Chapter 7
Her phone kept ringing, and when she answered, a smug female voice came through. It sounded nothing like the soft, innocent act Ava put on in front of Leo. "Ms. Quinn, being a wife the way you are is seriously pathetic. Leo doesn't need to marry some princess and worship her at home. What he needs is a soft place to land, someone gentle who understands him and cares about him. What he wants is something you can never give him."
The call ended, and a photo popped up. Ava was helping Leo iron his suit, a lock of long hair falling beside her ear, meek as could be. And the man stood beside her in a relaxed pose, his eyes full of her.
Luna stared at the photo for a long time. It felt like a huge hole had been ripped open in her heart, warm blood pouring out until even her lips were trembling. In the end, though, she deleted the picture. She used to think Leo had fallen for Ava because she hadn't been gentle enough with him. Only now did she realize that when love is gone, it's gone. When a man changes his heart, he changes it. There aren't that many excuses. A man who changes his heart is like stale candy. Not worth wearing herself out over again and again.
She gave the servants time off and started packing up her things, boxing them and mailing them away. This home that had once been warm and sweet was stripped bare. She threw out all the flowers, cleared away the bathroom diffusers, and erased every trace of herself by hand. The wedding dress Leo had spent half a year making for her, she cut into pieces one snip at a time and buried in the back garden. And just like that, Leo quietly faded from her heart too, stepping out of it for good.
Until three days later, when the lawyer came rushing to her door in a panic. "Ms. Quinn, we've finished checking your assets. The balance on this bank card is zero... All the money was transferred into Ms. Lynn's account. We filed for an emergency reversal, but... but the money had already been spent. Here's the transaction record..." Luna snatched the statement over, her heart pounding wildly.
Ava really was a devoted daughter, all right. She used the money to buy her parents a house and a car, pay for their retirement insurance, and even... buy a whole pile of sexy lingerie. Every single color was one Leo liked best. What that stuff was for... did anyone really need to guess?
Leo Stone. How dare he? How dare he use her parents' inheritance to support his mistress? A crushing sense of absurdity washed over her, and she had to grip the edge of the table just to stay standing. Then she called Leo. "Leo Stone! Who gave you the nerve to use my parents' inheritance to keep your mistress?"
While she had been wrapped in pain, staying awake till morning, Leo and Ava had been blowing through her parents' inheritance and getting all wrapped up in each other? "Luna, how long are you going to keep this up?" There was a two-second pause on the other end before Leo spoke with obvious impatience. "Ava suffered such a huge humiliation that day because of you, so I was only compensating her for your sake. Wasn't that for you too—"
"For me?" Luna laughed from sheer anger, her face cold as ice. "Using my money to support your mistress and calling that for me? Leo, you disgust me."
"Without my 1.7 million dollars, you'd probably still be begging somewhere. You and that livestream beggar are a perfect match. Don't you like her? Then divorce me. Go be with her."