Chapter 4

Jason's POV

The owner was a shrewd middle-aged man. He examined it with a magnifying glass for a long time, then held up three fingers.

"Thirty thousand dollars."

"This necklace is excellent, worth at least eighty thousand!"

I panicked.

"That was before. The market's bad now. Thirty thousand. Take it or leave it."

I gritted my teeth.

"I'll take it."

With thirty thousand dollars, I borrowed another ten thousand from coworkers and maxed out my credit card, finally scraping together fifty thousand.

I rushed to the hospital, paid the fees, and watched as Mom was wheeled into the ICU. I collapsed onto the hallway bench.

Through the glass, watching Mom covered in tubes, so thin she was just skin and bones, my heart felt like it was being ground in a meat grinder.

"Mom, I'm sorry... I'm useless."

I covered my face. Tears poured through my fingers.

Just then, the TV at the end of the hallway was broadcasting a news interview.

"...Congratulations to Evergreen Group and Ethan Industries on their strategic partnership. Miss Susan and Mr. Ethan's engagement ceremony will be held next week. Mr. Ethan, I heard you personally designed the wedding house?"

On screen, Ethan had his arm around Susan, looking smug.

"Yes. Although I'm not a professional designer, for Susan, I'm willing to try anything. I want to give her a one-of-a-kind home."

The reporters were full of praise.

"Mr. Ethan is so romantic-not only a business genius but also a design genius."

I stared hard at the screen.

Design genius?

That person who couldn't even memorize CAD shortcuts-he qualified as a design genius?

Suddenly, the image cut to a design rendering displayed behind them.

In that instant, all the blood in my body froze.

That image...

That villa design called "Homecoming" was clearly from my sophomore year sketch, the dream home I'd planned to give Susan someday!

The "suspended corridor" and "light atrium" designs were my original concepts, praised by my professor as extraordinarily inspired.

But later, that sketchbook went missing.

I thought I'd lost it when moving.

Turns out, it was stolen by Ethan too!

He didn't just steal my girl, steal my credit-now he was stealing even my last dream to use as his proposal to Susan!

If he didn't want me to live, then nobody would live!

I pulled out my phone and found that post.

The post was still trending. Ethan was still smugly replying to comments.

"That idiot will never figure out that his most treasured design is about to become my masterpiece. This is what intellectual dominance looks like."

With trembling fingers, I registered a new account.

Under that post, I typed a line.

"Ethan, does it feel good using stolen things? I'm Jason. At next week's wedding, I'll send you a big gift."

After posting, I closed my phone.

I was going to fight back.

I couldn't just accept defeat like this.

I returned to my rental room, rummaged through everything, and found an old laptop I'd sealed away at the bottom of a box years ago.

Though old, the hard drive contained all my original design files with timestamps.

And also, those memories I'd buried.

Five years ago, to frame me, Ethan had someone photoshop pictures of me in bed with another woman and sent them to Susan.

He also drugged my drink, making me miss the most important scholarship interview.

Before, I had no evidence for any of this. I could only accept my fate.

But now, in that post, to show off, he'd laid out every detail of his schemes.

Though anonymous, if I could prove that account was his, he was finished.

And proving that wasn't actually difficult.

Because in the post, he'd shared that blurry silhouette photo. Though blurry, I remembered that when he took that photo, I was right beside him. If I could find photos from other angles that day, or surveillance footage...

Wait.

That day was Susan's birthday party at "Cloudcrest Club."

Cloudcrest Club... wasn't that the predecessor of the villa district where I just worked?

I suddenly remembered-today at the villa, in the storage room, I'd seen several dust-covered old surveillance hard drive boxes labeled "Cloudcrest Club Archive 2018."

That villa was converted from the old club!

My heart raced.

If those hard drives weren't damaged, if they just happened to capture Ethan's little tricks on the terrace that day...