I cried once and then cried again. Although it usually only took me twenty minutes to wash up, that night, I spent two whole hours.

When I finally calmed down and stepped out of the bathroom, I found Felix had already fallen asleep. At that moment, I made excuses for him, perhaps he truly didn’t like perfume.

From that day onward, I never bought perfume again. Even now, though Felix and I’ve taken our company public, I haven’t purchased a single bottle for myself.

Yet despite his dislike for perfume, he could precisely choose the exact fragrance Gwen wanted.

It was not that he didn’t like perfume; he just thought I was not worthy of it.

Hearing this, Gwen looked at Felix pitifully, as if seeking help.

Felix, as always, couldn’t argue with me, so he took it out on me instead.

“Helena, can you stop being so suspicious? I already have a daughter with you now; what else could I possibly want from anyone else?”

It sounded like I was using my daughter to bind him.

I didn’t want to argue about something irrelevant, so I threw the folder on the table.

“Felix, we had a meeting scheduled for a week and you canceled it just like that. You owe me an explanation.”

Felix’s throat tightened and he rubbed his temples, as if I were being unreasonable again. He was utterly exasperated with me.

Gwen suddenly walked out, lowering her head and speaking softly, “Mrs. Borgia, I’m sorry. I forgot to print the documents. I got drunk last night during a business dinner. It’s my fault. Whatever punishment you give me, I’ll accept it. Just don’t take it out on Mr. Borgia.”

Felix immediately shielded her, pulling her behind him. “It’s not Gwen’s fault. I was the one who got drunk. She drove me back to the hotel and that’s why she forgot to print the documents needed for today’s meeting.”

He was defending Gwen? He used to hate me the most. I just added a comma to the proposal and he scolded me fiercely.

He even ignored me for an entire week.

But now, because Gwen forgot to print the documents, he cancelled the meeting at the last minute, making a fool of me and the entire staff.

I scoffed at him, “You were drunk and didn’t let the driver take you home. You made her, a recent college graduate, to do it. Felix, are you trying to tell me there’s something going on between you two?”

Gwen immediately rushed out and knelt before me. “Mrs. Borgia, it’s not like that. It’s not what you think. I’m completely innocent with Mr. Borgia.”

She knelt before me, but her movements were too abrupt, causing her collar to slip down, revealing a faint red mark.

I stared at the kiss mark and mocked, “Is this what Secretary Gwen meant by innocent?”

Gwen was so flustered that she was about to cry. She hesitated for a long time before saying, “Mr. Borgia just... just thought I was you, that’s why he pulled me back. But I swear nothing else happened between us.”

I sighed, sounding slightly disappointed, “Felix, you said you wouldn’t hire a female secretary, but you forgot as soon as I got pregnant. You’ve really let me down.”

Felix immediately grew anxious, his tone sounding even more disappointed than mine, “Gwen is just a recent college graduate. She’s worked so hard. Can’t I give her a chance?”

“In just eight years, you’ve already forgotten how struggling you were when you first graduated from university. It’s true that a blind person regains sight and the first thing they throw away is their crutch. Helena, I never thought you were such a malicious woman.”

“Me, malicious?”

“Fine, then I’ll tell you what malicious means.”

I pulled out my phone and dialled the HR manager’s number.

“Gwen has an unprofessional attitude. Give her double her salary as compensation. She doesn’t need to come tomorrow!”

Slap!

Felix raised his hand and slapped me hard across the face.

The burning pain on my face felt like a mirror shattering inside me. The shards that pierced my heart, causing me to double over in pain.

“Helena, you’ve gone too far.”

He took Gwen’s hand and said firmly, “Don’t worry, I’m here. No one will blame you for leaving.”

The phone fell to the ground in the corner and the HR manager’s anxious voice came through, “Mrs. Borgia, what’s going on? Is Gwen Courtet still here?”

Felix shouted at the HR manager, “Get lost! Do you think I won’t fire you right now?”

The HR manager was stunned for a few seconds before abruptly hanging up the phone.

