Theater: NovelMaster | Language: English | NEW
Synopsis
I was on the brink of death after a horrific car crash, while my girlfriend was at the beach watching the sunrise with her ex.
Right before I was wheeled into the emergency room, the surgeon dialed my emergency contact. All that came through the speaker were her delicate, breathless pants.
"I’m just watching the sunrise with Kyle! Do you really have to ruin this for me right now?"
Kyle’s raspy voice drifted through the line. "Even if you want Scarlett to come back, you don’t have to make up such a pathetic excuse, man."
Scarlett snapped, furious and defensive. "Only useless men cling to women like parasites! If you want to die, just go ahead and die already!"
I clutched the hospital bedsheet with white knuckles, my chest heaving violently.
Amid the doctors' frantic shouts, clarity hit me like a slap to the face. Seven years of devotion. This pathetic game of love was officially over.
Seven days after the surgery, I was still lying in the hospital bed, pale, frail, and utterly exhausted.
Scarlett finally made an appearance. She was dressed in a stunning, high-end outfit, her skin glowing. The second she saw me, her face twisted in annoyance.
"Ethan! I came all the way back into town, and you didn't even pick me up? You didn’t even answer my calls!"
"And now you're lying here playing sick? You think you can fool me with this act? Get your ass out of bed right now!"
I stared at her in silence. I was so weak I could barely form words.
Beside me, the nurse who was swapping out my IV spoke up on my behalf.
"Ma'am, Mr. Vance was in a serious car accident. The hospital and Mr. Vance have been trying to reach you for days."
"It seemed like you had his number blocked."
The nurse looked at me with open pity.
Scarlett’s eyes flashed with anger.
"This is between me and Ethan! Who the hell asked for your opinion? Mind your own business!"
The nurse scoffed in disgust and walked out of the room.
Watching Scarlett's temper flare, I spoke in a hoarse, cold whisper.
"When I first called you, Kyle answered your phone. I really want to know... what exactly were the two of you doing out by the ocean?"
Scarlett froze for a second, but her face darkened immediately.
"What right do you have to interrogate me? If you weren't such an incompetent loser, would I have had to wait until now just to take a beach trip?"
"You should be thanking Kyle! Thanks to his success and worldly experience, I actually got to enjoy myself. Kyle is an executive at a major corporation. Unlike you, he’s not a useless mooch who sits around doing nothing all day."
Her words pressed down on my chest like a lead weight.
A useless mooch?
Did Scarlett really forget why I quit my job to stay home in the first place?
Years ago, we joined the same company together. Back then, her position was far below mine.
I hated seeing her cry from stress, so I handed all my project credits and bonuses to her, paving her way straight up the corporate ladder.
Later, she complained that takeout tasted like garbage and that nobody was taking care of the house. She whined and begged me to stay home and look after her.
My heart broke for how hard she worked. To give her peace of mind, I decisively walked away from my career just to manage our domestic life.
Over the past few years, I kept our place immaculate. Every time she came home, a hot, gourmet dinner was waiting on the table.
Yet, she grew to despise me more and more. She mocked me for having no ambition, refused to take me anywhere, and excluded me from her social life.
The irony was almost laughable.
Seeing my silence, Scarlett assumed I was guilty.
"What? Cat got your tongue? You know you have no comeback, don't you?"
"If I hadn't wasted my youth dating you, wealthy trust-fund guys would've been lining up around the block to be with me! You want to know why I’ve refused to marry you all these years? Because you're a deadbeat!"
A wave of suffocating rage surged through me. My fists clenched into the sheet, then slowly uncurled. My gaze locked onto the faint red marks scattered across her neck.
"So that's why you threw yourself at Kyle?"
"What kind of sick bullshit are you talking about?!"
Scarlett screeched defensively. "Kyle and I are completely innocent! Don’t project your filthy, perverted thoughts onto us! Who do you think you are? You aren't even worth Kyle's pinky toe!"
Embarrassed and enraged, she swung her hand to slap me, but I caught her wrist mid-air.
"Ethan, do you have a death wish?! How dare you raise a hand against me!"
"Why wouldn't I?"
I glared straight at the hickeys on her collarbone. "You slept with another man. Why the hell should I respect you?"
"Slept with him?!"
My piercing stare shook her. A flicker of panic flashed across her face, and she hastily pulled her collar tight.
