The voice on the other end sounded delighted. “Wonderful! I’ll have my men handle the procedures right away. Can you clear things up on your end within a week?”

“Sure.”

In my past life, for Gwen’s sake, I rejected my family’s plans to let me inherit the family business overseas after I graduated high school. I even built a career and a home on my own without my family’s help, all for her.

It was only right before my death that I realized she never cared about me at all. In that case, why force it?

I made the arrangements to leave school, and my friends organized a farewell party for me. At the hotel, though, I bumped into Gwen, who was hanging off the arm of an older man.

My friends whispered to me, “Ivan purposely raised the price to 150 million at the auction, but you didn’t follow through, right? After that, Gwen begged everyone she could and finally got Mr. Wenger to buy her out.”

Gwen looked at me, her gaze resentful. She purposely hugged the old man even tighter, rubbing her bare chest against his. “Do you like it when I do this, Mr. Wenger?”

Wenger fondled her as though no one was looking. “I love it! Why wouldn’t I? I bought you for more than 150 million dollars, after all.”

She forced a smile at him and then turned to me, her expression cold. “See that, Weston? I’d give myself to any man as long as it isn’t you! Because you’re not worthy!”

She always knew how to push my buttons. In my past life, whenever I ticked her off and told her to stay away from Ivan, she would immediately find a few strangers and take a bunch of intimate photos to provoke me.

“Have you learned your lesson yet? The more you tell me to stay away from other guys, the more I want to mess around!”

When I broke down and begged her on my knees, she called Ivan out and spent the whole night in his bed.

Now, however, I had long since given up on her. Such a scene no longer affected me.

I smiled calmly. “Go ahead as you please.”

Within five minutes after I sat down, however, Ivan barged into the party room. He suddenly knelt before me and slapped himself hard, sobbing.

“Weston! I shouldn’t have tried to fight you at the auction, but I’ve been punished enough for it! Could you show me some mercy and let me go?”

I looked at him, mystified. “I didn’t do anything. I don’t think I even contacted you after the auction.”

Gwen helped him up, gasping when she saw the gruesome marks on his body. She immediately glared daggers at me. “Weston! Did you get your goons to bully Ivan again? Why are you always so petty?!”

Ivan stood up with trembling knees, “accidentally” rolling up his sleeves to reveal the red marks. The next second, he pretended to cover them again, saying sadly,

“Don’t bother pleading for me, Gwen. It’s my fault for trying to fight him even though I’m so poor. He had people beat me up to teach me a lesson…”

Gwen was so upset on his behalf that her eyes turned red. She yelled at me, “Hurry up and apologize!”

I was too used to scenes like this in my past life. There was no point in explaining myself to someone who would never believe me.

Seeing the greed in Ivan’s eyes, I smirked. “Apologize? Are you sure he’s looking for just an apology? Tell me, Ivan, what do you want?”

Ivan cowered behind Gwen, but there was no hiding the endless avarice in his eyes. “If you could… Of course I’d want you to pay my medical fees.”

Gwen looked surprised at his request. Everyone knew that asking for money at a party like this was absurd and humiliating.

She seemed somewhat embarrassed, but she defended him anyway. “Then just give him the money. It’s not like you’ll miss a few thousand. You might as well cover the ceiling price from last time too.

“After you pay Mr. Wenger off, I… I’ll spend a few more days with you. Deal?”

Her matter-of-fact tone made me laugh. I said coldly, “I won’t pay a single cent.”

The next second, Gwen’s parents suddenly rushed into the room and slapped me.

“You bastard! After all those years of pursuing our daughter, how could you just watch as she sold herself off at an auction like that?!”

“Ivan was only trying to help, but you maliciously raised the price so that he couldn’t afford to save her anymore!”

My face still stung from the attack. The others in the room could not stand to watch anymore and yelled back.

“Weston wasn’t the only one at the auction. Ivan started the bid at fifty million! Wasn’t he maliciously raising the price?”

Gwen’s parents crossed their arms. They did not think they were in the wrong at all.

“Ivan is our ideal son-in-law, while Weston’s just a pathetic simp! He knows we’ll never take him seriously, so he’s sure to try some dirty tricks so he can marry Gwen!”

Gwen held Ivan’s arm and looked at me coldly, as though she completely agreed with her parents’ points. “I thought I would spend a few days with you, depending on your performance at the auction.

“But to think you were just messing with me! Now my parents will never agree to let me marry you. You’ll regret this!”

I held my reddened cheek and laughed. “You called me a simp? Mr. and Mrs. Hughes, two years ago, you were the ones who begged me to get engaged to Gwen.”

The two of us had just started college at the time, and all that was left was to meet the family. She would always ask me shyly, “You’ll marry me soon, right? My parents are waiting to hold our engagement party.”

Once her family knew how wealthy I was, they kept bugging me to make things official. However, their attitude changed the moment Ivan forged a document saying that he was even richer than I was.

After that, they kept nitpicking everything I did and refused to let Gwen date me anymore.

Once I brought up the past, Gwen’s parents calmed down slightly, but they still looked down their noses at me. I scoffed and offered a toast to my other friends in the room before taking my things to leave.

Ivan rushed up to me and knelt again. “You can’t go, Weston! You gotta compensate me for what you did!”

I glared at him coldly. “Move aside, unless you want to test how badly I can really beat you up. If you want to push your luck, I won't hold back.”

He pretended to drop his phone in fright, but when he bent to pick it up, he flashed me a greedy grin. “See this picture of your beloved Gwen? I can easily spread it all over town.

“Then all I have to do is say the word, and she'll think you're the one who shared it. Don't try to bribe me once she hates you and decides to never go speak to you again!”

The picture was of Gwen without a piece of cloth on her body.

No matter how much I disliked her now, I could not stand such despicable behavior, so I grabbed him by the collar and socked him in the face.

“Weston Greene! How dare you hit Ivan!” What hurt more than her parents’ slap was her gaze on me, filled with utter disgust.

I laughed self-deprecatingly. Why did I bother trying to defend her?

Finally, I threw a bank card at Ivan and glanced at Gwen coldly. “You're the one who chose a scumbag like him. Don't regret it in the future.”

Her screams behind me were cruel and merciless. “You're the only one who will regret it! Ivan is the only man I love! I'll never regret choosing him!”

As soon as I got my affairs in order, I headed to the airport without a moment's hesitation. Before I boarded the plane, however, I received a message from Gwen.

[I haven't seen you in five days. Where have you gone?]

[My parents thought it over and agreed to let us get engaged. Come back and apologize for your behavior that night.]

[This is your only chance. If you don't show up in three days, I'll assume you gave up on marrying me. Think carefully.]

I sent her a screenshot of the camera footage from that night, zooming in on the picture of her on Ivans's phone.

After that, I blocked her number and boarded the plane.