Chapter 4
Melody held her hand to her mouth. She couldn’t bear to watch them any longer and ran helter-skelter out of the parking lot.
She ran for what felt like hours. Finally, she fell on her butt at the emergency staircase and held a hand to her rapidly beating heart, gasping loudly for air. Tears also started cascading down her cheeks by the buckets.
She’d initially thought what Angel and Joshua did during the auction was bad enough, but she couldn’t have been more wrong. Whatever they did in the car was a hundred times worse, and she felt extremely suffocated by it.
Ever since getting together with Joshua, he had proven himself to be extremely pure, romantic, and gentlemanly with her.
He would blush whenever he held her hand and shiver when kissing her. He’d even held off their first time together, saving it for after she finally agreed to his proposal.
She’d laughed back then, asking him how he’d been able to hold back for such a long time just waiting for her. However, he just held her in his arms and told her in his hoarse voice, “Mel, it’s impossible for any man to hold off doing it with the woman they loved.
“It’s just that I love you too much and don’t want you to regret anything, so I wanted to wait until you were 100% sure.”
He had treated her so preciously that Melody immediately felt surrounded by his warmth. She thought she’d finally fallen in love with the right person, but now, reality had just slapped her in the face with a bucket of ice-cold water.
She covered her face in despair and cried so hard she nearly fainted in the stairwell.
A long while later, Melody finally got up and robotically walked over to the nearest washroom. Right at that moment, her phone buzzed in her pocket.
Angel had sent her another photo of their post-coital mess in the car. There were even bits of torn-off black stockings in the corners.
“The car is full of our lovely scent. Oh, and by the way, Josh promised to give me that necklace of yours. Lover’s Heart belongs to me now!”
Melody didn’t want to read any further. She just turned her phone off.
By the time she had finished touching up her makeup and walked out of the washroom, she finally saw Joshua, who had come back to look for her.
As expected, he greeted her empty-handed. Moments later, Melody was pulled into his embrace. She could faintly smell someone else’s perfume on him.
Melody was just about to push him away when Joshua started talking right above her head.
“Mel, that necklace is a little damaged, and I don’t think it fits you anymore. I’ll buy you a better, shinier necklace next time, okay?”
Melody inhaled deeply and looked up at him. She held back her sobs and said, “But what if I told you I only want that necklace?”
Joshua looked at Melody’s tear-streaked face and felt as though his heart was being squeezed very painfully. He quickly tried to comfort her, saying, “My baby, Mel, don’t cry anymore. That necklace really doesn’t suit you. But I’ll get someone to buy you another one right now, alright?”
Melody chuckled when she heard this.
In the past, Joshua would give her anything she wanted without any hesitation. But now, he rejected her wishes for another woman.
It seemed as though Melody hadn’t just lost him physically to Angel—she’d also lost her place in his heart to Angel now.
Joshua felt his heart aching for Melody when he saw her in this state. Just as he was about to say something else, Melody shoved him away.
“Whatever. I don’t want it anymore,” she said, sounding exhausted.
Joshua wanted to chase after Melody when he saw her leaving, sad and disappointed. However, she suddenly stopped in her footsteps. Joshua immediately followed her line of sight and saw Angel walking past them right at that moment, wearing the Lover’s Heart necklace around her neck.
Joshua paled at once. Just as he was about to say something again, he noticed that Melody had just resumed walking past Angel as if she had never seen anything.
It wasn’t until Joshua saw that Melody had completely disappeared out of sight that he finally grabbed Angel’s hand. “Are you out of your mind? Didn’t I tell you never to appear before Mel? She is where I draw the line!”
Angel didn’t seem the least bit upset after getting yelled at by Joshua. She just grinned at him and said, “Well, sorry for that, but she didn’t seem to have noticed anything. I won’t do that again next time.”
Then, she pulled down her collar a little more and said, “Let me make it up to you tonight, okay? I’ve got a bigger surprise for you.”
Joshua gulped, his Adam’s apple bobbing as his eyes turned dark with desire.
He never returned home that night. He just told Melody that he had some urgent matters to attend to at the company.
Melody knew that he was lying, but she didn’t question him any further or make a fuss about it. Instead, she just continued settling her own things silently.
Since she was going to fake her death and leave Joshua for good, she needed to destroy every last evidence of her existence. When that time came, she was going to leave nothing but a dead body behind for him. No memories, nothing.
It took her three hours to tidy up her things, set them aside, and burn them all up.
Then, she pulled out a massive box from the bottom of the bookshelf. It contained all of the birthday presents she’d received from Joshua over the past ten years.
When she was 15 years old, she received a love letter from him. Every word he wrote oozed with his love for her.
When she was 18 years old, he gifted her a pair of crystal shoes, saying he wanted to walk with her, hand in hand, for the rest of their lives.
When she was 20 years old, he gifted her a tiara made with priceless pink diamonds, saying that he would forever treat her as his precious little princess.
When she was 22 years old, he gifted her a diamond ring he’d personally designed for her, saying that he was going to continue proposing to her every year now that she was of age until she finally accepted his proposal.
…
Melody wrapped up all these gifts and put them up for sale on eBay for nine dollars and ninety-nine cents.
The items were all precious jewels valued at over 100 million dollars, but she was only selling them for less than ten dollars. They sold out at once.
Melody called the post office to pick up the parcels from the house. Just as she was about to retire to her room, the door suddenly flew open.
Joshua rushed in, all drenched and disheveled as he grabbed hold of Melody’s shoulder and asked in a shaky voice, “M-Mel? What’s the meaning of selling off my gifts online at just 9.99 dollars?”