Felix took Gwen’s hand and looked at me. My eyes were bloodshot. 

He sneered at me, “Let’s go. I’ll take you shopping to calm down. I’ll pay for everything today.”

He pulled Gwen away and she gave me a deer-like glance.

Any man would have felt a surge of pity, but I saw it with defiance.

If she liked trash, I would give it to her. 

I didn’t know how I got home. The HR manager sent a screenshot of me turning on the shower and letting the water drip down my body.

It was Gwen’s Instagram feed.

In the photo, the two of them were holding hands, with various designer perfumes scattered on the table.

But the most striking thing was the faint red bloodstain on the white blanket in the corner.

The caption read [I’ve finally become the person I’ve been crushing on.]

The finger on that hand had a faint scar and I recognized it as Felix’s.

In my third year of junior high school, my mother passed away unexpectedly. My grandmother was so heartbroken that she ended up in the ICU and my stepfather abandoned me in a small county town.

I was orphaned and alone, so I became the target of bullies and delinquent girls.

I was surrounded in an alley by a group of girls, with the leader holding a knife and gesturing at my face.

“You think you’re so good at seducing people? Let’s see how you’ll seduce the physics teacher without your face.”

By “flirting,” she meant that the physics teacher had helped me with a few extra problems.

A group of people surrounded me in the alley, beating and kicking me.

Felix suddenly appeared like a knight in shining armour, walking toward me against the light.

His index finger was the one that had been cut by the class monitor’s knife back then.

After that, he would always follow me and stay with me until he saw me safely inside the rental house before turning away.

Finally, I gathered my courage and stopped him. “Why are you following me?”

He smiled lightly. “Princess, I want to be your knight. Isn’t it enough to protect you?”

For the next two years, he truly acted like a knight, braving wind and rain to send me home every day, until the night of high school graduation.

I invited him into my home and we sat on the roof together, watching the stars. When our fingers intertwined, he promised never to betray me.

When the college entrance exam results came out, I scored ten points lower than he did. To avoid being a burden, I secretly applied to the National University of Kyiv and started working part-time to earn tuition fees.

That day, he stared at the 40-degree sun, searching the entire county for me. He finally found me in a milk tea shop. He held me in his arms, tears streaming down his face and said, “Without you, I can’t go on living.”

Later, he gave up his spot at Kyiv Slavonic University and applied to the National University of Kyiv with me.

In our senior year of college, I sold the only necklace my mother had left me to raise the startup funds for our studio. I got 100,000 dollars and we established our own studio.

He took me to the roof again on the night the studio was founded. Just like we did on the day we graduated from high school, he kissed me gently on the lips and said,

“With a wife like you, what more could a man ask for?”

But now he has fallen in love with a younger woman and betrayed the person he once was.

Looking at Gwen’s photos on Instagram feeds, I suddenly lost myself in thought until the HR manager’s message popped up.

[Mrs. Borgia, if you ever decide to quit, remember to take me with you.]

[Felix yelled at me again today. He really thinks I want to stay here and put up with his abuse. Actually, I wanted to leave the first day he made Gwen to be his secretary.]

[If it weren’t for you, Mrs. Borgia, who would care about him?]

[During the autumn recruitment, I clearly rejected Gwen at first glance. Who knew that Felix would drag her, crying and sobbing, in front of me and throw her resume in my face?]

[I still remember him saying, ‘From today onward, Miss Courtet is my secretary. She’ll be promoted directly without an internship period.]

[To be honest, what girl wouldn’t be confused by that? I wouldn’t blame her for interfering in your marriage, even if it meant being a mistress.]

Yeah, being protected unconditionally by someone who wouldn’t be confused?

I typed a few words and sent them to the HR manager.

[I’m sorry to have wronged you today. Felix is trash. If Gwen wants him back, I’ll let them be together, that trashy couple.]

Before going to bed, my phone suddenly rang again from an unknown number. This was the third time.