"You're hallucinating! Those are mosquito bites from the beach!"
My grip on the sheets tightened until my knuckles turned white. "Must've been one hell of a mosquito."
Fury twisted Scarlett’s face. She yanked her hand free and struck me hard across the cheek.
"Smack!"
"Ethan, cut the sarcastic bullshit!"
"I already explained it to you! What more do you want?! Have I spoiled you so much that you've forgotten your place?!"
I turned my face toward the window, fighting down the burning rage and the stinging pain on my skin.
Scarlett was breathing heavily, acting like the victim. "I’ve treated you way too well over the years! You’ve completely lost your mind!"
"You eat my food, live on my dime, and have the audacity to accuse me? Fine! Lie here and reflect on what you did!"
Right in front of me, she pulled out her phone and canceled the debit card she gave me for household groceries, completely ignoring the fact that I was in a hospital bed with medical expenses piling up.
"When you finally realize you're wrong, maybe I'll come back. Until then, figure out how to pay your own damn hospital bills!"
This was her favorite game—financial threats.
In the past, because I loved her, I always backed down. She mistook my love for helplessness.
Seeing that I didn't say a word, she let out a cold laugh.
"Without my money, Ethan, you're literally nothing."
With a harsh slam of the door, she stormed out.
I stared at the closed door, my gaze chilled to ice. Then, I reached for my personal phone from the drawer and dialed my executive assistant.
The call connected within two rings.
"Claire," I said calmly. "Come pick me up. And cancel the proposal ceremony scheduled for tomorrow."Claire was my proxy at the company and the one person in the business world I trusted completely.
Scarlett had no idea that even though I cooked at home, I never stopped working.
My degree was in elite finance. In my spare time, I leveraged my capital to trade stocks.
Knowing how much Scarlett cared about prestige and career success, when my early investments yielded massive returns, I wanted to build an empire to give her the ultimate surprise.
I used those funds to venture into startup investments.
One of the entertainment and media companies I backed—Vanguard Group—was now a publicly traded behemoth valued at tens of billions. Scarlett happened to work there.
Her current director-track position was something I had personally authorized Claire to grant her.
Scarlett was completely clueless. She genuinely believed Kyle had pulled strings for her.
Tomorrow was supposed to be our seven-year anniversary.
I had planned to propose to her on this milestone and reveal everything: my identity, my wealth, and my love.
I had Claire spend weeks preparing a grand celebration at the corporate headquarters, lining up luxury gifts, prime real estate deeds, and company equity.
I had wanted to give her the most romantic, jaw-dropping proposal in the city.
I wanted every single one of her friends to look at her with envy.
Now? It was all a tragic joke.
Since she thought so highly of Kyle, I couldn't wait to see the look on her face tomorrow when she discovered who actually signed her paychecks.
Claire rushed into the room within twenty minutes, her face flushed from running, eyes wide with concern.
"Boss! What happened between you and... Mrs. Vance?"
I threw back the blanket and moved toward the wheelchair. Claire immediately stepped in to support me.
"She’s not your future boss anymore," I said flatly. "Discharge me right now. We aren't waiting until tomorrow."
To Claire, my word was law. She nodded firmly.
"Understood, Mr. Vance."
She took my paperwork and headed to the billing desk.
While she was gone, I turned on my primary phone for the first time in days.
A flood of missed calls and notifications lit up the screen.
Unsurprisingly, every single one was from Scarlett's friends, demanding to know where I was.
I ignored them and scrolled through my feeds. When I opened Ins, the algorithm immediately pushed a post from Kyle.
In the photo, Scarlett was wearing a tiny bikini, pressed tightly against Kyle's bare chest, beaming at the camera. Behind them, the golden sun was rising over the ocean waves.
The caption read: "With my favorite person, watching the most beautiful sunrise."
My expression hardened. With a steady hand, I saved the photo as evidence.
Just then, Claire walked back into the room.
"Cancel every corporate perk and exemption Scarlett has in the company," I instructed quietly. "Also, pull every single compliance violation and performance issue linked to her record. I want it on my desk tomorrow morning."
"And Kyle. Look into him, too."
Claire nodded. She caught a glimpse of the photo on my screen, her brow furrowing in disgust.
"Boss... how could she? You were fighting for your life in intensive care, and she was on a beach with another man?!"
I smiled faintly, though my eyes were frozen. "Some people just love having their cake and eating it too. Tomorrow, I'm taking away her plate and smashing the whole bakery."
