I worked in bottle service at a nightclub for four years just to support my boyfriend.

His startup business failed. He told me he owed a fortune to loan sharks, saying that they would cut off his fingers if he failed to pay up.

I gave him every dollar I had saved just to help him clear off his debt.

I even gave him the emerald bracelet my mother had left me before she passed away.

That night, I unintentionally overheard a conversation from one of the private rooms while I was working.

"Preston, your girlfriend never would have given you that bracelet she had been hiding if Mia hadn't suggested we pretend to be debt collectors and assist you with this little show."

Preston Hale laughed smugly before draining the drink in his glass. "It's just an old bracelet. Mia liked it, so I gave it to her."

Then, he leaned back and added, "Now, help me think of another way to test Nora."

So that was the truth.

The love I dedicated for four years was just a test to him. The loan sharks, debt, fear, and desperation—he had orchestrated it all.

I turned, walking out on him and out of the nightclub.

Then, I reached out to my older brother, Adrian Whitmore, with whom I had been fighting for years.

"Adrian," I told him, "I lost. I'll marry the man you arranged for me to meet."

The Bracelet on Her Wrist

I had just hung up on Adrian when I saw Mia Sterling step out of a car.

The emerald bracelet was on her wrist, bright and unmistakable under the streetlights.

A moment later, Preston came out through the back door of the nightclub. The second he saw Mia, he strode over and pulled her into a hug like he had nothing to hide.

Then, he let go and met my eyes.

My bitterness must have been obvious, and so was the resentment I could no longer keep buried.

For once, Preston looked uneasy.

He quickly approached me.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

I ignored him.

My eyes stayed fixed on Mia's wrist.

Preston noticed immediately. His expression did not change as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "Nora, Mia really liked that bracelet. She paid a very generous price for it."

Then, he gave my shoulder a light squeeze. "You should thank her."

I thought, 'Thank her? Really?'

Preston had tricked the bracelet out of my hands, so I knew full well that Mia had gotten it for nothing. Yet, they still expected me to thank her.

The lie was so atrocious that it bordered on ridiculous, but his good acting had been so convincing that he had me fooled for four entire years.

Now that I had finally seen Preston for who he really was, I felt almost relieved.

I didn't want to play this game of pretend any longer.

I looked at Mia and said, "I'm sorry, but the bracelet is no longer for sale. Please give it back."

Before I could say anything else, Mia laughed.

Her gaze swept over me from head to toe. When she saw the bottle-service badge pinned to my outfit, the disdain in her eyes became impossible to hide.

"Give it back?" she asked. "Then, what about the money I paid for it? I spent 10 million on this bracelet."

Her smile sharpened. "How many bottles would you have to sell before you could pay that back?"

The price tag was such an absurd number that I almost laughed.

She really had the nerve to say it out loud.

Still, none of that mattered to me. I only wanted my mother's bracelet back. If she wanted to rack up the price, I would just treat this as a lesson and pay the damn money.

I was about to speak when Preston joined in, echoing Mia's accusation as if he had not been the one who lied to me in the first place.

"I already used the money from the bracelet to pay off my debt, and now you want it back?" His eyes flicked over my uniform. "Nora, you work in the service industry. How long would it take you to earn that kind of money?"

So that was what he really thought of me.

He looked down on me just like everyone else did.

When he called me a bottle-service girl, he must have completely forgotten that he'd been mooching off the money I'd earned from the same job he so disdained for the past four years.

I smiled bitterly and told him, "I said I'll pay her back. Tomorrow at the latest. I can write an IOU right now."

Then, I looked back at Mia. "So, can you give me the bracelet?"

They both laughed when they heard that.

Mia laughed the hardest. She leaned so close to Preston that she almost fell against him.

"You're that desperate to get it back?" she asked. "Are you reacting this way because my family, the Sterlings, are in the jewelry business?"

The Broken Bracelet

Mia's gaze dropped to the bracelet, and her expression turned mocking. "Wait. Don't tell me this thing is fake."

She slipped it off with obvious disgust, pinching it between two fingers as she held it out in front of me.

I reached for it, but she took one step back and dodged my hand.

'Were the Sterlings in the jewelry business? If I wasn't mistaken, Adrian wanted me to marry into that family. So why have I never heard of Mia?'

My inattention only lasted for a second.

However, that was enough to catch me off guard when Mia suddenly tossed the bracelet at me. "Fine. You can have it back if it's just a fake."

Her smile widened. "But don't forget to write that IOU for ten million."

I barely spared a glance at the smug satisfaction spread across Mia's face before turning my gaze to the falling emerald bracelet.

I immediately reached for it, but I was still too late.

A sharp crack rang in my ears.

I dropped to my knees, and the broken pieces cut into my skin. Blood ran down almost instantly, but I barely felt the sting.

That bracelet had been the token of love my father gave my mother. She treasured it her whole life. She only removed it when she was lying on her deathbed just to pass it to me.

Yet, it was destroyed because of me.

I was a horrible daughter.

I knelt there, sobbing so hard I could barely breathe.

I did not know how much time had passed before Preston suddenly grabbed my arm and pulled me up from the ground.

"It was just a fake bracelet," he snapped. "Are you seriously going to raise such a fuss because of that?"

His voice was filled with impatience.

"I'll just get you another fake one if it matters so much to you. It won't even cost much."

Then, he frowned. "Instead of wasting your time crying, you should be thinking about how you're going to pay Mia back."

I almost laughed out loud. 'Money? All he cares about is money. He's rich enough to never worry about it. Yet, he still uses such a cruel and ridiculous trick to push me into a corner.'

