Chapter 3

The sudden bright light jolted me awake. I'd been sleeping too deeply earlier, so I hadn't heard any knocking. Seeing Valerie's sullen face, I was a little surprised. She actually came back this time?

Before, every time she went on a date with Liam, she'd use it as an excuse to stay over at his place. Yet, there was a time our five-year-old daughter said she was afraid of the dark and wanted Valerie to come home and stay with her. Valerie called Daisy "dramatic," insisting she needed to "toughen up." Once, when I wasn't looking, she locked Daisy in a storage closet, giving her severe claustrophobia. Every night after that, Daisy would be startled awake by nightmares, crying in terror.

In the past, Valerie's blatant favoritism and double standards would infuriate me, leading to massive arguments. But now, whatever she did, I simply didn't care anymore.

I simply mumbled "hmm" and pulled the covers over my head, determined to go back to sleep. Valerie first froze, then frowned in annoyance.

"Stop messing around, I'm exhausted. Aren't you going to run my bath for me? And wash these clothes while you're at it."

She took off her jacket and tossed it to me. Her collar was smeared with lipstick marks, and the pungent scent of Liam's cologne clung to it. Utterly repulsive. If this were before, I would have eagerly waited on her without her even needing to ask. Now, I just found her demanding. I tossed the clothes back.

"You're not handicapped, you can do it yourself."

Valerie was stunned for a moment, then pulled a gift box from her bag and threw it at me. "I know you're upset about what happened earlier today. Here, this is for you."

Inside were a pair of cufflinks. But she'd forgotten that I was allergic to cheap metal, and besides, the style wasn't even to my taste. What was even funnier was that these cufflinks were Liam's discards. I'd seen him flaunting them on SnapChat before.

I let out a cold laugh, tossing the cufflinks into the trash. "I don't want other people's trash."

Valerie completely lost her patience, her face turning ashen. "Asher, have I spoiled you too much?"

A wave of drowsiness hit me, and I yawned. "I'm tired. If there's nothing else, I'm going back to sleep."

Seeing my cold attitude, my repeated refusal to take her olive branch, Valerie gritted her teeth. "Fine! This is your doing, Asher. Don't come crawling back when you regret it!"

Valerie turned to leave, but I called out to her. "Wait."

Valerie's lips curved into a smug smile, her expression screaming, "I knew you were just playing hard to get."

The next second, I pulled out a pen and some papers from a drawer and handed them to her. "Sign this."

Valerie's eyes immediately turned cold. "You called me back just to sign some worthless contract?"

I scoffed. "Why don't you take a closer look before you speak?"

After seeing the document, Valerie froze, then snapped the pen in her hand.