The company just received a big order recently, and I had been waiting in the conference room since early in the morning to pitch in our service. The representative of S&D didn't show up until noon, but when everything was settled and we were ready to sign the contract, he suddenly received a call saying that their boss had made an impulsive decision to stop by.

As for me, it had never occurred to me that their boss would be Zach Dempsy.

It only took me two seconds to recognize that tortured face from my memory, but it felt like millions of years had passed in these two seconds.

There was nothing different about him except his shorter hair. He still looked charming as he walked past me, pulled out the chair, and sat down. The series of his movements were so calm and smooth, as if everything happened before was just my illusion.

"Give me a reason why S&D should trust your company."

It was not until I heard his calm voice and my numb limbs gradually regained their senses that I realized my fingernails had cut into my palm.

When I first met Zach Dempsy , he was a senior at my college university. He was also my first boyfriend, who had disappeared for six years.

I tried to find a trace of disguise on his face, but I saw only his indifference as if we'd never met before.

I took a deep breath and tried to suppress all the emotions that surged up from the bottom of my heart.

I calmed myself down and responded, "OG is one of the best companies in the domestic industry with the best team of employees. The production department is equipped with the most advanced equipment from Germany. The staff—"

"Enough! Tell me something that I don't know."

Before I could finish speaking, I was interrupted. He raised his head and looked at me. I could see the hint of complicated emotion flashing in his eyes.

After a while, he suddenly said, "Ivy Dikkens, long time no see."

I felt chills run down my body as my heart skipped a beat at his sudden recognition.

He acted like he didn't know me when he came in and was suddenly friendly. Was this some mind game? Was he torturing me?

"Mr. Dempsy and Miss Dikkens, do you guys know each other?"

"Sort of."

Alex Standall, the manager, was stunned. Zach withdrew his gaze during all those talking, and his eyes quickly returned to calm. His coldness made me unable to say anything.

For six years, I have imagined everything from the hysteria after we met and the indifference between us like two strangers. But seeing Zach being so calm like this had truly caught me off guard.

"Mr. Dempsy and I went to the same college. He was my senior, and we saw each other a few times."

Alex nodded, and I smiled. I saw Zach being upset from the corner of my eye.

"Speaking of, I would say it was fate. I still didn't expect Mr. Dempsy to remember me after all these years. I'm honored and flattered," I said.

Silence flew by the room. I almost laughed when I saw Zach's raised eyebrow.

"We haven't seen each other for all these years, and now Mr. Dempsy is the owner of hundreds of millions of assets. I really..."

Zach was looking at me again before I finished talking. His once extremely gentle and now deep and restrained eyes were staring at me, and my heart was racing.

After a long while, he said, "Ivy, is there anything else in your eyes more important than money?"

I was stunned. "What?"

"You would do anything just for money, wouldn't you? "

He said coldly, "Such as betraying your boyfriend, murdering an unborn child, and hurting the one you love the most?"

I was well-prepared for this day. It was something from many years ago, and I didn't expect that it would still hurt so much.

Even if what he said was not true back then, it was now a fact. But part of me was still unwilling to give in. He disappeared ever since it happened. I didn't get any chance to explain for the past six years.

Biting my cheek, I said, "That's right. This is just how society works nowadays. You can't rely on anyone or anything except for money."

"You never changed, huh? You are so cheap. Since then, until now." Zach's eyes were full of disgust and ridicule with a sneer on his face.

"Let's just postpone the contract signing process with OG and talk about it when I'm in a good mood," he added, sounding irritated.

I was sitting there and couldn't stop shaking. The word "cheap" almost shattered my disguise. It took me a long time to find my tone back.

"Well then, feel free to contact me anytime you are available Mr. Dempsy."

Zach moved his eyes away with no expression on his face. I tried hard to squeeze out a smile, but I felt miserable inside.

I didn't catch a word of what Alex said. I couldn't stay any longer, so I ran out the door. I couldn't live with the hopes that a person whom I treated dead for years would give me a chance to explain.

Why did fate bring us together again if he didn't want to hear my side?

I knew the deal was ruined, and there would undoubtedly be serious consequences for me. With everything that had happened between Zach and me, getting him to sign the contract would be impossible.

However, it seemed like events did occur when you least expected them to because my phone rang loudly and continuously when I woke up in the morning.