Claire held her tongue regarding my personal life and wheeled me out to the waiting car.
Back at my penthouse, I collapsed onto the bed, completely drained.
Just as I closed my eyes, my phone buzzed with an incoming call from Scarlett’s best friend.
"Ethan! What the hell is wrong with you? Did you pick a fight with Scarlett again? She’s completely wasted at the club right now. Get your ass over here and pick her up!"
In the background, Scarlett's drunken, mocking voice carried over the speaker.
"He's paralyzed in a hospital bed with zero dollars to pay his bill! How could he possibly come get me?"
"Listen to me, Ethan! If you get on your knees and apologize to me in front of everyone right now, maybe I’ll pay your hospital fees! Otherwise, have fun getting arrested by security when you can't pay!"
Her best friend chimed in, "Ethan, just say you're sorry. You two have been together for seven years. Is your stupid male ego really worth throwing that away?"
Laughter erupted from the rest of her clique in the background.
"Honestly, don't apologize! I've seen people dine-and-dash, but I've never seen someone bed-and-dash at a hospital! Let's see him get thrown in jail!"
I replied with complete indifference. "I did nothing wrong. Why should I apologize?"
In the past, whenever Scarlett was upset, her toxic circle of friends would swarm me, forcing me to apologize or even demand that I bow my head to amuse them.
That was the past. It would never happen again.
Scarlett shrieked into the phone, "Fine! You said it, Ethan! Don't you dare beg me for a single cent!"
I hung up without a second thought. As if I ever needed her pocket change.
About thirty minutes later, Kyle sent me a direct SnapChat video.
In the clip, Scarlett was blushing, half-asleep, resting her head comfortably against Kyle's chest on a lounge sofa.
A FaceTime request popped up right after. I accepted it.
"Ethan," Kyle chuckled, his tone full of smug condescension. "You should really just apologize to Scarlett. I’ve been comforting her for the last half hour, and I finally got her to calm down."
"You don't actually want to get kicked out of the hospital tomorrow morning and humiliated by the police, do you?"
I narrowed my eyes and gave a dry chuckle. "So, should I be thanking you for taking such intimate care of my girlfriend?"Kyle grinned slyly. "Hey, we're all friends here. Your girlfriend is basically my... friend. Just apologize to her, man."
My face darkened. He had deliberately paused before saying 'friend,' clearly hinting at something far more intimate to get under my skin.
Right then, Scarlett’s slurred voice cut in from beside him.
"Why are you even talking to him, Kyle? I told you, until he begs for my forgiveness, I'm completely done with him."
"Give him twelve hours. He’ll come crawling back like an obedient puppy, begging on his knees."
Hearing her delusion, I let out a low laugh. "Well, you're going to be terribly disappointed this time. I'm already home in bed."
With that, I ended the call, switched the phone to airplane mode, and pulled the covers over my head.
Sometime in the middle of the night, the front door slammed open with a deafening bang.
"You're actually home?!"
Scarlett stormed into the bedroom, reeking of alcohol.
"Tell me! Where did you get the money?! Have you been stashing away secret cash behind my back?! Ha! If you hadn't gotten into a car wreck, I would've never found out!"
I looked at her hysterical expression and scoffed. "I used my own money to pay my own medical bill. Since when do I need your permission for that?"
Scarlett gave me fifty bucks a week for groceries and demanded a three-course gourmet meal every night. I had never once kept her money; in fact, I quietly subsidized our entire household expenses out of my own private portfolio.
Noticing the utter lack of warmth in my voice, Scarlett hesitated. Her tone softened slightly, shifting into classic manipulation.
"Kyle and I are just colleagues, okay? You know he's an executive. If I don't stay on his good side, I could lose this high-paying, cushy job! Fine, I'll keep my distance from him from now on, happy?"
I sneered inwardly. That high-paying, cushy job was something I handed to her on a silver platter. Kyle had nothing to do with it.
Not only did he steal credit for my actions, but he also had the nerve to provoke me. Tomorrow, his career was over.
Actually, firing him was too easy. I had far better plans for him.
"You're an adult," I said tonelessly. "Who you sleep with or spend time with is your choice. We’ll discuss everything tomorrow."
"I need to rest. Please get out and close the door behind you."
Instead of leaving, Scarlett climbed onto the edge of the mattress, tears welling up in her eyes.
