Chapter 3

Tyler glanced at me, a smug smile playing on his lips.

“Not much,” he said nonchalantly, “just a few hundred thousand.”

A collective gasp echoed through the office.

A few hundred thousand was an astronomical sum for us, who barely made five figures a month.

But I noticed that from the moment Tyler entered, his gaze kept drifting towards me, purposefully.

As if he was observing a lab rat’s reaction.

He was watching to see if I had already discovered that my bank card was now useless.

I suppressed the hatred churning in my gut, biting back the questions that almost burst from my lips.

For now, I couldn’t tip him off.

I stood up, forcing a perfectly natural smile, even a hint of envy.

“Tyler, congratulations! I’ve got to bask in your good fortune.”

Seeing my composed demeanor, a flicker of surprise crossed Tyler’s eyes, then he subtly let out a sigh of relief, clearly feeling guilty.

He probably thought I hadn't noticed the anomaly in my savings yet.

As lunchtime approached, Kyle, who sat next to me, suddenly leaned over.

“Liam, didn’t you say you’d go house-hunting once you had enough for the down payment? When are you going? I’ll go with you.”

At the mention of the apartment, I clenched my fists tightly, my nails almost digging into my flesh.

But I quickly relaxed them, maintaining a calm expression.

“No rush,” I said.

“I lost my ID a couple of days ago, and it takes time to replace it. Besides, house prices are dropping so fast now, I might as well wait and see.”

The words were barely out of my mouth when I felt a gaze land on me again.

It was Tyler.

He was watching me again, his eyes betraying a hint of unconcealed glee.

Tyler had only been an intern at the company for two months. He was five foot seven, weighed 180 pounds, had an ordinary face, and ranked last in sales performance.

In our sales department, where looks and业绩 mattered, he should have been at the bottom of the food chain.

But in my previous life, it was him who used my half a million dollars, first to get full-body liposuction, then plastic surgery.

He transformed himself into a charismatic, handsome golden boy that everyone adored.

It was also him who used my money to buy loyalty, colluding with a few female colleagues to have me committed to a mental institution, citing my "mental instability."

Recalling the two years of torment in that mental institution, I took another deep breath to calm myself.

At noon, Tyler took us to The Grand Hotel for lunch, grandly telling us to order whatever we wanted.

I didn't hold back. I opened the menu and pointed directly to the most expensive pages.

“King crab, the biggest one.”

“Australian lobster sashimi.”

“And this, the French foie gras.”

“A bird’s nest soup for everyone, please.”

With each dish I ordered, the expressions of my colleagues grew more entertaining.

Kyle nudged my arm, whispering, “Liam, isn’t this… a bit too wasteful?”

I smiled at him, saying nothing.

Spending my own money, how could it be called wasteful?

Tyler’s cheek twitched, but in front of everyone, he could only force a smile.

“It’s fine, Liam’s our sales champion, he’s worked so hard, he deserves to eat well and recharge.”

He grinned brightly.

“He still has to eat more and work harder in the future, to create more业绩 for our department!”

Before I could speak, a colleague next to me chimed in:

“Oh, Tyler, you weren’t here this morning, so you didn’t know. Liam just told Ms. Miller that he’s stopping all his orders for the next month.”

The air instantly went quiet.

I leisurely wiped the corner of my mouth with a napkin and looked up at Tyler.

The smile on his face froze, inch by inch.

“What did you say?”

He glared at me, his voice sharp as he yelled:

“Liam, why are you stopping orders?”

“What do you mean by this?”