*God, she is stupid.*

After some discreet digging, I'd confirmed my suspicions: Caroline James was nothing more than Caleb Whitney's mistress.

Caleb was a classic social climber—a man who had changed his surname just to marry into the prestigious Whitney family and secure a life of luxury. Once his position was solidified, however, he evidently felt the urge to spread his seed elsewhere.

Caroline had no idea that her arrogance was pushing both of them toward a cliff's edge.

I remained silent, handing the other children off to their parents one by one. Mistaking my silence for submission, Caroline smirked.

"If you know you're wrong, then give the Prince role to my son. I'm feeling generous today, so I won't hold a grudge."

I smiled politely. "Sure, as long as Jonathan can pass tomorrow's 'Prince Selection.'"

Her patience snapped. "My son is exceptional. Why not just give it to him directly? Why make this so complicated?"

"It's about fairness to the other children." I kept my voice smooth, pleasant. "If Jonathan is as outstanding as you say, what are you worried about?"

Realizing she wasn't gaining any ground, Caroline glared at me, then spun on her heel and sashayed away, hips swaying with exaggerated arrogance.

The moment she disappeared through the door, the other parents and teachers surrounded me. Thumbs went up. Shoulders relaxed.

"Ms. Henson, you're amazing. You have no idea how much we've suffered because of her these past six months."

"Exactly. If we say anything even remotely fair in the group chat, she jumps down our throats and unleashes a torrent of abuse."

"We tried filing a joint complaint, but her husband buried it. We can't touch her. Ms. Henson, please, you have to help us."

It wasn't that they couldn't touch her.

They were just pushing from the wrong angle.

That night, I sent an announcement to the parents' group chat:

**[New Year's Day is approaching. Time is tight. To ensure fairness, I have organized a 'New Year's Day Role Selection.' Tomorrow, we officially begin testing. We will evaluate three areas: singing, etiquette, and cooperation. All parents are invited to serve as judges.]**

The moment I hit send, Caroline launched her offensive.

**[Caroline: You all better vote for my son as the Prince. If you don't, my Jonathan will make sure your little brats get 'educated' in the future.]**

The parents, emboldened by my earlier stand, ignored her completely. A stream of "Received" responses flooded beneath my message.

Not a single one acknowledged her threat.

Enraged, Caroline flooded the chat with unhinged curses.

With evidence delivered right to my doorstep, I naturally took screenshots of everything.

The next day, the selection began. Every child performed admirably in their chosen roles—until it was Jonathan Barber's turn.

It was a disaster.

During the singing segment, he forgot the lyrics and resorted to spitting at the judges. During the etiquette segment, he grabbed a judge's water cup and smashed it on the floor. And during the cooperation segment, when no one wanted to partner with him, he threw himself on the ground and rolled around screaming.

Caroline didn't seem embarrassed in the least. She clapped wildly, shouting, "Jonathan is doing great! Amazing!"

The final vote was brutal.

Jonathan received zero votes.

Another boy, Patrick Martinez, was unanimously elected as the Prince.

Caroline exploded. She slammed her hand onto the table, face contorted with rage.

"Didn't we agree you would all vote for my son?!" she shrieked. "You colluded! My husband is in the Department of Education. Believe it or not, I'll make sure none of your kids ever go to school again!"

I calmly displayed the voting records on the screen. "The selection is public, Jonathan's mom. It's not about who has the loudest voice."

A pause. I let the silence stretch.

"I'm sorry, but Jonathan isn't suitable for the Prince role. However, I can design a special 'Troublemaker' role for him."

Caroline's face went from red to a sickly shade of purple. A trembling finger jabbed toward my nose. "Olivia Henson! You did this on purpose. I won't let you get away with this. Just you wait!"

She stormed out and immediately wrote a report, denouncing me for "abusing Jonathan Barber" and "inciting parents to ostracize a student."

I just didn't expect her tantrum to alarm my father.

I usually kept a low profile, so no one at the kindergarten knew my father held a senior position in the Department of Education.

