Chapter 4

Still, thinking back on these five years, a bitter ache tightened in my throat.

For five whole years, he had treated me with nothing but cold detachment and relentless suspicion.

At first, I told myself that his constant testing and defensive walls were simply because I hadn't managed to reach his guarded heart yet.

I thought I could take it slow. I told myself I could wait.

I believed that as long as I remained loyal, genuine, and unbothered by whether his gifts were real or fake, I could eventually warm his frozen heart.

So, for five years, when he gave me eighty-one counterfeit luxury items, I accepted every single one with a smile. I never exposed him, and I never complained.

How laughable that, from beginning to end, he only ever saw me as a greedy social climber.

My tolerance was labeled a calculated scheme.

My patience was viewed as playing the long game to reel in a fortune.

I let out a quiet, self-mocking laugh.

"I lied to you? Didn't you lie to me first?"

"You were the one who approached me with calculations, testing me at every turn. I just chose never to call you out."

I met his cold glare unflinchingly.

He sneered. "Everyone knows what kind of woman you are. Why wouldn't I keep my guard up?"

A wave of bitterness rose in my throat. Swallowing it down, I asked one final question. "In all these five years, was there ever a single second where you believed my feelings were real?"

Austin let go of my wrist and fell completely silent.

I lowered my eyes. "It doesn't matter anymore."

The moment those words left my mouth, Austin's face turned icy.

Without another word, he turned on his heel and walked away.

Left alone on the vast, empty terrace, the night wind cut straight through to my bones.

When the gala finally ended, I stood by the curb trying to hail a cab. Just then, Austin's sleek Maybach pulled up and glided right past me.

He kept his eyes glued to the road ahead, as if I didn't even exist.

Sitting in the passenger seat, Natalie turned to face me and flashed a sweet, venomous smile, her eyes dripping with smug satisfaction.

I looked right back at her, completely unbothered.

Natalie's smile stiffened slightly. Just as she moved to glare at me, the tinted window rolled up smoothly.

Enduring the stinging, raw pain from my blistered heels, I continued trying to flag down a car.

By the time I limped up to the villa's front door on the tips of my toes, it was already ten o'clock at night.

The moment I pushed the front door open, the heart that had already gone numb was stabbed once again.

Natalie was wearing Austin's silk pajama shirt, her long hair draped over her shoulders as she lounged comfortably on the plush sofa.

Beside her, Austin was patiently using a nutcracker, carefully shelling walnuts one by one and placing the unbroken halves onto her plate.

A small mountain of freshly cracked walnuts was already piled up in front of her.

The Austin sitting there was gentle, attentive, and incredibly patient.

It was a side of him I had never seen once in five years.

A sudden sting pricked behind my eyes.

I loved walnuts too, but Austin had once told me cracking them was a tedious waste of time.

After that day, I never ate them again.

Hearing the front door click shut, both of them looked up simultaneously.

Natalie shot me a fleeting, triumphant look before immediately switching to an expression of fragile guilt.

"Clara, Austin said the wind was too chilly outside and worried I'd catch a cold. Your place was closer, so he brought me over for the night. Please don't misunderstand."

"What right does she have to misunderstand? She's just an irrelevant ex," Austin said coldly, dropping another walnut half onto the plate without looking up.

"She's right, Natalie. We've broken up," I replied evenly.