8
I didn’t expect Pedro to come looking for me again so soon.
Less than two weeks later, he burst into my office, looking haggard. My assistant tried to stop him but failed, giving me an apologetic look. In just a few days, Pedro had deteriorated. His once handsome face was now
sallow and drawn.
I stared at that face, the face I once adored, and felt… nothing. The System’s hold on me was finally, comple- tely broken.
“Stella Sterling, you are disgusting!” he seethed. “I can’t believe how shameless you are. When you couldn’t have me, you went after my family. You’re even trying to ruin my exhibition.”
At this, a single tear traced a path down his cheek. He let out a weary sigh, as if the weight of the world was
on his shoulders. “You win, Stella.”
“I’ll marry you.”
“Just put the money back into my father’s company and fix my art exhibition, and we can go get the marriage
Chapter 3
license.”
19:08 D
“But listen,” he added, holding up a finger. “We’re only signing the papers. No wedding ceremony. I promised Lily I wouldn’t have a wedding with you until our son is an adult.”
I stared at the utterly self-assured expression on his face and finally asked the question that had plagued me for seven years.
“You love Lily so much. You put her first in everything. Why don’t you just marry her?”
Over the past seven years, he had broken countless promises to me for her. He’d hurt me without a second thought. I remembered one time we had planned a hiking trip. On the way back, the car was full. Lily compla ined that the back seat was too cramped and she wanted two spots to herself. Pedro immediately pulled me out of the car to make room for her, promising they would come back for me after dropping her off.
My phone was dead. So I waited. I waited and waited, until the sky grew dark and the rain began to fall. He
never came back.
Later, as I was trying to find my way back in the dark, I was caught in a mudslide. I nearly died. When I woke
up in the hospital, not only did he not visit, but he told a mutual friend who confronted him, “So what if Stella
Sterling got a little hurt? She’s in a hospital, isn’t she? Does she really need me there? Besides, Lily feels
terrible. She keeps blaming herself for what happened to Stella and she’s so upset she can’t even eat. Hone
stly, Stella is so annoying. It was raining, I couldn’t get back to her, couldn’t she have been more careful?
Instead, she stupidly walks into a mudslide and makes Lily feel guilty. She’s just so much trouble.”
So much trouble?
Hearing those words, I had pulled the covers over my head and choked back tears. My life-or-death struggle meant less to him than a few fake tears from Lily. That was the one time I had seriously considered giving
up the mission and breaking up with him. But the System’s power was too strong. A few days later, Pedro called, asking me to foot the bill for Lily’s lavish birthday party, and just like that, I forgot everything. I was back to being his devoted, spineless dog.
Now, hearing my question, Pedro frowned. “Are you kidding me? Of course I wouldn’t marry Lily. Her entire family is a bunch of leeches. Her parents are always sick and can’t work, and she has two good-for-nothing brothers just waiting to suck someone dry. How could I ever seriously be with her?”
He paused, then added, “Oh, and I have one more condition. You need to give Lily and my son a fifty-million- dollar trust fund for his upbringing. I won’t have my son suffer.”
“If you agree to all of this, we can go get the license right now.”
I stared at him as if he were a lunatic. Then I buzzed security.
“If you want money, go beg on the street. Don’t come in here with your delusions. You want to raise a son? Go earn the money yourself. Besides your thick skin, what else do you have to offer? You really think you’re that special? Spouting off numbers like fifty million.”
their things and leave with him.”
“Stella Sterling, you wouldn’t dare!”
As it turned out, I would. As the security guards dragged him away, Pedro screamed at me, “Stella Sterling! You dare to have me thrown out! Fine! Fine! I’ll go back to Lily! Remember this! You are forcing me to do this!
Even if you get on your knees and bash your head on the ground until it bleeds, I will never forgive you!”
My hands clenched into fists. Kneeling and begging him-that was a wound that would never heal. In the
past, his favorite threat was always to break up with me. And every time I wanted him back, he made me
kneel like a dog and plead.
I looked at his confident, furious face and smiled.
Let him enjoy his delusion for a few more days. He was about to find out that none of his old tricks worked
on me anymore.