When Dad called to ask what was happening, I simply told him I would handle it but insisted he attend the New Year's Day performance.

Meanwhile, Caleb Whitney began applying pressure. He demanded I be severely punished and froze the kindergarten's "inclusive subsidy."

Principal Bonnie Randolph was beside herself. She paced her office, wringing her hands. "Ms. Henson, without that subsidy, the school will go bankrupt... Can't you just soften your attitude a little?"

I pulled a thick stack of documents from my bag and looked at Bonnie with a conspiratorial smile. "Principal, I have a way to drag Caroline James—and the Caleb Whitney you're so afraid of—down into the mud. Are you ready to play the long game?"

Her eyes widened. "Wh-what do you plan to do?"

"On the day of the performance," I said icily, "she will personally walk herself into a trap."

Flora Hill was an ordinary small town girl, with an average appearance, average figure and came from an average family.

Carlton Davis, on the other hand, was the notorious playboy of City M, the heir to a wealthy family, who changed girlfriends every three days. His face and wealth made him always surrounded by beautiful women.

Yet these two people had been in a relationship for three years.

No one could figure out why.

What no one expected was that she would be the first to decide to end this relationship.

On the day she returned from her business trip, she didn’t go inside the house first but stood at the door and made a call.

"Mom, I've decided to go back to my hometown for a blind date. Please help me arrange for the son of the colleague you mentioned last time."

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a few seconds, and Mrs. Hill's voice was incredulous: "No matter how I advised you before, you didn't listen. Why do you suddenly come to your senses now?"

"The company is going to open a filiale in my hometown and wants me to be the manager." Flora looked at the luxurious villa in front of her with a calm look, "Besides, I also plan to break up with my current boyfriend."

"Great, great!" Mrs. Hill was so excited that her voice rose, "Your boyfriend is too... too good , and he is not from the same world as us. For ordinary people like us, it's better to be pragmatic."

"I know." Flora said softly, "Mom, give me a few more days to deal with things here, and in the future... I will never go back to this city again."

After hanging up the phone, she took a deep breath and opened the door.

The vedio game’s sound and the girl's sweet laughter came from the living room. Flora stood in the entrance and saw Carlton lazily leaning on the sofa with a beautiful girl in his arms. The girl's mind was obviously not on the game. She kept glancing at Carlton's face. If she won the game, she would kiss him coquettishly.

Carlton curled his lips and said in a low voice: "Why are you so clingy?"

Just as they were about to kiss, Carlton looked up and saw Flora.

His expression did not change, and he whispered something in the girl's ear. The girl glared at Flora unwillingly, but still picked up her bag and left.

"Didn't you say you were going on a business trip for a week? Why did you come back early?" Carlton came over and took her suitcase, his movements were so natural as if nothing had happened.

Flora bent down and picked up the black stockings on the ground: "Did I disturb you?"

Carlton lit a cigarette carelessly, and his almond-shaped eyes behind the smoke were still beautiful and attractive: "The neighbor who just moved into the villa next door, you met last time. Her water pipe at home broke these days, so asked me to let her stay."

He exhaled a smoke ring, "There's nothing between us. Don't overthink it."

Through the smoke, Flora looked at his strikingly handsome face, and vaguely remembered the scene when she first met him.

That was the most embarrassing time in her life.

From a small town to a prestigious school, the family emptied their savings to raise her tuition.

Every day, she worked part-time except for classes, and she didn't even dare to attend the dinner with her roommates, but fate still didn't let her go. The school director withheld her scholarship and hinted that she would have to sleep with him to receive it.

She stood at the edge of the rooftop with nowhere to go, but suddenly a lazy voice came from behind her: "What's the matter?"

Flora turned around and saw a boy leaning against the door of the rooftop. He had single eyelids, a high nose, tall and lanky, wearing a simple black jacket, yet so handsome it was hard to look away.

She recognized him at once.

The heir to the Davis Family of City M, he had caused a stir on his first day of school, not only because of his face that was so handsome it made people jealous, but also because of his prestigious family background and his girlfriend who changed every three days.

