The company went public.

At the celebration gala, Prudence Pruitt kissed her male assistant, Richard Gilbert, in front of everyone.

She produced a diamond ring and gazed at Richard, her voice soft with feeling. "You're the lucky star heaven sent me. Without you, I wouldn't be where I am today."

"Darling, marry me. Will you?"

Richard nodded, flushed with excitement, and once the ring was on his finger he turned to throw me a smug, mocking smile.

I just calmly slipped out my phone and made a call.

"Dad, I miss home."

On the other end, my father laughed. "Is this about getting the family to invest in that girlfriend's company again?"

"No problem. We'll put in a billion this round, and more if that's not enough."

"But son, are you still not planning to come clean with that girlfriend of yours about who you are?"

I drew a slow breath. "It's not about investing. I want the family to pull out of her company. Withdraw every share."

...

That line left my father stunned silent on the other end.

He spoke carefully. "Son, did the two of you have a falling-out?"

"Prudence's company just went public. This is exactly the moment for it to take off. If our family pulls out now, her company might be delisted before long—"

I cut him off, teeth clenched. "She just proposed to her male assistant at the celebration gala."

Something crashed on the other end, loud enough that he must have hurled it, and then he was roaring that he'd sink Prudence in the river and feed her to the fish.

After I hung up on my furious father, I noticed plenty of people at the gala watching me with strange looks. Some pitying, some openly delighting in it.

They murmured among themselves, pointing my way.

"I really thought Prudence would propose to Ernest Maddox in front of everyone today!"

"Right? After all these years it was Ernest who stayed by her side, who went through thick and thin with her all this time. Who'd have guessed she wouldn't choose to marry him in the end."

"If I were Prudence, I'd pick Richard too. He's got a wide network. There's so much he can do for the company down the line."

"Exactly. In the grown-up world, pure love is a joke. It's all about interests."

"Ernest has no money, no background. Aside from knowing Prudence longer than Richard did, he's got basically nothing going for him."

"I heard the only reason the company managed to go public was Richard pulling strings through his connections. Apparently some elder of his knows a cousin of the Maddox family. Once they got connected, the Maddoxes put in five hundred million, cleared up some of the company's troubles, and got it onto the market without a hitch."

"The Maddoxes? You mean the richest-family Maddoxes?"

"Goodness, Richard really has it in him, getting connected with the Maddoxes like that. No wonder Prudence couldn't wait to propose to him at the gala."

While the guests buzzed among themselves, Richard came down off the stage, a glass of wine in hand, and walked right up to me.

He smiled and taunted, "Ernest, I told you a long time ago. Pure love won't put food on the table."

"My family's elders can connect with the richest Maddox family, can take Prudence's career to the next level. And you? Besides becoming her dead weight, what can you do for her?"

"A person's fate is decided by heaven. Take you, for instance. You're a Maddox too, but you didn't have the luck to be born into the richest Maddox family. You weren't born with a young master's destiny. What right does an orphan with no father and no mother have to stand beside Prudence and bask in all that glory?"

"A man should know his place, you know. Some things just can't be forced. Don't you agree?"

"If I were you, I'd hand my shares back to the company on my own. Save myself the trouble—"

I cut him off before he could finish, my voice flat. "Does breaking up someone else's relationship make you feel like a winner?"

"Did you forget how you fawned all over me when you first joined the company?"

"Has anyone ever told you that this smug little man-who-got-lucky face of yours is genuinely sickening?"

My words wiped the look clean off Richard's face. It went dark in an instant.

Something vicious flickered through his eyes. He raised his glass with that smile that wasn't a smile and said, "Whatever you want to call it, I won."

"Winner takes all. I can't be bothered to argue with you."

"When Prudence and I get married, you have to come. If you're not there at our wedding, I think it'll feel like something's missing."

Even an idiot could hear the taunt and the sneer underneath.

I watched him through narrowed eyes and said evenly, "Sure. I'll make sure I have a big wedding gift ready for the two of you. I promise it'll make you scream."

Richard let out a cold snort. "Then I'll be looking forward to it."

The words were barely out before he pretended to lose his footing, stumbling so the glass in his hand tipped and the wine poured straight over my head.

Half the people at the gala gasped before they could stop themselves.

Richard's voice dripped with mockery. "Oh, sorry about that—lost my balance for a second!"

"Such a waste of good wine."

