“Ms. Henson, your grandmother's account balance is running low. Could you top it up in the next couple of days for next quarter's fees?”

“Of course. I'll transfer it right away.”

I hung up and stared at my mobile banking balance.

Gavin had been generous over the years, but most of what he gave me had been swallowed by Grandma Stella's medical bills—a pit that never filled. The rest I'd set aside, bit by bit, for exactly a day like this.

Now, with a baby on the way, the expenses would only grow.

I was still running the numbers in my head when a red Ferrari pulled up beside me.

The window slid down, revealing Connor Harding's irreverent grin.

“Well, well. If it isn't our very own Secretary Henson. What are you doing out here alone?”

Connor pulled off his sunglasses, and his gaze dropped to the hand I'd pressed over my lower belly without thinking. The playfulness left his eyes in an instant.

“Are you sick?”

Connor and I had been high school classmates. Back then he was the school's resident troublemaker, and I was the scholarship kid who did nothing but study.

Neither of us would have guessed we'd cross paths again years later in circles like these.

“No, just visiting a friend.”

I shoved the lab report deeper into my bag.

Connor clearly didn't buy it. He pushed the door open and stepped out, his tall frame casting a shadow over me.

“Eudora, you can't even look at me when you lie.”

He moved closer. He smelled faintly of tobacco, though it wasn't unpleasant.

“Did that bastard Gavin do something to you?”

The mention of Gavin's name sent a small, sharp tremor through my chest.

“No.”

“Get in.” Connor pulled the passenger door open without waiting for an answer.

“Cabs don't come through here. I'll give you a ride.”

I couldn't argue my way out of it, so I got in.

In the car, Connor kept up what sounded like casual conversation, but his eyes never really left me.

“Heard that green tea Lauren is back. Has Gavin lost his mind? He'd throw away someone like you just to crawl back to an old flame?”

I watched the scenery blur past the window and said quietly：

“He never wanted me to begin with.”

Connor slammed the brakes. The car jerked to a stop at the curb.

He turned to face me, staring hard, eyes full of the kind of frustrated anger that has nowhere to go.

“Eudora! What is it you even want from him? His money? Name a number, I'll cover it. Him? His heart is made of stone. You spent five years trying to warm it and it's still cold. How is that not enough?”

I lowered my head, heat prickling behind my eyes.

Five years.

I'd told myself that if I was obedient enough, considerate enough, one day he'd finally see me.

But the moment Lauren came back, I knew. A stand-in is always a stand-in.

“Connor, I'm leaving.”

My voice was barely above a whisper.

Connor froze. The anger drained from his face, and something close to raw, unguarded relief took its place.

“Where to? I'll take you.”

“I haven't decided yet, but……as far away as possible.”

Connor held my gaze for a long moment, then put the car back in gear.

“Done. Wherever you want to go, end of the earth, I've got you.”

By the time I got back to Hillside Manor, it was already dark.

Gavin sat on the living room sofa with a laptop open in front of him, his expression cold and remote.

He didn't look up when the door opened.

“Oh, so you can bear to come home. I thought you were spending the night out.”

Every word dripped with a sneer that scraped.

I changed my shoes and said nothing. I didn't want to fight with him.

“Go make dinner. Lauren wants sweet and sour ribs.”

He closed the laptop and issued the order like a man accustomed to being waited on.

My feet stopped mid-step.

I was his secretary, not his housekeeper.

Before, I'd done it willingly, because I loved him, because I wanted to take care of him.

But now……

“President Delgado, the chef has already left for the night. You can order delivery.”

Gavin shot to his feet and closed the distance in three strides, towering over me.

“Eudora, what the hell is wrong with you today? Are you actually trying to defy me?”

He reeked of liquor. Clearly not in a good mood.

“I'm tired.”

I pushed past him toward the stairs.

He grabbed my wrist, fingers clamping down hard enough to grind the bones together.

“Tired? You weren't tired out there messing around with some stranger?”

He shoved his phone in my face. On the screen was a photo of Connor dropping me off earlier today.

I had no idea who had taken it, but the angle was vicious. It looked like we were kissing inside the car.

“Explain.”

Gavin's eyes burned with the rage of a man whose possession had stepped out of line.

“I ran into him. He gave me a ride.”

I looked at him, steady.

“Gavin, you brought Lauren home. So you get to do whatever you want, but I can't even accept a ride?”

“You think you compare to Lauren?”

He sneered.

“She's a proper lady from a real family. You're……”

He stopped himself. As if even he found the word too ugly to finish.

“I'm what?” I finished it for him.

“An orphan. A gold-digger. Your bed-warming tool. Right?”

Gavin pressed his lips together. He didn't deny it.

Something sharp drove through my chest, and whatever warmth was left went cold for good.

“Since President Delgado thinks so little of me, let's end the contract.”

I finally said the words I'd kept locked inside for so long.

Gavin stared, like he'd just heard a joke.

“End the contract? Eudora, don't forget—your grandmother's still in that care facility. Without me, how are you paying those bills? Going to sell yourself?”