So I decided that if it were a sales call, I’d be kind enough and listen to them ramble for a minute.

“Hello! Is this Helena? It’s your grandmother!”

My mind snapped back to reality. My grandmother?

After graduating from junior high school, I was sent to a small county town and I hadn’t seen my grandmother for fifteen years.

I had assumed that with Jacques’s connections, my grandmother had already passed away.

Jacques Merz was my father. In the eyes of others, he was a loving father to his daughter and a devoted husband to his wife. But on the day my mother died, my grandmother was admitted to the ICU and I was abandoned in the small county town, I discovered the truth that he was not my biological father.

My biological father had died in a car accident when my mother was pregnant with me.

To preserve the family’s reputation, my grandmother arranged for Jacques, a man from a lower social class, to marry into our family. 

In exchange, she gave him 10% of the company’s shares, on the condition that he never cheat, divorce, or have children. He was also forbidden to reveal my true origins and I was to be his biological daughter for the rest of his life.

But in the end, he broke his promise, abandoned me in the small county town and brought his illegitimate child and mistress back to the half-mountain villa my grandmother had left to my mother.

After hanging up the phone, I messaged my lawyer friend, asking her to deliver a divorce agreement to Felix on my behalf.

I completely put the shadow of marriage behind me, changed into a professional outfit and attended a public relations plan competition in the neighbouring city.

At the award ceremony, Felix burst in like an uninvited guest, dragging me away from the meeting.

He pressed me against the wall, his eyes bloodshot.

“You’re a mother now. Can’t you control your temper? Divorcing over a bottle of perfume? Is that what you want?”

I sighed, suppressing the bitterness in my heart and asked calmly, “Isn’t a bottle of perfume enough?”

He was speechless for a moment, then continued to plead, “It’s just a bottle of perfume. If you want it so badly, I’ll buy you everything. Irene is less than six months old. Can you bear to see her lose her parents at such a young age? “

I pushed him away. "Felix, get this straight. I want to divorce you, not die. “

“Besides, my daughter has me as her mother and it doesn’t matter whether she has a father or not.”

He grabbed my wrist, the strength disparity so great that I couldn’t break free.

“What do you mean? I’m her father. Do you think that has nothing to do with me?”

I sneered, “You keep saying you’re her father, but since she was born, have you ever changed her diaper once? Have you ever fed her since she started talking? You don’t even know how many scoops of formula she needs now. And you tell me you’re her father?”

A fellow contestant came out and pulled him away. “Let’s talk about it later. It’s our champion’s turn to speak now.”

When I stepped out of the competition building, Felix was already gone, replaced by Gwen.

Dressed in a flower-patterned dress, she walked toward her gracefully. “Hey, I heard that Mr. Borgia won the public relations design competition again. Congratulations!”

“But what if you won the competition? You still can’t win me in love.”

Without Felix around her, she completely let her true nature show. She stopped pretending longer.

She placed her hand on her belly. “Believe my Instagram feeds. I’ve already sent you photos of my body.”

“Felix didn’t take any precautions that night. Maybe there’s already a child of his in my womb.”

“Felix is a traditional man. Once I give birth to a son for him, it’ll be the day you and your worthless daughter are kicked out of the Borgia Family.”

Daring to mention my daughter, she had really crossed the line. A crisp sound rang out as I slapped her twice across the face and kicked her to the ground.

Felix suddenly appeared, striding toward me. Before I could react, a loud slap landed on my face.

“This is for Gwen.”

In just one week, he had hit me twice for this woman.

Did he really think I was a pushover?

I sneered and threw the divorce agreement into his arms. “Felix, earlier you asked me if I was divorcing you over a bottle of perfume? Now you see? This is the real reason I’m divorcing you.”

“Sign it and from now on, we’ll go our separate ways.”

He only coldly replied, “I can’t possibly sign that.”

He picked up Gwen and left. But his phone rang just as he was putting her into the car.

“Mr. Borgia, the Walpole Group has suddenly terminated the contract and the company’s finances can’t hold on!”