Chapter 3

The day I was discharged, it was her assistant who came to pick me up.

The assistant glanced at my cast.

"Ms. Sutton wants you to come by the office."

"Mr. Lowell's medical project needs startup funding. Ms. Sutton wants you to hand over the power of attorney for the fund account."

That money was the last thing my mother left me.

It was also all the capital I had used to carry Luna through three years of near-bankruptcy.

I didn't take the documents.

I looked at my reflection in the car window.

My face was pale, and the stitches above my brow bone still hadn't come out.

"What does her project have to do with me?"

The assistant said quietly, "Ms. Sutton said the two of you are about to be married."

I laughed.

She had just canceled the wedding, yet she still remembered I was her fiancé.

But only when she needed money.

In the company conference room, Luna sat at the head of the table.

Lucas stood in front of the projector screen, presenting his overseas medical project.

He wore a white shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, and he looked clean-cut and gentle.

I walked in on my crutch, and everyone in the room turned to look at me at once.

Luna didn't get up. She just pointed to the chair beside her.

Then she pushed the documents over.

"Sign it."

I opened the file.

It spelled everything out clearly: the fund would be injected into Lucas's project free of charge, and all profits would belong to Lucas's team.

I looked up at her.

"You want to take my mother's money and use it to fund his project?"

"It's just a loan. You'll get it back once the project turns a profit."

Lucas spoke up right away. "Luna, if it's not convenient for Adrian, don't force him."

As he said it, he reached to take the documents back.

Luna pressed her hand over his instead.

Her tone turned cold.

"Didn't you used to say you'd support anything I wanted to do?"

I gripped my crutch, the veins on the back of my hand standing out one by one.

All these years, I had let her manage the fund my mother left me. I had bought her first office for her and paid off her debts to suppliers.

Yet she treated all of it as my obligation to her.

"Luna, I can give you money. But not to Lucas."

The conference room went silent.

Lucas's face went pale for a moment, and he said quietly:

"Forget it, Luna. I don't want you two fighting because of me."

Luna turned to him at once.

"It's not your fault."

When she looked at me again, her eyes had gone completely cold.

I looked down at the power of attorney on the table, and suddenly the injury in my leg started to hurt again.

I used to believe that if I held on long enough, she would eventually see me.

And now she did.

It was just that after seeing me, she still chose someone else.

I pushed the documents back.

"I won't sign."

Luna shot to her feet.

"Adrian, what exactly do you want?"

"I want you to stop using marriage and feelings to hold me hostage."

Her expression turned ugly.

Lucas gently took hold of her arm.

"Luna, don't push Adrian. He just got out of the hospital."

Luna glanced at him, and her voice softened immediately.

"You should go home and rest first."

I turned on my crutch.

When I reached the door, I heard her say behind me:

"Adrian, if you don't sign, I'll pull you off every Sutton Group project."

I paused.

"Suit yourself."

After I left the company, I received an email from the manager my mother had appointed to run the fund.

Attached was the complete rescue record from the fire fourteen years ago.

One note at the very bottom stood out:

[The identity of the person who entered the fire and rescued Miss Sutton that year was never made public.]

I stared at that line, and an absurd suspicion suddenly took shape in my mind.