"Wait! The balance just changed!"
At that moment, my assistant's voice rang out.
Everyone's eyes turned to the screen.
They watched as my bank balance, once at zero, refreshed again and again…
Each time revealing a new, record-breaking figure.
In the end, it took a long while just to count how many digits there were.
I let out a cold laugh.
I knew this was the moment.
I looked at Darian and Liora, then threw the money from the ground right into their faces. “Is this enough? With that number, I could fund a carnival until tomorrow morning without breaking a sweat. Darian, you better not regret this!”
In an instant, the tone in the comment section shifted.
Some were curious about where my money came from. Some still suspected it was all a scam. And others were eager to stick around and watch the rest of the unfinished video clip from earlier.
“Whoa, plot twist for real?”
“Wait, she’s actually rich? Where’d all that money come from?”
“Mr. Vale, maybe you should double-check. What if it’s another scam?”
“Guys, is that really the issue? The real problem is I was about to take off after watching that video!”
*Cut off right at the peak. My joy is gone.”
“To the one above, we suffer the same fate. Let’s keep watching and see what happens.”
Darian’s expression shifted.
He wiped the embarrassment from his face, stood up, slipped his rosary beads back onto his wrist, then ordered the bodyguards to restrain me.
He looked down at me from above, towering with cold authority.
I stared at the man before me and in that moment, three years of memories with him flashed through my mind like a movie reel.
The first time I met Darian, he looked pale and fragile.
He sat quietly by a pine and bamboo tree in the Vale Family garden.
The faint sunlight spilled over him and it felt like the wind might carry him away at any moment.
The very first thing he said to me was, “Leave.”
He said he didn’t want to rely on a woman to prolong his life.
The Vale Family used every tactic, both gentle persuasion and harsh threats. They even stooped so low as to use the Elderglen tribe to threaten me.
The Elderglen were my weakness and I absolutely would not allow anyone to use that against me.
I had originally planned to teach them a hard lesson, but it was Darian who told them to let me go.
He even apologized to me, promising that he would never harm the Elderglen people.
That caught me completely off guard.
In the end, it was me who chose to stay, curious about what kind of person he really was.
I slowly got closer to him, step by step, as he changed from cold and distant to quietly caring.
Sometimes, I caught him looking worried about me and when I saw the shy, nervous look on Darian’s face, it made me feel like I had helped him become better.
That feeling made me want to marry him. I never thought he had a side like this.
"Whitney, what did you do?" Darian grabbed my chin and forced me to look him in the eye.
I didn’t resist. In my mind, I was counting down. ‘…9, 8, 7…’
The look I gave him was no longer one of sorrow or questioning. It was one of unwavering confidence.
The time was almost up.
‘Darian, I could save you back then. Now, I can destroy you. You should never, never, have used the Elderglen people to threaten me!’
The countdown ended.
Right on cue, Darian’s phone rang.
