The day I was diagnosed with a terminal illness, I used the last two dollars in my pocket to buy a lottery ticket and won twenty million dollars.

Overwhelmed by a mix of grief and joy, I got drunk at a bar and ended up sleeping with a man I'd just met.

When I woke up and saw his handsome face, I tossed twenty thousand dollars at him.

"I'm keeping you. Is one hundred thousand a month enough?"

He stared at me blankly for a moment, then nodded. "Miss, my name is Julian Rhodes. You can call me Jules."

I spent all my money on him.

In what I figured were the last three days of my life, I decided to buy myself a burial plot, only to find my pockets were completely empty.

I went to find Julian Rhodes to ask him to lend me fifty thousand dollars, but instead I found him at the city's most expensive club with a group of Rich Kids.

A woman was draped in his arms, laughing as she asked him, "Young Master Rhodes, aren't you going to end your little game of Truth or Dare?"

Julian Rhodes casually blew a smoke ring. "What's the rush? I haven't had my fun yet."

"That old hag is pretty stupid. She believes whatever I say and gives me whatever I want."

...

One of his buddies chimed in teasingly, "Don't tell me she's figured out who you are and is trying to latch onto you for good?"

Before he could answer, I pushed the door open and walked in. "That's right. I've known who you are for a while. Give me one hundred thousand dollars, and I'll disappear immediately."

Julian Rhodes stared straight at me. "My dad was right after all. You lower-class women only care about money."

"Wasting even an ounce of emotion on you is a complete loss."

I feigned a relaxed tone. "Of course. Why else would I have spent five million dollars on you?"

He just laughed, angered. He threw a Black Card on the table. "You want money? Fine. Be my dog for a month. Come whenever I call."

"Alright."

"Whatever you want to play at, Young Master Rhodes, I'm game."

'Julian Rhodes probably hadn't expected this reaction from me.'

'In the script he'd imagined, I probably would have cried, made a scene, and then hysterically demanded to know why he had lied to me.'

'But he didn't know that I was someone who wasn't even afraid of death. Why would I care about being a dog for a month?'

'Besides, the time I had left was probably just enough to play out this final game.'

Moira Vance, who was sitting beside him, gave him a playful shove, her voice sickeningly sweet. "Young Master Rhodes, look at her. She'll do anything for money. She has no shame at all."

Julian Rhodes's expression turned even darker.

"Now, get out. Kneel by the door and wait for me."

"You can get up when I'm in a better mood. Otherwise, don't even think about spending a single cent."

The private room instantly filled with the sound of suppressed, mocking laughter.

The same Rich Kids who had once politely called me "Saozi" were now sizing me up like a clown, not even bothering to hide their contempt and glee.

I bent down to pick up the card. I flicked its surface with a fingertip, making a sharp, crisp sound.

I looked up, meeting Julian Rhodes's eyes, which were searching my face for any trace of humiliation or resentment.

'He was bound to be disappointed.'

I even managed a smile, my tone breezy. "Of course, Young Master Rhodes."

"Elara Gardner, you really are cheap to the core," he said, his expression grim.

I tucked the Black Card into a close-fitting pocket and patted it, looking for all the world like a grasping materialist who was thrilled to have gotten her hands on a huge sum of money.

"What can I do? I'm terrified of being poor."

"And since Young Master Rhodes is so generous, forget kneeling. I'd be willing to lie there all night for you."

With that, I turned, and without the slightest hesitation, pulled open the door to the private room and walked out.

And under the gazes of the people behind me, I obediently knelt on the cold floor.

The second before the door closed, I heard the sound of a glass shattering, followed by Moira Vance's alarmed cry:

"Oh my god, Jules, your hand..."

: First Meeting

After kneeling for a few minutes, my vision blurred, and I recalled my first meeting with Julian Rhodes.

I had just collected my twenty million dollar lottery winnings and was sitting alone in a booth at a bar, downing glass after glass of the strongest liquor.

The doctor's words that I only had three months left to live kept replaying in my mind.

Just as I was half-drunk, I noticed Julian Rhodes in the distance.

He was surrounded by several men who looked like trouble.

"You got a lot of nerve, kid. Either drink to apologize, or pay up!"

The leader, a man I'll call Blondie, was holding a bottle of whiskey and patting Julian's face condescendingly.

Julian Rhodes kept his head down, not saying a word. His eyes were defiant, and there was even a hint of a smirk on his lips.

"Not talking, huh? Fine!" Blondie sneered and dumped the entire bottle over his head.

The liquor trickled down his black hair, soaking his thin T-shirt and outlining the lean but powerful contours of his young body.

In that moment, I don't know what came over me.

I staggered to my feet, walked over, and slammed a stack of cash directly onto the table.

"Is this enough to pay for your drinks?"

After exchanging a look, Blondie and his guys did a complete one-eighty. They grabbed the money with shit-eating grins and left.

