01

The day Harry Sanchez and I had agreed on to meet my parents, I showed up early and waited for him outside his company.

But when the time came, he came rushing down with another girl in his arms.

"I'm sorry, Ruby Pruitt. The new intern isn't feeling well, I have to get her to the hospital first... we'll go see your mom and dad another day..."

I glanced at the whimpering little thing draped across his chest. "Does she not have a phone, or is her whole family dead? Why does it have to be you?"

Harry's face darkened at once, his tone turning accusatory.

"Ruby, can you not make a scene? She just fainted from low blood sugar. I can't exactly leave her lying there, can I?"

Looking at how utterly blind he was to any boundaries, I suddenly laughed.

Then I swung my hand and slapped him across the face. "Harry, did you forget how you got to be a CEO in the first place?"

1

The words landed like a needle, popping every last bit of moral glow off his face.

His expression snapped, and he lowered his voice to snarl at me. "Ruby, what nonsense are you spouting? Don't stand here shrieking at me like some fishwife! If you've got something to say, say it at home!"

"You're calling me a fishwife?" I let out a cold laugh.

"Harry, I've really been too good to you, haven't I?"

Seeing that I was genuinely angry, he softened a little. "She's just a young girl, she fainted at the office. As her boss, I can't just watch her suffer and do nothing, can I? Once I get her to the hospital, I'll explain everything to your parents myself. Can you please stop this?"

"No." I shook my head, my eyes settling on the arm he had wrapped around Renata Fox.

"She fainted from low blood sugar, so call an ambulance. Are you the only person at this company? Can't a coworker take her? Harry, is this a boss doing his duty, or is this something that's crossed a line?"

"Ruby, when did you get so impossible?" His patience ran out, and his voice went cold again.

"Renata just graduated. Her family's out of town, she doesn't know a soul here, and everyone else is buried in projects. What's the problem with me taking her to the hospital? Do you really have to blow it up into some huge issue?"

When he finished, I couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Laughed until the tears nearly came.

How had I never noticed before how good he was at guilt-tripping people.

"Harry, I can't be bothered to argue with you here." I wiped the corner of my eye, brushing away that trace of wetness that shouldn't have been there.

"I'll ask you one thing. Today, are you coming with me to see my parents or not?"

He barely hesitated. "I'll go, but only after I've gotten Renata to the hospital!"

I gave a cold laugh. "Fine! If you want to take her, then take her. But don't come crying about it later!"

With that, I turned around.

I pulled out the keys to the Maybach I'd given him and got into the driver's seat.

Harry's face changed the instant he saw it.

He rushed to the front of the car, frowning. "Ruby! What are you doing? If you drive off with the car, how am I supposed to get Renata to the hospital?"

I glanced at Harry, then at Renata in his arms, and said flatly, "Sorry, Mr. Sanchez. I'm a bit of a clean freak. I can't have filthy things in my car." Then I stepped hard on the gas and drove away from Sanchez Group without a backward glance.

2

After leaving Sanchez Group, I drove straight to the restaurant where I'd agreed to meet my parents.

They were already seated in the private room, waiting for both of us.

When only I walked in, my mother blinked and asked, "Where's Harry?"

I set my bag down, picked up the teapot, and poured them each a cup of tea, smiling. "Something came up at his company. He can't make it. Let's just eat."

My father took a sip of tea and frowned. "What could possibly matter more than sitting down with us to talk about the engagement? Ruby, where exactly did Harry Sanchez go? Tell me the truth."

"He's busy with a matter of life and death." I sat down calmly beside my father and gave them the rough outline of the whole ugly business.

My father lost his temper on the spot and slammed his hand down on the table.

"You two aren't even married yet, and he already dares to walk out on his future in-laws, right in front of you, to go to the hospital with some other woman. If you actually married him, what would he get away with then? If you ask me, Ruby, you should break up with him!"

My mother sighed too, taking my hand. "Ruby, your father's right. Harry Sanchez really has gone too far. Back when you two got together, I already had a feeling this boy wasn't the right match... If you ask me... you should just use this as your chance to end it with him."

I held my mother's hand, and all at once the little moments with Harry Sanchez came rising up in my mind.

When I first got together with him, Harry was still just a project manager at some small company.

He rented a room, lived on instant noodles, wouldn't even spring for a slice of cake on his own birthday.

Back then he courted me tirelessly, bringing breakfast every day, showing up with an umbrella whenever it rained.

Whenever I worked late, he'd wait downstairs for me until the small hours.

That was how his devotion won me over.

Back then, everyone told me, "A guy who marries up isn't reliable. You'd better think it over."

But it was as though I'd been bewitched, and I chose to be with him anyway.