"Hello..." I was not completely awake when I took the call. I had a long day yesterday and was also stressed because of the meeting with S&D.

"Good morning, little Ivy. Did you forget about our son again?"

With those words, my brain suddenly jumped awake. I looked at the time and found that it was 7:25 already.

"Oh, shit..."

I cursed in my head and jumped out of bed. I heard Tyler's wicked laugh on the other end of the phone. I became enraged as I remembered his mockery of me at the time, saying, "What are you laughing at? Has Caleb gotten up yet?"

"Our son is eating breakfast," he said after a brief pause. "How about you come over?"

"Oh, stop!"

As I washed my face and rinsed my mouth, I scolded him, "For the 1000th time, he is my son! Stop jerking around!"

"Oh, man! You are breaking my heart." Tyler Rivers sighed. "We should get married, little Ivy, don't you think? It's no different, after all. I've already considered Caleb as my son."

"Thank you for taking care of Caleb yesterday. My mom will be there and pick him up this afternoon. I've got to go, and I'm late for work. "I abruptly hung up the phone.

When I arrived at work, it was already 8:01. I was called into the office before I realized what had happened. Elliot had given me an ultimatum: I had to get the S&D contract no matter what. Otherwise, I would risk losing much more than just my annual bonus. I could also lose my position as the company's new business manager.

I didn't even have the chance to catch a breath, and I was almost always caught in chills since I realized that I had forgotten the briefcase with customer information and important documents at the hotel where I met S&D yesterday.

I contacted the hotel, but they were unable to locate it. So I called Alex, the S&D manager, and it turned out Zach had it. I was in no rush to find him. I felt that he'd come to find me if I didn't go find him.

Six years may have passed, but I knew Zach inside out. He always had a way. And no matter how indifferent he appeared on the surface, he would never let go of what happened easily. I was certain that he would haunt me in my dreams if he could.

My hunch was confirmed even before the evening. I received a phone call from an unknown phone number. No one was talking when I answered the phone, so I asked tentatively, "Zach?"

A sneer was heard. "If you want to sign the contract, come find me at the Lost Woods at eight tonight," the person said after a while.

Then he hung up before I could even decide.

I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing I'd have to see him sooner or later. I had something I needed to say to him, and I had to say it whether he wanted to hear it or not.

At 7:50 p.m., I called Zach in the Lost Woods lobby and followed his instructions to the 16th floor. Looking around at the luxurious decor, I couldn't help but sigh that the Lost Woods was indeed powerful enough to become the city's number one nightclub.

Led by the light, I went to the designated place and opened the door. The huge suite was filled with deafening music that went straight to my brain. Under the dim light, I walked around in the huge space. Although I couldn't see well inside the room, my eyes still locked on Zach in the booth at a glance.

He noticed me at the same time. He snapped his fingers at me as he stretched out a hand from the hot chick in his arms.

He took my seat in the booth where he was after passing through the crowd of "dancing demons" on the dance floor.

"Drink up," he said as he pushed a glass of wine in front of me.

Because the location was far from the dance pool, it was relatively quiet. His voice was not loud, but it was cold and orderly.

He drank from the glass without saying anything. Zach's brow twitched as if he didn't think I'd actually drink it.

He wasn't really a drinker many years ago, and he didn't like me drinking because I couldn't handle too much alcohol. There was this one time that I got drunk after I had a fight with Zach. I was hugging the door frame while crying and laughing at the same time. He immediately banned me from any kind of alcoholic drink. He said that if I was hugging the door frame this time, who knows what would happen next time if I hugged a person?

It was unavoidable for me to drink after all these years of battling in the business world.

I strictly followed his rules at first, but when I stopped to think about it, I felt ridiculous. So I went from hurling after one drink to not feeling anything.

Why would I follow his rules when he left me?

The hot girl next to Zach filled his glass with whiskey. She also poured one into my glass, and since I never refused, I drank it in one gulp.

The whiskey had a high concentration of alcohol, and the aftereffect was unpleasant. I gritted my teeth at the warm and burning feeling in my throat as I stood there, thinking that if I could just get Zach to sign the contract, we could discuss everything else later.

Zach took over halfway through my seventh glass of wine. My throat was on fire, and my eyes were filled with tears. His eyes were filled with concern as he looked up at me.