The slap cracked through the empty living room before I even registered my hand moving.

My palm was numb, my whole body shaking.

Gavin's head snapped to the side. A red handprint rose fast across his cheek.

He turned back slowly, disbelief in his eyes, a storm gathering beneath.

“Eudora. You hit me?”

“That was for the Eudora who was stupid enough to love you for five years.”

I pulled my hand back, nails digging into my palm.

“Gavin. We're done.”

I turned and walked upstairs without looking at him again.

Behind me, a vase shattered against the floor, and Gavin's roar followed：

“Eudora! If you walk out that door today, don't ever come crawling back to me!”

I closed the bedroom door, leaned against it, and slid to the floor.

One hand on my stomach, I whispered：

“Don't be scared, baby. Mama's taking you away.”

Over the next two days, as if to punish me, Gavin paraded Lauren to every high-profile event he could find.

The headlines were everywhere: “Delgado Group president and childhood sweetheart—happy news imminent.”

I packed inside the manor.

There wasn't much to pack.

The designer bags, the jewelry, the clothes Gavin had given me. I left every piece behind.

All I took were my documents, my bankbook, and the pregnancy report.

The day I left, it was raining.

Gavin wasn't home. Neither was Lauren.

I'd arranged Grandma Stella's transfer to a care facility in a small southern city.

It wasn't as luxurious as the one here, but it was quiet, and the fees were something I could manage.

Before I walked out, I placed a resignation letter and a signed “breakup agreement” on Gavin's desk in the study.

The terms were simple: every cent he'd given me over five years, counted as salary and compensation for what he'd put me through. After that, we owed each other nothing.

Connor's car was already waiting at the curb when I walked out of the estate gates.

He was leaning against the door, a scatter of cigarette butts at his feet.

The moment he saw me dragging my suitcase out, he crushed the cigarette and crossed the distance in a few long strides to take the handle from me.

“You're sure about this?”

His eyes searched mine, something complicated moving behind them.

“Yeah.”

I turned back one last time to look at the gilded cage that had held me for five years.

“Let's go.”

The engine started, and the car slid into the curtain of rain.

I watched the scenery fall away through the window, and the tears I'd been holding back finally came.

Goodbye, Gavin.

Goodbye to five ridiculous, wasted years I'll never get back.

Gavin didn't realize Eudora was gone until three days later.

For those three days he'd stayed away on purpose, sleeping at the apartment near the office, waiting for her to give in.

That was how it always went. After every fight, she'd show up within a day with a pot of freshly made soup, voice soft, apology ready.

But this time, three full days passed. His phone stayed silent. Not a single message. Not a single call.

“President Delgado, here's the quarterly financial report……”

The new assistant placed the file on his desk with trembling hands.

“Where's Eudora Henson? Tell her to come see me.”

Gavin yanked at his tie, irritated. The coffee never tasted right when someone else made it, and nobody sorted his files the way she did.

The assistant froze for a second, then said carefully：

“President Delgado, Secretary Henson……she hasn't come in for three days now. HR said they received an email. It was her resignation letter……”

“Resignation?”

Gavin was so furious he laughed.

“She's really gotten addicted to the act.”

He picked up his phone and dialed Eudora's number.

“The number you have dialed is currently powered off.”

The mechanical female voice only stoked his anger higher.

“Find her! I don't care what hole she's hiding in, find her!”

Gavin didn't believe Eudora actually had the nerve to leave.

She couldn't survive without him. Not without his money. Not without him.

That night, Gavin went back to Hillside Manor.

The house was pitch black. No soft yellow lamp left on the way it always was.

The faint jasmine scent that used to linger in the air had faded too, replaced by nothing but cold, dead silence.

“Eudora?”

He called out once. No one answered.

He pushed open the master bedroom door on the second floor and flicked on the light.

The room was immaculate, as if no one had ever lived there.

In the walk-in closet, half of Eudora's clothes were gone. What remained were the seasonal pieces he'd tossed her way over the years, tags still attached, never worn.

The vanity was bare. The only thing sitting on it was a car key.

Something unnamed and panicked began to rise inside him.

He strode to the study, and his gaze landed immediately on the two documents lying on the desk.

A resignation letter. A breakup agreement.

The handwriting was neat and graceful, but every stroke cut with finality.

“Gavin—we're even.”

He stared at those words, then crushed the paper into a ball and hurled it at the floor.

“Eudora Henson, you've really outdone yourself!”

He'd thought she was throwing a tantrum. He never imagined she'd been planning to leave all along.

“We're even? You slept with me for five years and you think you can just walk away? Keep dreaming!”

Gavin snatched up his phone and made several calls.

“Shut down every exit route. Pull Eudora Henson's ID usage records. Tear this city apart if you have to, but find her!”

The first month after Eudora left.

Gavin couldn't sleep.

Without that familiar trace of jasmine, he tossed and turned all night, barely managing to doze off at dawn.

His temper grew worse by the day, and everyone at the company walked on eggshells.

Lauren tried to stay the night several times, but he turned her away every time with the same excuse: “I'm used to sleeping alone.”