Rose was lying in bed with a sheet mask on during all this, the night owl that she was. Seeing how Zoey stared at her phone, she asked curiously, “Why is someone texting you at this hour?”Zoey stared nervously at Laurence’s text message. She sucked in a breath, tamping down her pain before she turned to answer Rose, “It’s my former superior.”Rose’s eyes widened at Zoey’s answer as she sat up straight. “Holy moly, that ex-superior of yours is nuts. He’s still nitpicking at you even though it’s past one already?”Zoey switched her phone off and hummed, “Yep. I’m just gonna ignore him.”Rose plucked her sheet mask off before getting up to wash her face. “It’s not that I want to cuss him out or anything, but look at the time! And besides, you’re no longer working under him anyway,” she said.“He’s hard to shake off,” Zoey explained in exasperation.Hearing this, Rose felt like her jerk of a boss was a lot more reasonable. At least he didn’t bother her in the middle of the night wit
“She doesn’t matter. She’s not that important,” Laurence repeated in his head. Zoey was right—being clingy was not a good look. This was the way. Since she wanted a divorce, he would do it. It was no loss to him anyway.Laurence reverted to the cold CEO in a meeting room. “Get your lawyer to have a good talk with mine so they can discuss the divorce agreement,” he said, business-like. Wasn’t her lawyer extra capable? He wanted to see if he could solve all her problems. Just the penalty fee alone would give anyone a headache. He continued to stare at Zoey, his eyes taking in every small expression she made. He reminded her curtly, “You know full well that I am a businessman so I pay attention to how I can benefit from a transaction. It’s no different from what you’re doing. You know what you should do and how much you should pay.”Zoey understood. “Right.”Laurence had the upper hand, but his heart clenched unbearably tightly. It hurt. However, his face remained impassive as ever. “L
“Mr. Scott is already being generous. “After all, Miss Jenner’s wish to cease the agreement before the stipulated time period is in violation of the contract. The law will be on my client’s side if he decides to pursue the case in court. Every expense from the last two years has been accounted for and clearly shown here. “If I may be frank, it is not a small sum at all. The medical expenses for Miss Jenner’s mother alone were a million dollars a month. There are also other expenses paid. If we followed the original contract to the letter, she would need to pay back ten times the owed sum, instead of just two million dollars.”Damien’s arguments might sound reasonable, but they didn’t hold up under scrutiny. The contract only specified Zoey’s obligations. Laurence’s weren’t mentioned. All he had done was cause both physical and emotional damage to Zoey. As such, she had the right to end the contract earlier than expected. Even if Laurence didn’t admit to the damage he had caused he
Zoey had also underestimated Laurence’s desire to leave this marriage. Perhaps he wasn’t deliberately messing with her and was simply prideful. She went quiet for a moment. “If you don’t agree, fine,” she said and hung up.This was probably how Laurence’s family became a family of wealthy capitalists. To think that he even wanted interest from her. She never expected that. Mercy? There never was any. He wouldn’t spare a penny that should go to him.Zoey told herself not to be angry, but she couldn’t help it, so she headed to her bedroom. Whenever she was in a bad mood, she would tidy her bedroom—cleaning it, changing the sheets, dusting her desk. Anything would do, as long as she didn’t think about what upset her. Once she was drenched in sweat, she took a shower. She had calmed down significantly by the time she had finished drying her hair. All her anger at Laurence had disappeared.…The next day, Zoey went to the nursing home. She didn’t hide anything from her mother as she d
Shawn entered a treatment room. He changed into a paper gown and lay on the bed. As he stared at the ceiling, no one could tell what he was thinking.The doctor was still hesitant as he asked Shawn one last time, “Are you sure you want to do this?”Shawn grunted in affirmation.Before starting, the doctor reminded Shawn, “We cannot guarantee the procedure’s success. It might take many sessions over an extended period.”Shawn had heard the doctors say that before. If one session wasn’t enough, then two sessions. And if those two sessions didn’t suffice, stretch it to ten. Shawn had the patience to spare. Since those were his memories, he didn’t want them to be lost forever. He slowly closed his eyes, his patience beginning to wane. “Let’s start.”Electroshock therapy was undoubtedly a cruel procedure. While it was being administered, he would feel nothing other than sheer agony. The procedure may seem simple, but the shocks were persistent. Those constant jolts of electricity would
Naturally, Shawn didn’t bring this up for no reason—he was overcome by the urge to mention it. After all, it wasn’t like Zoey was important to Laurence, right?Still, saying it didn’t make Shawn feel any better. He was the first to find out about Zoey’s crush on Laurence; it was easy to see how she felt about him. Whenever Laurence was on cleaning duty in high school, Zoey would stay back longer after class, taking her time to pack her bag. Young girls were prone to doing dumb things in the name of love. She would always hang around after school, waiting to run into him in the corridor. They would meet for only a few minutes at most. Most times, however, he would only pass by her for a few seconds.Laurence paid no attention to her in high school, and he never knew how much Zoey had tried to get his attention back then.Shawn immediately shut up. He was irritated, his heart caught in a constant sense of hollowness, a resounding emptiness.Laurence lifted his head and leveled a look
When Laurence received that phone call from George, he hadn’t sat on his hands and did nothing. Instead, he looked up Zoey’s movements for that day. Getting his hands on the necessary camera footage wasn't difficult, and finding the taxi she had gotten into had also been easy. She had been kidnapped while on her way to Shawn’s house, and there were cameras along that road.It wasn’t like Laurence had never noticed Shawn’s animosity toward Zoey, with how disgusted he was to even so much as look at her. Leaving her alone even when she begged for help was definitely something Shawn would do. Laurence had never brought this up with Shawn before. After all, Shawn and Zoey had nothing in common then. They weren’t friends, and they certainly weren’t married either. They were enemies who observed each other from opposing sides. It wasn’t all that strange, and there was nothing to berate them about. It wasn’t Laurence’s responsibility, after all. However, when did Shawn start having feelings
When Zoey smelled the smoke on Laurence, she mentally beat herself up for forgetting to change the passcode of her front door. She yawned. “Whatever you want to say, say it.”She felt slightly more tolerant of him now, probably because he had already agreed to the divorce.Laurence was quiet. Right now, there was no point asking her those questions. So, she liked him in the past. And? Everything had already ended.Seeing Laurence remain silent, Zoey piped up, “Don’t tell me that you’ve… finally agreed to let me pay in installments?”Laurence’s eye twitched. Now that was a quick reaction. He smirked, “No. Don’t get your hopes up.”Zoey nodded, unbothered. “If you want two million dollars from me, then sure, you’re getting it. I’ll pay you.”Once her mother was out of the hospital, Zoey’s expenses would lessen. She could manage it.Laurence pursed his lips, seemingly having no response for her. He couldn’t possibly tell her that he was having second thoughts. That he wanted twenty