"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.

I looked at that two-million-dollar check, gave a cold snort, and tore it to shreds before dropping the pieces into the trash.

What I threw away wasn't just a torn-up check. It was every feeling I'd carried for Prudence Pruitt all these years.

Let those two have their few days of triumph. When their grand wedding came at the end of the month, I'd settle the account with them properly.

If Prudence and Richard hadn't come tonight to threaten me, I might have stopped at having my family pull their investment and walked away.

But these two had pushed it too far.

So how could I possibly let them off?

Over the next stretch of time, the story of Prudence proposing to Richard in front of everyone at the celebration banquet spread fast online.

The buzz refused to die down. It even outran some celebrity cheating scandals.

At the same time, a flood of smear material about me suddenly appeared online.

A horde of users dragged me onto the trending lists with their abuse.

"Ernest Maddox looks so gentle and refined, who'd have guessed he's this scheming, vicious piece of trash!"

"Jealous of anyone better than him, made life hell for the better-looking men at the company, and kept a mistress and partied behind Prudence's back. No wonder she dumped him!"

"Compared to Richard Gilbert, he's worlds beneath him. Not even fit to carry the man's shoes."

"He actually wanted Prudence to hand over all her shares to him. Has he no shame!"

"I heard he even slapped Richard at the company. That overbearing, bullying streak of his is sickening!"

Almost every word of that smear material online was fabricated out of thin air.

I didn't need to guess. The dirt being slung at me online had to be the work of Prudence and Richard.

Prudence wanted to protect her good-woman image, and with the company freshly public, any stain on her would have been blown up endlessly by her competitors.

So all she had to do was throw the mud at me, paint me as a black-hearted bastard, spread lies and tar my name, and then no one would blame her for dumping me and proposing to Richard.

As for Richard, he couldn't wait to see me ruined.

After all, I'd slapped him in front of everyone at the company not long ago. Of course he hated me to the core, and he'd been looking for any chance to grind me into the dust for good.

The reason I'd slapped him back then was that I'd caught him hitting on Prudence at the office, and he'd deliberately taunted me in front of the staff. I didn't hold back.

And it was precisely because of that slap that Prudence began stripping away my authority at the company, piece by piece.

Did I regret it?

Not at all.

If I could do it over, I wouldn't just slap Richard in public. I'd slap that bitch Prudence right along with him.

I watched the trending complaints and abuse against me with real interest, wondering how many of them were paid trolls Prudence and Richard had hired.

Tomorrow was Richard and Prudence's wedding.

I wondered how they'd react when they saw the surprise gift I had ready for them.

I couldn't help looking forward to it.

On the day of Prudence and Richard's wedding, the venue was packed and lively.

Besides relatives and friends from both families and Pruitt Corp's business partners, plenty of business elites had come to offer their congratulations.

Pruitt Corp had only just gone public, and word was that the Maddox family, the richest in the country, would keep pouring investment into it. A lot of people in business circles saw Pruitt Corp as a rising star, and they all wanted to forge a connection with it, hoping it would earn them favor with the Maddox family. That was why so many business elites had turned out today.