This time, what hurt me wasn't just some holiday stunt.

It was finally realizing how blatantly biased she was, and how she purposefully ignored my emotional needs, treating me like a court jester.

Why should I keep someone like her around?

Yet, Joanna felt no guilt whatsoever. There was nothing but annoyance in her voice when she spoke.

"Everything you did was just to satisfy yourself. I wanted none of that, and you didn't even know! Fine, I get it. You’re just picking a fight because of the holiday thing. Let me guess, did your parents talk bad about me? Before the end of the year, I'll go…"

Talking to her was like speaking to a brick wall.

Completely disappointed, I stopped her from making any more false promises. "Give me my money back right now unless you want cops knocking at your door, got it?"

She cared too much about appearances to risk public humiliation.

There was a long silence on the other end before she exploded.

"You're the one who said that your money was mine to spend, so why are you getting all twisted up now that I've done it? Do you really think I care about that tiny amount of money? From now on, I won't touch a single cent of your money even if you beg me!"

The next second, she hung up. Soon afterward, the money was transferred back to my account.

Joanna deleted and blocked me everywhere.

For the first time, I didn’t beg her to add me back. Instead, I transferred a hundred thousand dollars to my parents.

The shocked, overwhelmed expressions on their faces made my chest ache.

-

After spending a proper holiday with them, I returned to the city a day early.

The apartment was empty, but there were unfamiliar sneakers by the entrance, men’s T-shirts, a razor, and even cologne.

The place was a complete mess. Clearly, Zion had already moved in.

I clenched my fist, but I acted like I didn't see any of it. I stepped over the dirty clothes on the floor as I went to collect my belongings, suppressing my disgust.

Since money wasn’t an issue, I quickly rented a fully furnished apartment and moved in immediately.

That evening, just after I finished cleaning, Joanna suddenly called.

"Did you go back home? Where are you?"

"Yeah. I moved out."

She didn't pursue the topic, only changing it. "Why didn't you tell me to come fetch you?"

In the past, I had always indulged her in everything.

I only ever had one request. Whenever I returned from a business trip, she had to come pick me up. At least then, I could feel like someone was waiting for me.

Now, I understood that care without sincerity meant nothing.

"There's no need. We've already broken up, so it wouldn't be appropriate."

"I think you're just feeling guilty!" Joanna's voice suddenly rose shrilly, accusing me. "Zion’s family’s staying at his apartment, so he had nowhere to live. You weren't home anyway, so I just let him stay over for a few days. How could you sneak back in just to break his things?"

Then, Zion's tearful voice chimed in.

"It's alright, Joanna. So what if the limited-edition jersey you bought me got cut to pieces? So what if our photos together were ripped up? Ethan’s probably just jealous. I’ll move out and give the apartment back to him."

I didn't even need to think to know that this was some ploy by Zion to incriminate me. It wouldn't have been the first time, after all.

Yet Joanna believed him without question. She immediately softened her tone to comfort him.

"It's fine. I'll buy you another jersey, and we can take more photos together. I'll teach this jealous brat a lesson for throwing his weight around!"

The subject of her words turned back to me, and her tone became cold immediately.

"Ethan, do you just hate seeing me happy? Apologize to Zion right now, or just wait until tomorrow at work!"

Nobody knew that the cold, untouchable female CEO everyone admired treated the man she had dated for seven years with nothing but harshness and selfishness, as if I were her enemy.

After spending seven years as her emotional punching bag, I was exhausted.

Calmly, I replied, "I didn't do it. You should change your temper, Joanna. No one's going to keep on indulging you anymore."

She froze for a second, before letting out a mocking laugh.

"Since when did I need anyone to indulge me? Ethan, I got where I am today all because of my hard work, so stop giving yourself too much credit!"

Back then, she had been crouching outside a breakfast shop in torn clothes, crying from hunger.

I was the one who reached out to her, gave her a warm meal, brought her into the company, and pushed her all the way to her position as CEO.

Now, she told me that I had nothing to do with it.

I laughed self-deprecatingly. "Fine. Let's act like we never knew each other."

For some reason, Joanna’s heart skipped a beat. Her grip around the phone tightened subconsciously.

But I had already hung up.

The next day, I went to work as usual.

To punish me, Joanna summoned me into her office first thing in the morning and tore into me mercilessly. She threw a proposal in my face and demanded I redo it.

That afternoon, she unexpectedly bought coffee for the entire office while deliberately skipping over me, using Zion's name to help curry favor for him with everyone.

Back when I used to encourage her to build better relationships with coworkers, she had accused me of lowering her status and said leaders needed to maintain dignity.

I genuinely thought she just didn’t understand social dynamics, but now I realized she had understood them perfectly all along.

For seven years, she had kept our relationship secret and avoided even speaking to me at work to avoid suspicion.

Yet today, she was openly targeting me so obviously that everyone in the office kept glancing my way, though nobody dared ask questions.

That evening, we had an extremely important business meeting to attend together. Joanna deliberately brought Zion along, giving me a displeased expression the entire way there.

Once we got to the restaurant, Zion immediately plopped down at the head of the table, before ordering ice cream and all sorts of sugary nonsense from the menu.

Frowning, I reached over to pull him up. "Do you even know who we're meeting tonight?"

Zion pouted.

"Why are you being so submissive, Ethan? Joanna's the CEO, so she's already doing the other party a giant favor by coming to see them personally. If you continue acting so spinelessly, people are going to think that our company's low-class! Aren't I right, Joanna?"

He looked to Joanna for support, and she glanced over at us calmly.

I stared at Joanna as well. She would have this much common sense at least, wouldn't she?