He said, "Stop," in an almost gentle tone.

I was taken aback. He narrowed his eyes and mockingly raised his thin, cold lips.

"It's no fun drinking like this; how about we just drink it straight from the bottle?"

The waiter standing at the table quickly brought over a dozen of brandy and politely asked, "How many of them would you want me to open, Mr. Dempsy?"

Zach pulled out a cigarette and lit it up with his head crooked. He took a flirty glance at me and said, "Let's open them all. "

My heart was as cold as ice. I knew he wouldn't have any mercy on me. He knew how little my alcohol tolerance was. Was he planning to kill me through alcohol poisoning? That would be a good way to get rid of me immediately.

"Don't you like money, Ivy? Here, I'll give you $10,000 for every bottle you drink, and once they're all gone, I'll sign the contract."

I bit my lower lip, feeling as if someone had just ripped open my chest.

"How generous of Mr. Dempsy to pay for all these drinks and still pay me money," I said, squeezing out a smile and trying to sound confident. "I certainly have to drink them all, then."

The wine went right into my throat and burned all the way into my stomach. The anger ignited in his eyes, those deep blue eyes like a pond of water. Halfway through, he grabbed my wrist and pulled me close to him with all his strength.

Bottles fell and smashed on the ground. With my knees on the ground, I couldn't help but sigh.

Zach pinned me down in front of him, holding my wrist with one hand and my chin with the other.

"Do you really love money that much?"

Even when I gasped in pain, I was still stubborn. I wouldn't wave a white flag, even if I already knew I was done for.

"Who doesn't love money, Mr. Dempsy? I mean, unless you are stupid."

With rage on his face, Zach squeaked the words between his teeth, "Fine, and you want to be a bitch, I'll let you be."

Then he lifted me off the ground and walked away. I stumbled downstairs to follow him despite the excruciating pain in my knees and wrists. He drew me into a car. He slammed the door shut and accelerated to the road.

It was raining heavily outside, and the car was speeding on the road. We didn't say a word to each other the entire time until he drove out of the town and stopped at a house—a mansion—near a mountain. Then he told me to get off.

Because of the alcohol, I was drenched and shivering. I followed him into a house, where he pushed me onto the couch and smashed his lips on mine.

His mouth was filled with the kind of cruelty I hadn't felt in a long time. The kiss felt like a violent storm, but it wasn't like that anymore. Zach was acting more like a ferocious beast at the time, his big hands moving ruthlessly all over my body. And I was becoming tense by the second.

Obviously, I still love him. But at that moment, I unexpectedly felt hopeless, even terrified.

Lying on top of me with his lips still rubbing against my cheek, he mumbled, "Ivy, tell me you didn't take that money."

His voice sounded pleading. Like he was wishing that I didn't. That it would break his heart all over again if I confirmed I did.

I felt the lump in my chest tighten, tears instantly coming out of my eyes as it dawned on me that Zach still felt the pain in his heart. Even after so many years, he still couldn't let it go. But there was also something that stuck in my heart, and it was like a thorn that kept aching night after night.

"I took it."

He abruptly came to a halt. I could feel his fingertips burning as he lifted my face with his hand. I could see the lust in his eyes slowly fading away and replaced by disgust in the dim light.

Zach took out a cigarette and lit it. Under the light of the fire, his side face was blurry. He sat there, motionless.

After a while, he took my briefcase from the drawer and said, "Ivy Dikkens, there's nothing that can connect us from now on; you and I are strangers."

'Nothing linked us together, and we were strangers.'

My heart finally broke into pieces, and my ears kept buzzing at the sound of his painful words. All those words I had held in for six years were stuck in my mouth. I lost my last chance to tell him the truth.

I couldn't look at Zach even when I left, and I had no idea how I had left his place. For the first time, I burst out laughing in the pouring rain.

I had no idea Zach's wealthy family had such complicated relationships six years ago.

With the baby, I figured we'd be able to start our own family soon. But all I got was his predicament and his mother going out of her way to separate us.

I had never been a material person, but I still took the money from his mother in the end. It was only because my mom was seriously ill, and it would take our family forever to pay off that 50,0000 dollars fee for her treatment.

I loved him, but I also loved my family. So I had to choose. And no matter how painful the choice I made, I would be glad to do it again.