In the entire booth, only the drenched Julian Rhodes and I were left.

He looked up at me, the ferocity in his eyes fading, replaced by wariness.

My memory of what happened later that night is hazy.

I only remember that I seemed to have clung to him and wailed all night, letting out all my emotions.

He seemed to be trying impatiently to shake me off the whole time, but I held on tight and wouldn't let go.

When I woke up again, we were already lying in a large hotel bed.

Morning light streamed in through a gap in the curtains, falling on his handsome, clean-cut face as he slept. His long eyelashes were like two little brushes.

I looked at him, and a ridiculous idea suddenly popped into my head.

My life was on a countdown. Rather than die in loneliness and fear, I decided I might as well seize this vibrant splash of color before me and indulge myself one last time.

'I thought that as long as I framed our relationship as a monetary transaction, there would be no emotional entanglement.'

'That way, when the day came for me to leave, neither of us would be heartbroken over the other.'

So, after he woke up, I proposed to become his sugar mama.

After a moment of stunned silence, he chuckled and agreed.

Thinking back now, from the very beginning, I was the clown being played for a fool.

I don't know how long I knelt at the door.

I only knew that my legs had gone completely numb, almost to the point of having no feeling at all.

Just as I was starting to drift off, the door to the private room was pulled open again.

Julian Rhodes walked out. He reeked of alcohol, and his hand was simply bandaged.

He seemed surprised to find that I was actually still there, and his steps faltered for a moment.

"Get up."

I used the wall to support myself and shakily got to my feet. The numbness in my legs almost made me fall again.

He subconsciously reached out to steady me, but the moment before his hand touched my arm, he snatched it back as if he'd touched something filthy.

I steadied myself and looked at him, my face devoid of expression.

"Young Master Rhodes, are there any other orders?"

He stared at me for a long time, his expression too complex for me to decipher.

After a long moment, he pulled his car keys from his pocket and tossed them to me, his tone hard and cold. "Go get the car. Take Moira home."

Moira Vance linked her arm intimately through his and shot me a provocative glance before holding a delicate handbag out to me.

"Hold this for me. My hands are busy holding onto Jules."

I nodded, took the handbag, and walked to the elevator without a word.

In the rearview mirror, I could see the two of them whispering intimately in the back seat.

Moira Vance's laughter was like silver bells. She would occasionally lean on Julian Rhodes's shoulder, and he never pushed her away.

He just stared at me unblinkingly through the mirror, his gaze once again unreadable.

I kept my eyes on the road and focused on driving.

The car pulled to a smooth stop in front of the Vance family's villa.

After Moira Vance got out, Julian Rhodes didn't move.

He just said, "Go to the trunk and get the blue gift box."

I did as he said.

It was the birthday present I had given him yesterday—a bottle of perfume I had blended myself.

"Give it to Miss Vance," he said flatly.

My heart felt as if it had been viciously stabbed by a needle, but my face remained expressionless.

I turned and handed the gift box to Moira Vance. "Miss Vance, this is a gift from Young Master Rhodes."

Moira Vance opened it with a look of pleasant surprise, covering her mouth as she exclaimed, "Wow! Jules, thank you!"

She stood on her tiptoes and planted a kiss on Julian Rhodes's cheek.

Julian Rhodes's body stiffened for a moment, but his gaze was locked on me, as if trying to pierce right through me.

But I just stood there quietly, like an emotionless puppet.

'I just feel like my time is running out. I don't want to waste it on such meaningless emotions.'

But Julian Rhodes seemed to have completely lost patience with my unresponsive attitude.

He took me to a party with his friends, then left me alone in a corner to watch him and Moira Vance dance intimately in the center of the dance floor.

Everyone looked at me as if I were a joke.

"See her? That's the gold digger Young Master Rhodes keeps around. I heard she begged him on her knees not to kick her out."

"Tsk, tsk. She's just average-looking. How can she compare to Miss Vance?"

"She's not in it for love, she's in it for the money."

"Look at her, stiff as a board. She's probably calculating how to squeeze more money out of him."

I sat on a sofa in the corner, sipping the lemonade in my cup as my stomach churned.

The side effects of the chemotherapy were getting worse. My body was deteriorating at a visible rate.

Dizziness, nausea, weakness in my limbs.

I forced myself to hold on, not wanting to collapse here and give them more reason to laugh.

Julian Rhodes came off the dance floor with his arm around Moira Vance and walked straight over to me.

He handed me a glass of red wine, a cruel smile playing on his lips.

"Go on. Apologize to Miss Vance."

Moira Vance feigned surprise. "Jules, how can I accept this? It's not like Miss Xia did anything wrong."

"Her biggest mistake was showing up in front of me." Julian Rhodes seemed very displeased.

"If she makes me unhappy, she's the one who has to apologize."