"Zion's right."

As Joanna's words registered in my brain, my eyes widened in disbelief.

"You've spent too long bowing your head towards customers, Ethan. Don't you remember how many business deals I've clinched, even with a strong attitude?"

She had completely forgotten that I was the one who cleaned up after her messes.

At that moment, I had an epiphany.

Letting go of Zion, I nodded.

"Fine. We'll do things your way, Ms. Vale."

Not long after, the client arrived right on time. All of us went to greet him at the entrance.

Joanna immediately pulled Zion beside her and squeezed me aside before smiling brightly at the client. "Mr. Devon, this is Zion Winters, one of our company's talents."

At the dinner table, she stuffed a glass of liquor into my hand.

In the past, she had been the one who made the toasts, while I was the one who drank. This time, I didn't so much as move a muscle.

As the atmosphere grew increasingly awkward, Joanna hesitated for a second before shutting her eyes and forcing herself to drink the liquor herself like a woman on death row.

She had always hated drinking culture at business dinners, and always just watched me down drink after drink at the table.

To think the day would come for her to be the one who made a compromise.

The client knew her reputation well. Seeing her personally drink eased some of his displeasure.

Even though Zion repeatedly sat in the wrong seat, whispered constantly with Joanna during the meeting, and acted spoiled while asking her to pick food for him, the client merely frowned and endured it.

Yet, Zion only became more smug, convinced it was because he and Joanna carried enough status for them to get away with it.

That was until the final specialty dish I'd personally spent thirty thousand dollars ordering was brought to the table.

The client reached out towards the dish with his utensils, but someone else was faster. Zion casually took a piece of one of the best cuts of meat.

I froze on the spot as Zion stuffed the meat into his mouth, happily chewing away.

In our line of work, there was one unspoken rule: the final signature dish had to be tasted by the client first. Once they did, the deal was considered practically secured.

Now…

Bam!

In a fit of rage, the client slammed the table.

Zion blinked innocently and voiced a question on purpose.

"What's wrong, Joanna? Was it something I did? Should I spit out the food? I'll do it right now!"

Joanna's expression darkened as well, while the client shouted, "If you keep this man around, there's no need for us to continue!"

I immediately stepped in to smooth things over. "Please don't be angry, Mr. Devon. He's just an intern who doesn't know better. I'll have him apologize!"

Zion acted personally wronged, tearing up immediately. "You're just using this chance to get back at me… Fine, I'll apologize!"

Joanna instantly flew into a rage for his sake and stood up with a flourish. "You're the one who wants to ask for partnership, not me! Our company won't allow you to bully us like this!"

She proudly dragged Zion away, once again leaving me behind alone to clean up after the disaster she caused.

Had she completely lost her mind?

Mr. Devon, the head of Nextech, was one of our company's core clients. Losing him alone would cost the company ten percent of its revenue!

In the past, whenever Joanna offended clients with her cold attitude, I was always the one bowing and apologizing, drinking myself into the hospital just to repair the relationship and secure the deal.

I’d spent years patiently teaching her how to compromise. Seeing how miserable I became cleaning up after her, she had slowly learned restraint.

But now, for Zion's sake, she'd completely lost all reason once more.

Meanwhile, I was no longer the clown who would waste my time stabilizing her position as CEO.

Looking at the furious client, I sighed helplessly and apologized quietly.

Mr. Devon was so angry his chest heaved violently. "This doesn't have anything to do with you! To think that she'd become so arrogant after becoming CEO… I'll reflect this directly to your chairman!"

With that, I knew those two weren't going to get away with this scott-free.

As I left the restaurant, Joanna graced me with her presence once more, graciously unblocking me and sending me a message.

[Comfort the client well, and I'll let you come home tonight. I won't take rent from you anymore, either.]

How could she be so blindly confident, thinking that I'd help her again?

I scoffed, throwing her words to the back of my mind. I wasn't going to return, obviously.

Before I went to bed, I composed an email, detailing the events that happened tonight, before sending it to the chairman. Leaving behind evidence was important, after all.

The next day, at work, Joanna suddenly sent me a file, telling me to finish it and hand it back to her before noon.

The old me would have accepted the quest with a heart full of gratitude, thinking of it as a sign that she, if nothing else, trusted me.

Now, I replied with something else.

[Ms. Vale, this isn't within my job scope.]

The next second, Joanna sent me a message, telling me to go to her office.

I walked inside, expressionless. With my understanding of her, she'd probably called me to shout at me for not knowing what was good for me.

Instead, she awkwardly produced a gift box from her desk drawer, stuffing it into my palm.

I wanted to see what she was up to. The moment I opened the box, I laughed in disbelief.

It was a blue wristwatch, clearly designed for a child. Hell, even the 19.99 dollar price tag was still attached to it!

Seeing my frozen expression, Joanna actually thought I was overwhelmed with happiness.

"There, are you happy now? I nagged Zion and punished him last night, and he even came with me to pick this apology gift up. Can't you two play nice?"

She coughed awkwardly into her fist before continuing:

"Right. The chairman's coming today, so praise Zion in front of him, won't you? Tell him that Zion's the one who assisted you in achieving the results you have now. Wouldn't it be nice if the three of us could call the shots around here in the future?"

Wow, what a plan.

That very morning, Zion had proudly shown off the brand-new Patek Philippe watch on his wrist, bragging that Joanna bought it to comfort him after being "bullied" by a difficult client.

What was that about punishing, again?

I casually tossed the gift box back onto her desk.

"Thanks, but no thanks. This watch fits that kid Zion to a tee. As for my results, there's no reason for me to give them to someone else."