cousin? Her uncle's pissed and has been chewing her out all night.

"Get up. You're coming with me to apologize to Margaret and her cousin, right now."

He reached out, ready to grab Stella's arm again.

Stella froze, utterly dumbfounded by what Arthur had said. Her lips quivered as she stared at him, "Are you serious? You want me to apologize to them?"

Arthur frowned, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. "I heard all about what happened last night. They were joking around with you. Did you really have to blow it out of proportion?

"You not only hurt him, but you took off right after. Did you seriously think slapping a card on his head would settle everything? Stella, when did you become so irrational?"

Stella suddenly felt like she couldn't breathe, her throat closing up as if something was choking her.

Margaret couldn't handle alcohol, so Arthur would always drink for her without a second thought.

He'd never let Margaret get close to any other guy, but when it was Stella getting pushed around, he stood there and did nothing.

If she dared to stand up for herself, she was accused of making a fuss, of being unreasonable.

It felt like something was crushing her chest, leaving her so miserable that she couldn't get a word out.

Seeing she didn't answer, Arthur moved to grab her again. But in the next second, Stella wrenched her arm free from his grip.

She shot him a sarcastic look. "Arthur, your old friend is the daughter of the one I hate most. Don't tell me you really didn't know?"

Arthur's face didn't twitch. "Stella, Margaret had nothing to do with any of that. She was a kid when your mom died."

'A kid?' Stella scoffed to herself. 'Margaret was already a high schooler back then. She knew exactly what to say to make my sick mom suffer even more.'

Stella dug her nails deep into her palm, letting out a cold laugh. "I definitely won't apologize to anyone from the Turner family. Get out."

Arthur's face darkened, but seeing how upset she was, he suddenly softened and tried to coax her.

He gave a slight smirk. "Sweetheart, isn't marrying me what you've always wanted? Be good and go apologize. If you do, maybe I'll think about proposing to you at your shareholders' meeting."