I even pressured my father into setting up a company for him, forcing him up into the CEO's chair.

For three years, for his sake, I gave up my own seat as VP of Pruitt Group.

I chose to step into the background, all because I was afraid people would say I was using my family to hold him down, that they'd call him a kept man.

I gave him every bit of face, every bit of respect.

And I never imagined that what it all bought me in the end was a slap in the face like this, a joke.

Slowly I pulled my drifting thoughts back and gave my parents a smile. "We're breaking up, no question. But before that... everything he owes me, I'm going to collect."

My parents exchanged a glance, and both of them saw the resolve in my eyes.

My father set down his teacup and patted my shoulder. "Your father knows you've got sense. Whatever you decide to do, I'll back you. Sanchez Group was built on Pruitt money in the first place. If it ever comes down to a fight, the right's on our side."

My mother smiled too. "Ruby, as long as you've thought it through, that's what matters..."

I didn't answer. I just picked up my chopsticks, lifted a crystal shrimp dumpling, and put it in my mouth.

And whatever feeling I still had for Harry Sanchez turned to ash the moment that dumpling went down.

3

Halfway through the meal, my phone started buzzing nonstop. Every call was from Harry.

It was getting on my nerves, so I just turned it off.

I sat through the rest of the dinner calmly with my parents.

After dropping them back at the Pruitt mansion, I went straight to the penthouse I'd been sharing with Harry.

We'd paid for this place in full too, only it was in his name.

Now that I thought about it, it really had all gone to that ungrateful wretch for nothing.

Not that it mattered.

He'd be paying for everything he'd done soon enough.

I took out my key, unlocked the door, packed up everything that was mine, took our framed photo down off the wall, cut it to pieces, and dropped it in the trash before I left.

I was wheeling my suitcase out the door when I ran right into Harry, just back from the hospital.

The exhaustion on his face was obvious. He opened his mouth to apologize.

Then he caught sight of the suitcase in my hand, and his expression went dark in an instant.

"Ruby, what's this supposed to mean?" He blocked the elevator, anger he couldn't keep down in his voice.

"I did one nice thing, took a subordinate to the hospital. Are you seriously throwing a tantrum and running off over that?"

Seeing that Harry still hadn't figured out what he'd actually done wrong, I let out a helpless laugh.

I bitterly regretted wasting three good years on an idiot like this.

I said coldly, "Let's break up," and hauled my suitcase toward the door.

"Break up?" Harry's brows knotted tighter, like he'd heard something impossible.

"You want to break up with me over something this small? Ruby, can't you be a little more generous about it?"

"Ha. I'm not being generous?" I pulled out my phone, found the photos my best friend had sent me a little while ago, and shoved them in Harry's face.

"If I weren't being generous, I'd have gone to that hospital and killed the two of you the moment I saw this photo!"

Harry glanced at the photo, and his face went white in a heartbeat.

It was the photo of him at the hospital, holding Renata's hand and feeding her medicine.

"Ruby, you were spying on me?" Harry tried to flip it back on me, using the spying angle to steer away from the point.

"Spying on you? As if you're worth it." I couldn't help it, I snorted a laugh.

"Harry, did you forget? That private hospital you went to belongs to my best friend!"

Harry's face went from green to white, his throat bobbing twice, and then he was back to preaching morality. "Babe, Renata had an IV in that hand, she couldn't lift it, I was just being kind and helping out. There's really nothing between me and her. Are you honestly going to sentence me to death over one moment of kindness?"

"Nothing between you?" I folded my arms and watched him perform, taking my time.

"Harry, you don't actually think I'm some lovestruck fool who'll be smoothed over by a few sweet words, do you? If there was nothing between you, would you have blown off meeting my parents? Would you have fed her medicine with your own hands? Enough, quit the useless act. Move, before I slap you again!"

Every word came out sharper than the last, until the last shred of dignity slid off Harry's face.

He reached out to grab me. "Babe, today was my fault, I shouldn't have blown off your mom and dad, I shouldn't have upset you. Don't be mad, okay? We're about to get engaged. If it gets out that you broke up with me now, how do you think that looks... Even if you won't think of me, you should think of your mom and dad!"

The moment Harry said that, all I felt was how absurd it was.

The foot I'd already started to lift came back down, and I looked at him with a raised brow. "Think of my mom and dad? Harry, how do you have the nerve to say that? Where was your consideration for them when you stood me up? When you took Renata to the hospital right in front of me, where was your worry about how it looked? And another thing..." I paused, and gave him a look full of amusement.

"When did I ever agree to get engaged to you? Why don't you go take a good look in the mirror? A social climber like you, engaged to me?"