Perhaps because she had been suppressing her tears for too long, Flora suddenly burst into tears: "The dean withheld my scholarship and said he would... said he would..."

She couldn't say the rest of the words, but Carlton's eyes darkened and he said, "That's all?"

He smoked while talking on the phone: "Dean of the Northen University, just fire him."

I don't know what was said on the other end of the phone, Carlton chuckled: "He didn't provoke me, I just don't like him. Why, can't you do this?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" The voice on the other end of the phone was so loud that Flora could hear it, "You’re the young master of the Davis Family! Not to mention the dean, it's just a matter of a word for the principal to get it off!"

After hanging up the phone, Carlton raised his eyebrows at her: "Why don't you come down? I don't like seeing blood."

Later, the dean was really fired, and the scholarship was sent to her on time.

Everything returned to normal, but Flora would think of Carlton's unfocused eyes every night when she lay in bed, and her heart was beating like a drum.

She knew she was moved.

From then on, she became obsessed, , waking up at five every morning just to “bump into” Carlton as he ran by; Knowing he often got scrapes from playing sports, she always kept Band-Aids in his drawer; she even secretly noted his preferences to give him thoughtful gifts on every holiday.

“Flora, have you lost your mind?” her roommate asked as she stayed up late knitting a scarf. “Does Carlton need this?”

She just smiled and continued knitting clumsily.

Until her senior year, when he had just broken up with his 108th girlfriend, and she finally gathered the courage to slip the love letter she had written over three months into Carlton’s drawer. When she turned around, she bumped into his arms that smelled of mint cigarettes.

"Okay." He said.

"What?"

"Sending love letters, don't you just want to be with me?" He looked down at her, his eyelashes casting a small shadow under his eyes, "I agree."

At that moment, Flora heard her heart beating like thunder.

In this way, she became the most ordinary but longest-lasting girlfriend of Carlton's history.

But this "honor" was not because of love.

Flora heard Carlton's friends ask him countless times: "Flora is so ordinary, what do you want from her?"

Carlton answered casually: "Don't you think it's too pitiful to have a crush on someone for four years? She likes me so much, what's wrong with giving her a chance?"

Because they didn't love each other, their most intimate contact was limited to holding hands in the three years of dating.

And Carlton's wild nature has never been restrained, and there are constant gossips.

In the first week of being together, she ran into Carlton kissing the cheerleader in the stairwell.

"It's just a farewell kiss." He explained casually, "She will transfer to a foreign school tomorrow."

Flora believed it.

Later, such scenes were repeated too many times, the perfume smell of the female secretary in the office, the long hair in the back seat of the car, the lipstick mark on the collar of the shirt...

Every time she was discovered, as long as he gave a random excuse, Flora would pretend to believe it.

Because she loved him too much.

This time, she still chose to believe it, but not because of love.

But because, she didn't love him anymore.

She didn't know when she gave up.

Was it his gossip every three days? Was it the strange stockings she found every time she came home? Or was it that he washed them three times in the bathroom after holding her hand?

It took her seven years to love Carlton.

It only took her a moment to stop loving him.

"I know." Flora picked up the stockings, "Do you want to send them back?"

"No, throw them away." Carlton put out his cigarette, his tone as casual as if he was discussing the weather.

Flora knew that this meant he was tired of playing with someone again.

“You should find someone who truly loves you and settle down...” she said softly.

Carlton didn't hear her clearly: “What?”

Flora was about to repeat herself when his phone suddenly rang.

His previously indifferent expression changed abruptly when he heard the voice on the other end of the line.

“I'll be right there.” He hung up the phone, grabbed his car keys, and headed outside. “I won't be home for dinner tonight.”

Flora stood there, listening to the roar of the sports car’s engine fade into the distance.

Earlier on the phone, she had clearly heard that name—

Calista Cater.

Carlton’s brother’s fiancée, and also the person he loved but could never have.

Flora smiled and whispered to the empty villa, “How wonderful, Carlton. I’m leaving, and the person you truly love… has returned.”