Chapter 3

I smirked, looking Eloise up and down.

I sneered, "Amy Byrne, do you really think you're in any position to talk to me like that?

"You think changing your name means you've really moved up in the world? If it weren't for the Winters family's support, you'd still be feeding pigs in some remote village."

"You've gone too far, Noelle!" Oliver snapped.

"Too far?" I sneered. "The Winters family paid for her mom's treatment, sent her overseas for school, and what did we get? An ungrateful traitor who got herself knocked up before marriage and turned into a shameless homewrecker. Tell me, why shouldn't I call her out?"

"Oliver, do you even know how I managed to get out of that backwater back then? It was because..."

"Miss Winters!" Eloise's face went pale, her voice shaking as she interrupted me. "Whatever happened in the past, Oliver is my husband now. He loves me, not you."

I ignored her attempt to change the subject and turned to Oliver.

I said, "Mr. Carter, are you really so broke you can't even get your wife her own credit card? So your precious Mrs. Carter has to bargain over every deal?

"Listen, she just turned around and sold me the recording."

Eloise's voice was low and gloomy. "So this is how you're spreading it? What's the use of this, anyway?"

The man's voice was disguised, but you could still hear the impatience underneath.

He said, "Miss, everything you sent me is pure slander. If you get caught, you'll be looking at jail time, you know that? And with just 150 thousand, you really expect a 1.5 million outcome?"

In the recording, Eloise was practically grinding her teeth. "70 thousand dollars is my max. Just make sure that bitch's scandal blows up..."

Eloise's face went ghostly pale as she looked at Oliver in panic.

"Oliver, I just... I love you so much. I'm really scared you'll abandon me and Tyson again..." she sobbed.

The only sound in the spacious office was Eloise's quiet crying.

After a long moment, Oliver sighed, drew Eloise into his embrace, and gently wiped away her tears. "Don't cry. Let me handle it, alright?"

My chest tightened. So this was how much Oliver loved her.

Did he love her enough to accept everything about her?

Yet when it came to me, he never showed even a shred of warmth.

Noelle looked at Oliver coldly. "So, what do you want?"

I swallowed the ache in my chest and managed a smile. "You be the one to split the project. Do it yourself."

After the scandal broke, Oliver just sat back and waited, clearly hoping I'd lose my cool and pull the plug myself.

That way, the Carter Group's losses would be kept to a minimum.

But I wasn't about to let him get what he wanted.

If he had to be the one to break things off, he'd have to cough up for the losses himself. I wondered if he'd even be able to hold onto his CEO seat after that.

Oliver's face just kept getting colder, and by the end, his fists were shaking from how hard he was clenching them.

"Noelle, you're ruthless," he spat out between clenched teeth.

"Fine. You win. I'll do it," he finally said.

After that day, I went on a rampage against Oliver. My friends could see I was spiraling, and they kept subtly nudging me to go see a therapist.

I had always known there was something wrong with me, and deep down, I knew every bit of it traced back to Oliver.

Before I ever met Oliver, I wasn't some Winters family heiress. I was just a scholarship kid from the sticks who got in because of my grades.

Oliver was crazy about me, but honestly, all I wanted back then was to hit the books and get away from those leeching parents back in the hills.

Then, after the college entrance exams, the only one who ever treated me kindly, Hadassah Yates, passed away. My adoptive parents immediately tried to marry me off.

With nowhere else to turn, I called Oliver.

He skipped out on his own coming-of-age party, caught a plane, switched to a train, then a bus, and finally a three-wheeler, traveling all that way just to get to me and protect me himself.

Even though I couldn't figure out my feelings for him right away, Oliver just smiled and said, "It's alright. If there are a hundred steps between us, let me be the one to close the distance."

By some twist of fate, my dad saw how much I looked like my mom and realized I was the daughter who'd been taken from him for eighteen years. He finally brought me home.

From that moment on, Oliver became my salvation, my light in the darkness.

For the past four years, my friends kept telling me the same thing.

They said it wasn't that I was still in love with Oliver. It was just that, after seeing how much he once loved me, I couldn't bear to see him with someone else.

But I just couldn't let it go. I couldn't accept it, no matter what.

Only now did I get it. Everything that happened today, I brought it all on myself.

Eloise was desperate to break into high society, so she was always trying to cozy up to the elite crowd.

Word was, she just splurged on an entire set of luxury jewelry, all so she could dazzle at the upcoming gala.

When my best friend heard Eloise had gotten in with the rich wives' club, she just rolled her eyes. "Seriously, hanging out with people like that? Isn't it kind of toxic?"

I just smiled to reassure her, but didn't say a word.

Eloise wasn't just not dumb. She was clever, even a little cunning sometimes.

When my dad brought me back to the Winters family, the city's charity was helping poor girls from the countryside go to school. He picked one out to train as my future assistant.

Eloise was the top pick out of all of them.

But before I even got the chance to take over the company, she'd already gotten into Oliver's bed.

My best friend saw me zoning out, probably worried I was thinking about Oliver again, and wouldn't take no for an answer. She practically dragged me out of the office for some fresh air.

"You've been glued to your desk lately, and I barely get to see you anymore. Hadassah's birthday is just around the corner, right? How about we go shopping for some gowns for the dinner party?" she suggested.

I'd already had my dress custom-made, but before we even stepped inside the boutique, I could hear a familiar commotion coming from inside.