"Ethan, I already made a concession! Why are you still treating me like this?"
"Can't you just compromise for once and consider what I'm going through? You were never like this before!"
Beneath the blanket, my hands balled into tight fists. "Scarlett, I just had major surgery. Can't this wait until morning?"
Scarlett burst into dramatic sobs.
"Why are you being so immature?! You're still throwing a tantrum over that beach trip? What do you want, for me to quit my job?!"
"If you had any real ambition or talent, would I have to swallow my pride and kiss ass in the corporate world?!"
Her words struck a familiar, sickening chord.
Every time we argued, she used this exact weapon—blaming my 'lack of ambition' for every hardship she faced at work.
And every time, I would feel an overwhelming sense of guilt, secretly having Claire boost her salary, bonuses, and title to ease her burden.
I sighed, completely emotionally detached. "Right. You're completely right. I'm a useless deadbeat holding you back. Are we done?"
Scarlett froze, shocked by my apathy, before screaming in frustration.
"Fine! Ethan! You brought this on yourself! Don't you dare say I didn't give you a chance!"
She slammed the bedroom door shut behind her.
I stared at the empty room, unclenched my fists, and closed my eyes in silence.
The next morning, I arrived outside the corporate headquarters of Vanguard Group, still pale and slightly unsteady on my feet.
Right at the revolving doors, I ran into Scarlett and Kyle walking in side-by-side.
"Well, well, look who it is! Ethan?" Kyle smirked, looking down his nose at me. "Come to apologize to Scarlett, have we?"
"Honestly, man, you really hurt her feelings. I had to stay up half the night consoling her."
Kyle's smug voice dripped with condescension. Scarlett folded her arms and sneered.
"I gave you an out last night, Ethan. You're too late for a simple apology now."
"Of course, if you really want my forgiveness, it's not impossible. Get down on your knees right here in front of everyone, say 'I was wrong' three times, and maybe I'll let it slide. Otherwise..."
To emphasize her threat, she looped her arm tightly around Kyle’s bicep and planted a loud kiss on his cheek, staring at me with pure defiance.
I stood there, my fists clenching slowly.
It was morning rush hour. Dozens of corporate employees were passing through the lobby, and a crowd had already stopped to watch, whispering and throwing mocking glances my way.
"Is that her deadbeat boyfriend everyone talks about?"
"Yikes. Getting humiliated publicly like that... rough."
"Rough? He's a freeloader living off a woman! He deserves every bit of it!"
Seeing the crowd swell, Kyle’s smile tightened slightly.
"Scarlett, let’s wrap this up. Rumor has it our mysterious billionaire chairman is doing a surprise inspection today. A scene like this won't look good."
Scarlett glared at me, her voice venomous. "You heard him, Ethan. Get the hell out of here before I have security throw you out. I'll deal with you after work!"
I let out a cold chuckle. "Throw me out? You don't have the authority, Scarlett."
"She doesn't have the authority?"
Kyle stepped forward, laughing arrogantly as he adjusted his designer tie. "What about me? Are you going to tell me a Senior Operations Director doesn't have the authority either?"
The moment Kyle spoke, brown-nosing employees immediately jumped in to back him up.
"Director Song is high-level corporate management! Against a pathetic mooch like you, forget kicking you out—if he tells you to crawl, you crawl!"
"Exactly! You pissed off Director Song! Get on your knees, apologize, and get the hell out!"
Kyle smirked smugly, reveling in the flattery.
I stared directly into his eyes. "Kyle Song isn't worthy to breathe the same air as me."
"What did you just say?!"
Several junior managers looking to score points with Kyle lunged forward, grabbing my arms and shoving me violently toward the floor.
"You think you can insult Director Song in his own building?! You're dead meat!"
They forced me down, and Kyle loomed over me, his grin sickeningly triumphant.
"How about it, Ethan? Get on your knees and beg for my mercy, and maybe I won't have the guards break your legs! Otherwise—"
"Otherwise, what?!"
A sharp, furious voice rang across the marble lobby.
The sharp clack of designer high heels echoed through the silence.
Everyone turned to look.
Claire, the acting CEO, was marching toward us, flanked by senior security staff.
She stopped directly in front of me, her eyes wide with shock.
"Mr. Vance!"
In an instant, the entire lobby fell dead silent.
Chapters (3)
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Watch & Promotions
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