"Ah, Mr. George, please spare me..." A seductive moan came from the office, where a smorgasbord of erotic sounds followed.
As the woman moaned and the man panted, Lily Walpole stood outside the door in a daze, forgetting how to breathe.
Her face turned pale and her body could not help trembling. She had never thought that Harvey George, her boyfriend, would betray her!
"Mr. George, Lily's grandfather's company has gone bankrupt because of you. That old man Zachary probably can't take it anymore. A suicide is underway, don't you think?"
"Ha!" The man sneered. "That's cause he's an idiot!"
The woman smiled. "You are so godd*mn cruel to Lily."
Lily clenched her fists, wondering what could have happened to her grandfather's company.
Harvey smirked as he said, "Lily?"
Pushing the woman away, the man sat on the sofa, lit a cigarette, and said, "She's just a plaything—something to use then discard."
A plaything?
Something to use then discard?
A chill slithered down Lily's back. Her heart felt as if it had been punctured so deep she couldn't see the bottom of it. What she had just heard had shaken her identity with a vengeance.
No longer able to bear it, she bit her lips and pushed the door open with a pale face.
"Harvey George! What the hell did you just say?" Her tearful eyes looked straight into the man's cold ones.
Taking a drag on his cigarette, he looked at her as if she were just some other ordinary person. The future Young Madam of the George family, whom he had once doted on, had become a hot mess.
He raised the corner of his mouth cruelly as he mocked, "Lily bloody Walpole, when did you become such an idiot?"
His mocking tone and contemptuous eyes made it seem as if she were a filthy thing.
Once upon a time, she had been his beloved little princess. She had once thought that she was the happiest woman in the world.
Only then did she understand.
Harvey was known for his cruelty and ruthlessness; it turned out the rumors were true. In the past, she had been blinded by him and scammed by his fake love. Love truly was blind, and she had learned her lesson the hard way.
Five years. She had wasted a whole five years of her youth on the man!
From a bottom-level employee, step by step, she had reached the top of the hierarchy.
She had sacrificed everything for him in exchange for his approval and validation.
Once, when he had been drunk, he brought her into a hotel. At the moment when she had become one with him, she still felt as though everything was a dream.
For years she had loved him, and it was finally the time to reap what she sowed. In order to be good enough for him, she had done everything she could to be a better version of herself, treading a tightrope over thin ice.
She was afraid that a minor mistake would extend the distance between him and her.
Even after she had become his woman, she still did not dare to slack off. Having indentured herself to his company, she toiled away and sacrificed her health.
Again and again, she had created glory for the George Group, one small step at a time.
She had taken it for granted that he would return her sacrifices with his love and care.
Yet, only to find out that he had been using her. Her whole life flashed before her eyes like the ultimate parody of a romcom.
Harvey gently blew out a smoke ring and sneered. "Easy, dont' b*tch about me here, why don't you use the time to collect your granddaddy's corpse? You don't want them to nail his coffin before you see him for the last time, do you?"
Holding back her tears, Lily took a deep look at him.
She had only her naivety to blame for having fallen into his trap, but her grandfather was innocent!
"Harvey George! You'd better pray that Grandpa is fine!"
Lily gritted her teeth, slammed the door hard, and escaped from the hellhole and the heartbreaker.
With her ten-centimeter high heels click-clacking on the ground, she raced all the way down the stairs, hailed a taxi on the street, and then with a hoarse voice, she shouted, "Take me to Walpole Holdings! Hurry!"
Seeing that her eyes were scarlet red, the driver stepped on the accelerator and raced toward Walpole Holdings.
Even though it had only taken the driver ten minutes to reach Walpole Holdings, it was still too late. A crowd had already gathered at the entrance, pointing at the top of the building and whispering:
"God, I can't watch this anymore. Going bankrupt at his age? Who could take such a thing?"
"But there's no need for him to jump off a building. His family is going to be devastated over this..."
Lily got out of the car in a panic and looked up.
On the rooftop, a teetering figure was looking down with a sad face.
"GRANDPA, NO!!!" Lily roared. The tears that she had suppressed for a long time could no longer be controlled and came pouring down.
However, her voice was too soft.
The wind was so strong that her voice was blown far away.
Reaching everywhere but the ears of the old man.
When Lily raised her head in a daze, all she could see was the figure of a person freefalling.
There were exclamations all around, but Lily couldn't hear anything.
"Bang!"
With a loud noise, it was as if something had shattered on the ground.
Lily's eyes were dull, like a puppet that had lost its soul. She looked ahead, her eyes unseeing. Her grandfather was lying not far from her. Crimson-red blood splattered on the pavement.
The crowd retreated to both sides in panic. Only Lily walked forward in a daze.
With every step she took, Grandpa's voice rang in her ears.
"Lily, I want to give you my approval, but Harvey is not a good man. If you insist on being with him, you are going to have a hard life."
"Lily, the Georges and the Walpoles are not on equal standing. You won't be happy if you marry him."
"But why?" At that time, she had looked at her grandfather as if she were a child who had been treated unfairly, stubbornly demanding an answer.
Zachary sighed. He said in a soothing voice, "You know, Master George came to see me today. His attitude is clear: he doesn't like you. How long are you going to be stubborn?"
However, her rationale had been hijacked by her heart. "Grandpa, Harvey loves me. He will give me happiness, and I'm willing to bet on it."
What had happened in the end?
She had suffered a crushing defeat.
Lily knelt in front of Zachary's corpse, lowered her head, and suddenly laughed in a low voice.
It was a laugh saturated with despair and insanity.
She was the one who had been stupid, and she was the one who had refused to come to her senses, all of which had brought about her grandfather's death.
She was wrong.
"Can I have my Grandpa back?"
Boom-
The ear-piercing screech of a car's tyres suddenly rang out, and gasps could be heard all around. "Quick, get away!"
Lily didn't look up.
The moment her body was knocked away, she suddenly realized something.
It was better to die in such a way. That way, she would not feel any pain...
