Chapter 4

Chloe and I met at a discreet coffee shop.

After hearing my story, Chloe was so furious she almost crushed her coffee cup.

“That jerk, Ethan! How dare he?!”

Chloe suddenly stood up, drawing glances from people around us.

I tugged at her sleeve.

“Sit down, don’t get so worked up.”

“How can I not get worked up?!” Chloe lowered her voice, her eyes red. “Aurora, how have you been surviving these past three years? You even gave up your beloved design career for him! You willingly went to his company to be an uncredited ghost designer. Which of his new brand ‘Thorne’s’ hit products wasn’t something you stayed up all night drawing? How dare he treat you like this?!”

She was right.

I used to be an award-winning new designer.

When Ethan was starting his business, his funding ran out, and he couldn’t afford good designers.

Without a second thought, I resigned from my high-paying job and joined his company.

To avoid suspicion and not overshadow him, none of my designs were ever credited.

The outside world thought Ethan Thorne was a business prodigy and a design genius.

Only I knew that those stunning works were born from my tireless efforts, stroke by stroke.

“Chloe, crying won’t help,” I stirred my coffee, my eyes as cold as ice. “I didn’t ask you to meet me today to cry.”

Chloe paused, looking at me.

“Then what do you plan to do? Break off the engagement just like that? That’s letting those two off easy!”

“The engagement is definitely off,” I put down my spoon. “But I’m not letting him off easy.”

“How so?”

“The wedding venue is the top hotel in the city, the deposit was fifty thousand. That wedding dress, $1.2 million. And other miscellaneous preparation costs, it all adds up to nearly two hundred thousand.” I looked at Chloe. “All that money came from my parents.”

Ethan had said his company was having cash flow problems, and my parents, feeling sorry for me, had pulled out their life savings without hesitation.

“If I unilaterally announce the breakup now, according to the contract, none of those deposits will be refunded.”

Chloe gasped.

“Damn it, he used your parents’ money to make a wedding dress for his ‘white moonlight’?!”

“Exactly. So, I need evidence,” I calmly analyzed. “I need to prove that he was at fault first, that he violated the principle of fidelity in our engagement. Only then can I, through a lawyer, get all that money back, down to the last penny.”

Not only that.

I also wanted to reclaim everything that belonged to me.

My designs, my hard work, my dignity.

Chloe looked at me, her anger slowly turning to heartache.

“Aurora, you’ve changed.”

“People always have to grow up,” I smiled faintly. “I used to think love could sustain you, but now I realize that money and a career are the most reliable things.”

“What do you need me to do?” Chloe asked without hesitation.

“Help me contact the best lawyer in the city for divorce and contract disputes,” I looked at her. “The tougher, the better.”

“No problem. Leave it to me.”

After parting ways with Chloe, I didn’t go home. Instead, I went to a shopping mall.

I bought several sets of brightly colored clothes.

Red, bright yellow, royal blue.

I threw all those black, white, and gray clothes into the trash.

Ethan loved minimalism.

But I, Aurora Hayes, was born to love passion and vibrancy.