“You better return that money right now, or I’m going to reconsider our relationship.”

Stanley threw the harshest insults at me in front of our colleagues. With a red face, I returned the 100 thousand dollars and promised to never have anything to do with the president again.

But no secret could be kept hidden forever.

The executives soon learned about this and thought that both Stanley and I insulted the president, so they immediately fired us.

Stanley blamed me for this and refused to look for a job. Instead, he stayed at my place and just mooched off of me and my mother.

My mother tolerated his presence and gave him all of her savings.

I became the sole breadwinner of the house, but I only earned four thousand dollars as an intern, and soon, that money was not enough.

One day, Stanley brought a middleman from the organ-selling business back home and told him that I was in good health.

I refused to do it, but Stanley hid at the entrance of our residential area, and when my guard was down, he knocked me out with chloroform and sent me to a clinic.

I ended up dying in pain on a dirty operating table.

…

When I remembered my fate in the previous cycle, I could not help it and laughed coldly.

“Must you think of things in the worst way possible? What if Mr. Steward is my real father? Don’t you want me to find my real parents?”

Stanley stared at me in disbelief. “Stop daydreaming, Nina. You don’t look like you could be from a rich family. Are you saying that you’ll sleep with anyone who is dressed in a nice suit? Just go and make him happy in bed, then, you gold digger! You disgust me!”

His voice became louder, and many of our colleagues stopped working to watch the drama.

“We’ve been together since sophomore year! That’s six years! I bought you a necklace when I got my first part-time job, and I treated you to Starbucks and Olive Garden! That was the best a university student could afford! I studied with you and even helped you prepare for your master’s program! I treated you like a princess and gave you everything! What did Nathan Steward give you?!”

Our colleagues started whispering to each other.

“Nathan Steward is sixty years old. He must smell like an old man.”

“Young women nowadays only care about money. As long as one offers enough, even eighty-year-old men will smell like flowers to them.”

“That guy is so pitiful. Before he could earn a lot of money by working honestly, his girlfriend decided to cheat on him. He must have spent a lot on her over the past six years. She clearly took advantage of him.”

I rolled my eyes.

If these people were carted off by their boyfriends to unlicensed clinics to have their organs harvested and sold, they would not be saying such horrible things about me.

I turned on the video recording function on my phone, pointed the camera at Stanley, and said loudly, “Everyone, please be my witness! Stanley York insulted our company president in public and said that he paid off an intern to sleep with her! He’s lying and spreading rumors!

“Not only did he make the other employees unable to continue working, but also damaged the company’s image! This goes against work discipline!”

Stanley’s expression changed.

All of his conceit disappeared, and I struck while the iron was hot.

“You hate capitalists, don’t you? Go on, continue insulting Mr. Steward! You’re a postgraduate student too, and you’re telling me that you’re not worried about having your salary reduced or being fired?

“Yeah. You did give me a necklace, but you got it on discount on Etsy. I didn’t even need an expert to appraise it to know that its ‘gemstone’ was just colored glass!

“And a meal at Olive Garden? You only brought me there after 9 p.m. so you could use the student discount! One meal was less than ten dollars, and you called me a gold digger for two years! Also, I got into the master’s program all on my own. It had nothing to do with you. And you’re saying you treated me like a princess? If I had waited for you to provide for me, I would’ve died!”

Stanley’s face turned red. He braced himself and opened his mouth to speak but found himself unable to say anything.

The fence-sitting colleagues had been insulting the president with Stanley a moment ago, but they immediately switched sides, as if they had lost their memories of what had happened a minute ago.

“You spent less than ten dollars when you went out on a meal with your girlfriend, and you called her a gold digger? Dude, are you crazy?”

“Our company provides the best benefits to its employees, compared to other companies in the same industry. Mr. Steward is not as bad of a person as you said he is. What if Nina is really his long-lost daughter? Don’t you want your girlfriend to find her real parents, you piece of trash?”

Stanley’s face turned as red as a tomato.

The sight of my phone recording the whole thing made Stanley grit his teeth in indignation. He squatted down and picked up the documents he swept on the floor, then put them neatly on the table.

Dignity was the most important thing to Stanley. When he was outside, he loved pretending to be really generous when it came to treating me. He also loved satisfying his desire for control by lecturing me.

After being his girlfriend for a long time, I knew how to rub salt where it hurt for him.

Stanley sat down and stared at the finance report with his fists clenched tightly, but he did not flip to another page even after a long time had passed. It felt great.

Just when I wanted to leave, I heard someone speak to me at an inopportune moment. “Nina, why did you cause such a ruckus on your first day at work?! You’ve delayed everyone’s progress! Go out and bring some coffee. We want Starbucks. And you’re not allowed to claim it. It’ll be your apology to us.”

Since my mind was preoccupied by the president’s wife, I answered hurriedly, “Get it yourself. There’s no reason I should bring it to you.”

When I turned around, I noticed that it was Coral Lewis, my team leader.

I had seen her name among one of the addresses registered on Stanley’s Amazon account before.

But nothing could stop me from providing emotional comfort to the president’s wife at that moment.

…

It was Yelena’s birthday today.

I heard from my colleagues that Jane Steward, the president’s daughter, went missing on Yelena’s birthday, and hence, this day brought her the greatest anguish over the past ten or so years.

I ordered an expensive cake and bought a bouquet of delicate and elegant flowers.

Since I was going to the Stewards at dinner time, I went to the market and bought some seasonal vegetables, seafood, and some meat.

Google said that the president and his wife liked spicy food.

Coincidentally, I was great at cooking spicy food!

