At noon, I returned to my desk to pack up my things.

An asteroid figurine sat on the table. It was Vernon who carved it for me after graduation. Back then, he even said that I would be his whole world.

I let out a self-deprecating laugh. I gave the figurine one last glance and finally decided to take it along with me.

I held a box of my belongings. I was about to leave when Peggy suddenly hurried into the office, looking panicked.

"My apologies, everyone. The necklace I wore today seems to have gone missing. Could everyone please cooperate for a quick search?"

Everyone in the office began whispering to each other.

"I saw Ms. Cahill's necklace earlier when she first came to the office. The diamonds on it were huge! So bright and sparkly!"

"I think Ms. Cahill was being nice about it. I bet someone got greedy after seeing that necklace, so they stole it!"

"My goodness! We actually have a thief in our office. No wonder my biscuits and snacks kept going missing from my table!"

Vernon stood next to Peggy. After ordering security to block off all exits, they began searching everyone.

Once it was my turn, I set the box down so I could cooperate with the search. Clearly, Vernon was momentarily startled upon noticing the asteroid figurine at the very top of the box. However, he still asked security to dump all the contents of the box onto the floor.

Everything fell to the floor with a loud crash. The figurine was completely smashed to bits.

It was like my relationship of six years with Vernon. Once there were cracks, things between us could never be fixed again.

A few guards started going through the contents on the floor. Suddenly, Peggy covered her mouth and gasped. "My necklace!"

Her gasp of surprise drew everyone's attention. All eyes fell on me, and everyone began criticizing me behind my back.

"Oh my! It was Avril who stole the new director's necklace! If Mr. Floyd hadn't blocked the office exits, she would've been long gone with it!"

"I never expected Avril to be that kind of person! We really can't judge a book by its cover. All the new director did was take Avril's promotion. She's so petty!"

"Avril's really narrow-minded. I never realized she would do sneaky stuff like that. I'm glad she's already resigned. Otherwise, I'd be nervous to work in the same room as her!"

I turned extremely pale. I definitely did not steal Peggy's necklace. Someone had tampered with my things once I left to submit my resignation.

Fury was written all over Vernon's face as he picked up the pink diamond necklace from the pile of junk. He looked extremely disappointed in me.

"Avril!" Vernon yelled my name furiously. I looked over and noticed he had stepped all over my things. He even stomped hard on the shattered pieces of the asteroid figurine.

As soon as I looked up, Vernon slapped me without a word. "Apologize to Peggy! Why did you steal the necklace I gave her?"

At that moment, I lost all hope. Vernon was still holding the million-dollar necklace he had given to Peggy, and the cheap figurine he had given me was crushed under his foot. The figurine wasn't even worth a fraction of the necklace.

Tears instantly welled up in my eyes. Sure, my colleagues had misunderstood me. But Vernon and I had dated for six years. His slap had left me heartbroken.

Vernon actually didn't believe me.

Seeing that I hadn't responded, Vernon dragged me toward Peggy as if I was nothing but trash. He snapped at me, "I asked you to apologize! Explain why you stole her necklace!"

A satisfactory glint flashed through Peggy's eyes. But very quickly, she pretended to frown before reaching out to pull me up from the cold floor.

I shook Peggy's hand off. I clung to my last shred of pride as I got to my feet.

Although my eyes were brimming with tears, I stood tall and yelled, "I didn't take the necklace! There are surveillance cameras in the office. I want you to show the footage so I can prove that I'm innocent!

"Besides, it's just a diamond necklace! It's nothing to me!"

"That's enough! Stop causing a fuss!" Vernon covered my mouth before dragging me outside the office. He pressed his hand against my mouth and nose so hard, as if he were trying to suffocate me.

I heard Peggy chuckling with my colleagues in the office. She remarked, "Since I found my necklace, I didn't end up losing anything.

"Avril and I are colleagues, so I've decided to let it slide. I'll buy afternoon tea for everyone later. Thank you for cooperating with our search!"

Vernon seemed terrified that I would expose my relationship with him in front of everyone. So, he led me to the pantry.

"Tell me! What are you actually up to? No matter how angry you are, you shouldn't go overboard." Vernon said while pinching his temples. He seemed extremely troubled by the incident.

I was gasping for air. There were dark bruises on my face where he had gripped hard.

"When did you become like this? You're lucky that Peggy was generous enough to forgive you. I want you to apologize to her immediately!"

"I won't apologize to her. If I didn't steal her necklace, why should I take the blame?" I glared at Vernon.

He asked when I had changed. Well, I wanted to know when he became someone I no longer knew.

Peggy entered the pantry. She filled a paper cup with some hot water and handed it to me.

"Avril, have some water and calm down. I know you're holding a grudge against me now, but you shouldn't be so rash next time."

I didn't accept the cup of water. However, Peggy got burned by the hot water in the cup and ended up splashing the water onto my arm.

"Oh! It burns…" The hot water scalded Peggy's finger. Vernon hurriedly led her to the tap and placed her finger under the running water.

As for me, I was dressed lightly. The hot water had soaked through my chiffon top, scalding my arm instantly.

I went to the restroom to handle the burn on my own. Very quickly, red blisters began forming on my left wrist.

Despite the pain, I returned to my workstation to pack my things. Suddenly, Vernon appeared and grabbed my wrist, causing me to hiss in pain.

Clearly startled, he let go of me and asked awkwardly, "Are you okay?"

I was slightly amused. My cheek had turned red from Vernon's slap. Peggy even scalded my wrist on purpose.

Vernon's feigned look of concern made me want to throw up. I shook his hand off before tossing the things that had fallen onto the floor into the rubbish bin.

Vernon seemed like he was about to say more but decided to walk away. All he said was, "You were too rash today."

After picking up all my scattered belongings on the floor, I headed for the office's surveillance room. I wasn't about to let Vernon and Peggy slander me for nothing.

However, I came to a standoff with the employee in the surveillance room.

I mentioned that I wanted to check the surveillance footage from the morning in the office. However, the employee stopped me and said I had no right to check the footage.

I realized that my employee account had been blacklisted and deleted. Clearly, Vernon was behind this. He was already determined to take Peggy's side and was certain that I had stolen her necklace.

I smiled bitterly. I never knew that the stoic Vernon could be blinded by love.

Very quickly, I remembered that this tech company belonged to the Walkers. I decided to hurry home and meet Dylan.

I returned to the apartment where I had lived for the past six years and moved all my belongings out of the place.

At the same time, I wiped out all traces of my relationship with Vernon. It was like I had just taken out the trash in my life.

At night, another delivery man dropped off a premium burn ointment. All I did was toss it onto the table.

Before leaving, I gave this empty apartment one last glance.

The next day, I booked a flight ticket to Paloria. I also handed over all my unfinished work and gave some instructions to the ex-colleague who had taken over my place.

On the third day, I wheeled my luggage into the airport. Before boarding the plane, I sent a breakup message to Vernon's alternate account.