I forced down the urge to beat him into the floor. With his contemptuous, sneering eyes still on me, I looked toward Prudence, standing a little way off.

She was ignoring our corner entirely, laughing and clinking glasses with the company's executives and a few business partners.

In that moment, I felt a deep doubt about the man I used to be.

Had I lost my mind back then?

How had I ever fallen for someone like this?

I didn't bother getting tangled up with Richard.

I'd come out of it the loser, but in the end I held back from tearing him apart.

After all, Prudence had made it plain enough how differently she treated Richard and me. If the two of us came to blows at the gala, the one she'd side with would never be me.

When I walked out of the company gala, soaked and a mess, Prudence didn't so much as glance at me.

This was the woman I'd once loved with everything I had.

Love is blind. There's not a word of a lie in that.

Who was there to blame?

Only myself, for being too blind to see it back then.

Back at the apartment, I threw out every one of Prudence's personal belongings.

Especially those clumsy, earnest love letters I'd written her years ago. I'd kept them like treasures all this time. Now I tore them to pieces and dropped them in the trash.

This stuff belonged in the garbage, same as that vicious woman herself.

I'd thought that after Prudence's betrayal I'd cry until I couldn't breathe.

After all, I'd always been the sentimental type. Once I was with her, there was a time I treated her as the anchor of my whole life.

She used to look at me with such tenderness and swear she'd be true to me until death.

I used to picture the two of us walking up the aisle, picture the happy life we'd have together.

More than once I'd told her that if she were gone from my life, I wouldn't know how to go on living.

And yet, when that day actually came, I didn't shed a single tear.

Not even a flicker of grief stirred in me.

Crying over that bitch wasn't worth it. She didn't deserve it.

Right then, Prudence came back reeking of wine, Richard's arm wrapped around her waist as if staking a claim, shooting me a smug, taunting smile.

Something complicated crossed Prudence's eyes as she looked at me. She said in a low voice, "I came to pack up my things. From now on, I won't be living here, so you—"

I cut her off before she could finish. "I already threw your things in the dumpster downstairs."

Prudence arched a brow and let out a sigh. "Ernest, isn't that a little heartless of you?"

"Even if we can't be family, at least we can stay friends—"

I cut in again, sneering. "Ms. Pruitt, that's a sickeningly fake thing to say."

If we'd parted on good terms, maybe friendship would've been possible.

But what was this, exactly?

Prudence stabbed me in the back in front of everyone, left me standing there at the company's celebration banquet like a clown while Richard dumped wine over my head, and she didn't so much as glance my way.

And now she wanted to stay friends?

Did she think I was an idiot she could toy with?

Prudence's brow knit slightly, but before she could speak, Richard cut in with that snide tone of his. "Ernest, let's not dance around it."

"Those shares in your hands have to go back to the company."

Prudence chimed in. "Hand the shares back, and I'll give you a million as compensation."

"On top of that, I'll give you another million, call it making up for what I owe you. How's that sound?"

"Two million is no small amount. Spend it carefully and it's enough to keep you fed and comfortable for the rest of your life."

Two million, to buy out the founding shares I held and everything I'd given Prudence over the years?

How cheap.

I said coldly, "And if I don't agree?"

Richard sneered. "Ernest, don't push your luck."

"Don't get too greedy. The consequences are more than you can handle."

So now we were on to threats?

I was about to throw something cutting back at him when Prudence's face darkened. "The shares you're holding don't matter much to the company. Coming here to talk it through nicely with you is already more than you deserve."

"If you think that little bit of stock gives you any hold over me, you're being naive."

"Ernest, don't forget, you signed an agreement with the company back then. The moment you leave, you can't take those shares with you."

"And if I want to force you out of the company, I have plenty of ways."

"Think it over carefully."

Facing Prudence's threat, I genuinely wanted to grab a knife from the kitchen and hack the two of them into mincemeat.

In the end, I held back.

Just as she'd said, forcing me to resign wouldn't be hard for her at all.

After all, even before the company went public, Prudence and Richard had already worked together to strip me of nearly all real power.

I might still be VP at Pruitt Corp, but it was an empty title and nothing more.

A few minutes later, under the gloating, triumphant stares of Prudence and Richard, I signed the share transfer agreement.

Then they tossed down a check and walked off without a backward glance.

They'd gotten what they came for. Naturally, they couldn't be bothered to linger and deal with me any longer.