Even though I had an extra 100 thousand dollars in my bank account, frugality had been carved into my bones, so I ran to a bus with numerous grocery bags in my hands.

The Stewards lived on the mountainside.

While I was huffing and puffing up the mountain, Stanley called me.

“If you don’t come back, I’m going to tell your mother that you got yourself a new father! Your mother was the one who begged me to get this job for you, but you’re not appreciating it! You even got me into your mess!

“If your mother learns of it, she’ll definitely feel so anxious that she’ll give me a huge amount of money to apologize to me. She might even come to the company with her cane.”

I felt both anxiety and hatred as I held my phone.

In the past, I only knew that Stanley was a miser, but to think that he was also such a piece of trash!

But I did not have the time to care about that. I could not miss Yelena’s birthday. My life of riches and glory depended on it.

I could only offer an explanation to my mother later.

I called him back and roared, “If my mother really does go to you and something happens to her, I’ll be holding you accountable!”

The moment I hung up, I saw Yelena waiting at the door.

I had never seen her before, but I knew that she was Yelena the moment I saw her.

She had a shawl around her shoulders. Even though she had a dignified air around her, she was practically skin and bones.

Yelena had the housekeeper take my stuff and patted my hair with teary eyes. Then, she took my hand and found herself unable to speak.

I hoped my cheery mood would affect her and grinned. “Happy birthday, Mrs. Steward. I don’t know your preference, so I bought a bit of everything. Want to try my cooking today?”

I went into her kitchen and started preparing the dinner in a flourish. I cut the meat, gutted the fish, and dealt with the organs. Then, I heated up the oil in the pan and started cooking. Soon, the aroma of the food spread out.

Yelena and the housekeeper stood outside and stared at me in stunned silence.

I felt even prouder of myself. Soon, I set all the food on the table. The president came back at that moment.

After blowing out the candles, I watched them try my food.

Yelena went for the fish. The etiquette ingrained in her bones made her hold herself back, but I did not miss the delight in her eyes.

“This is perfect. Nina, where did you learn this? Did your mother teach you?” the president asked. After all, it was never mentioned on my resume that I was a chef.

I giggled and scratched my head.

“When I was young, my mother asked my neighbor to take care of me. She said she would not watch over useless people, so I had to help her with her food cart. I could cook since first grade.”

The president and his wife finished all of the food.

After dinner, I bade goodbye to them. My mother was waiting for me to go back and take care of her.

Yelena held my hand tightly.

“Nina, will you do a paternity test with Nathan? Don’t feel pressured into it. Even if you’re not my daughter, I’d still like you to come and visit me. I really like you. Nathan will also keep giving you that salary, okay?”

My grin stretched from ear to ear and refused to fade away.

Of course I was okay with it!

I plucked out some hair and handed it to her.

Yelena patted my head, as if she did not like me plucking so much hair in one go, and asked whether it hurt.

I just kept grinning like an idiot. It did not hurt, not at all!

I was going to get 100 thousand dollars a month, which was 1.2 million dollars a year!

I was going to be Yelena’s emotional support for the rest of the year.

I was going to be with her for all sorts of events and the weekends and provide her with all the comfort she needed.

…

I practically skipped out of the mansion while planning how I was going to spend my money.

After the New Year, I could buy a car for my mother. When she went to work in winter, she would not be so cold anymore.

Since I wanted to put all of my attention into providing emotional support for Yelena, I had turned off my phone.

When I turned it on again, I found that Stanley had made eighty-eight calls, while my mother had made eighteen.

I immediately called my mother to tell her that I was fine. I also wanted to tell her about the good news.

But before I could say anything, she started yelling at me.

“Come to the company right now! Nina, I thought that you were an obedient child, but you’re no different from those materialistic girls!”

I sucked in a deep breath. “I’ll go over right now. Things aren’t as you think they are, Mom.”

When I arrived, I found my mother kneeling in front of Stanley.

Everyone was watching and doing nothing about it. There was also a huge stack of money in front of Stanley.

Rage immediately shot up to my head.

“Mom, your knees are still recovering! Get up!”

Coral gave me the stink eye. “You’re finally back, Nina. Listen. You youngsters often make mistakes, and that’s fine, but you have to be considerate of your mother. You’re immature and got your mother kneeling for four hours! That’s not right.”

I dragged my mother up and yelled at Coral, “If anything happens to my mother’s knees, you’re taking responsibility because you’re the team leader!”

My mother broke free of my grasp. “Are you always this uncouth when you’re in public? Everyone already told me that you went into your boss’s office, and he transferred 100 thousand dollars into your bank account! That money was transferred right into your bank account without even going through the finance department! Can’t you see the underlying message and how disgusting it is? You did something dirty, and you have the gall to yell at someone else?!”

I was so furious that my face turned red.

My mother was gullible and believed whatever everyone told her.

Coral poured a glass of water for my mother.

“Nina might be uncouth, but it has nothing to do with you. Some people are just born bad.”

My mother returned to kneeling on the floor and said, “I’ve already transferred 200 thousand dollars to Coral. Nina, I did it for you. All you need to do now is apologize sincerely to your colleagues and Stanley!”

I stared at my mother in disbelief and shouted, “Are you dumb?! Don’t you trust me at all?! I told you that I didn’t do anything wrong! That’s 200 thousand dollars, and you just gave it away?! When I was young, I had to beg for a piece of meat for a week! Did I commit some heinous crime that you’d give Coral 200 thousand dollars?! All I did was refuse to buy coffee!”

My mother stood up on staggering feet. Then, as if she had a screw loose in her head, she went straight to the window.

She stood on a chair and leaned outside.

“Why should I live?! In any case, I’m not smart and am just causing trouble for my daughter!”