I shook off his hand, crouched back down, and carefully picked up every broken piece of the bracelet.

Only after I found the last fragment did I lift my bloodshot eyes to him. "Preston, I already have nothing left. Are you still not done playing with me?

My voice went cold. "We're done."

I saw Mia's eyes light up as she grinned with joy. She was acting as if she had finally gotten what she wanted.

Only now did I realize just why she had helped Preston come up with this plan to mess with me. She had wanted me to back off on my own.

At the same time, Preston froze.

He clearly had not expected me to break up with him.

He had assumed I would continue doing everything I could to pay off his debt.

After all, I loved him that deeply. I was even willing to work in the service industry for him and supported him for four years. What else wouldn't I do for him?

Preston stared at me in disbelief. "Nora, you're breaking up with me?"

Then, his expression darkened, and he let out a bitter laugh. "So this is who you are, huh? You'd run the second things get tough. I've truly misjudged you. It turns out you've been looking down on me all along."

After that, he angrily grabbed Mia's hand and walked away.

I watched him leave and understood exactly what he was doing.

He was trying to force me to give in.

That was because I had once sworn that I would never leave him just because he was penniless. I had promised I would never abandon him when he was struggling.

I wiped my tears and turned back toward the nightclub.

I had only taken the bottle-service job to support Preston. Now that I had broken up with him, there was no reason to keep working there.

Besides, I was going back to the Whitmores anyway.

When I told my manager, Carla Bennett, that I wanted to resign, she looked at me in shock. "Nora, did you finally pass the boss's test?"

Then, she sighed. "You've had it rough. The boss sent so many rich guys to harass you and test you with money."

She looked at me with a strange kind of admiration. "The fact that you resisted all of that is honestly rare."

I frowned.

There was so much information in her words that I could not process it all at once.

I wondered what she meant by rich guys harassing me with money and the boss' test.

I asked slowly, "Ms. Bennett, when you say 'the boss'..."

The Boss' Test

When Carla saw the confusion on my face, she looked just as puzzled.

"The boss is Mr. Hale," she explained. "He was the one who arranged for you to work bottle service here in the first place."

Then, she gave me a small, almost pleased smile. "But you've finally made it! I'm sure Mr. Hale will treat you well from now on."

Only then did it hit me.

Preston introduced me to this nightclub four years ago.

Back then, I had just stood up on the blind date Adrian arranged for me and fled from the Whitmores out of anger.

That was when I met Preston.

He thought I was some poor girl from the countryside, running away from a family that had tried to force me into marriage.

I thought he was a broke, unlucky man with no future.

We agreed to work hard together and build our rags-to-riches story.

He sent me here to work at the bottle service, where I had to smile at customers, flatter them, and put up with their wandering hands just to sell more liquor.

And what did he do?

He claimed he was out chasing business when he was really spending his nights drowning in luxury and pleasure.

Carla hesitated before continuing, "What Mr. Hale did was a little excessive. Some of the rich guys who hang out with him would sometimes pretend to be customers and get handsy with you. Mr. Hale said he was worried you wouldn't be able to resist temptation."

Then, she looked at me as if I should feel grateful. "You passed the test, though. I guess that's the silver lining here."

So this was what they called passing the test, and this was what they called a silver lining.

How ironic.

Preston was the one who had trapped me in four years of misery. He was the source of my harassment, and he was the one who had sent his friends to pose as customers just to toy with me. To them, my suffering was their twisted form of entertainment.

He knew how hard I was slaving away just for money, and that I'd suffered from health issues due to pushy customers.

And yet, he continued to lounge in his private room at the nightclub with his rich, useless friends. He continued to watch with cold eyes as I stumbled through the traps he had set.

The more I thought about it, the closer I came to laughing through my tears.

Carla was still calling after me when I finally left the office.

I ignored her, took out my phone, and called Adrian again.

I said, my voice shaking, "Adrian, I want to go home now. Can you come get me?"

What I did not expect was that Adrian was currently overseas on business.

"Nora, don't be scared," he replied immediately. "Send me your location. I'll have someone pick you up."

I had just sent him my location when a sardonic voice sounded behind me.

"Well, if it isn't Nora, the bottle-service girl. What are you doing standing around? Shouldn't you be selling drinks?"

It was Mia.

She stood in front of me with her arms crossed, looking down at me as if I were gum stuck under her shoe.

Her gaze swept over me with open contempt before her lips curled into a smug smile. Then, she tilted her chin toward the hallway. "We need more liquor. Bring us a few good bottles."

Her smile sharpened. "As for whether you can actually sell them… Well, I guess that'll depend on your luck."

I stared into her malicious eyes and instantly cottoned on to what she was planning. They intended to use the excuse of purchasing liquor to humiliate me. However, I no longer needed to worry about their feelings now.

I answered coldly, "Sorry, I've already resigned. So, find someone else."

I turned to leave, but someone grabbed me hard from behind.

It was Preston.

He stared at me with anger written all over his face.

"Nora, you resigned?" he demanded. "Why didn't you discuss it with me first?"

Then, his voice turned sharper. "What about the money you owe Mia? Are you trying to run from your debt?"

I almost laughed. 'The money I owe Mia? He really has the nerve to say that.'

Now that I'd seen his true colors, I couldn't help but wonder whether my brain had turned into mush for the past four years.

The men behind him started pointing at me and jeering.

"She owes someone money, but now she's quitting. It sounds like she's trying to run from her debt."

"Preston, your girlfriend's ghastly."

"A shameless woman like that isn't worthy of you. It's a good thing that you never made the relationship public..."

His friend nearly let something slip.