The landlord, who lived upstairs, came down and confronted them. “Who are you? If you don’t leave right away, I’ll call the police! Are you guys crazy? Why are you banging on the door when no one lives there?”
Stiffening, Ian shot back, “What do you mean there’s no one inside? A woman lives here. Her name is Belle Rowland.”
“She moved away ages ago,” the landlord retorted impatiently. “She even chose to forego the rest of her rent and deposit.”
Cameron panicked. “Give us the key! Let us take a look for ourselves!”
In the end, the landlord only agreed to open the door for them once Ian gave him some money.
Immediately, Cameron and Ian spotted the bucket of ash. They could even see their faces on the remaining scraps of the photos inside.
Cameron flipped through the ashes, his eyes red as he murmured in disbelief, “How could she do this? These photos contained all the memories we shared!”
Meanwhile, Ian kept calling for Belle as he searched every room in the house. He soon realized, with despair, that she had taken every single belonging of hers away and left behind anything related to either him or Cameron, including all the gifts they had given her.
1/2
Chapter 5
At last, Ian and Cameron felt alarmed.
+25 BONUS
Meanwhile, I had started a new job at a company in Grayslite, a business rival of the company Ian worked for. In other words, Ian and I were officially business rivals now too.
I only left my contact information to Jenny Anderson, my only friend at the old company. She was not only a supportive colleague of mine but also the only person who was willing to be my listening ear once Elaine showed up. She knew everything about my relationships with Ian and Cameron.
Jenny fully supported my decision to leave. When I said goodbye to her, she held my hand and said tearfully, Belle, once you establish yourself over there, remember to bring me over too. I want to visit Grayshire Tower someday.
11
“Everyone is aware of how good you are at your job, but you always gave Ian the credit when most of the time, you’re the one who made it all happen. Once you leave, you can finally prove yourself properly”
Her words left me feeling rather dazed for some time. I abruptly realized just how blind and clueless I had been to the true situation. Used to living under Ian’s wing, I had naturally attributed all of my success to having his help.
But in reality, ever since Elaine showed up, not only did Ian not help me, but he often did what he could to suppress me at work. He kept trying to use me as a stepping stone for Elaine to succeed. Yet, despite being under such pressure, I was able to keep turning the tides in my favor and coming out on top.
Instantly, all of my lingering doubts and hesitation dissipated.
Once I got to Grayshire, I was so busy that it was over two weeks before I finally got to take a break. Only then did I realize Jenny had sent me a bunch of messages.
“Belle, Ian seems to have lost his mind. He’s desperately trying to look for you. You know how much he cares about his appearance, but he keeps showing up at the office looking like a drunkard. He’s constantly late too. The upper management is already displeased with him.
“Oh, and Cameron keeps blowing up at me. He claims we arranged everything in advance to make it seem like you’ve run away. He was so certain that you’d be back in three days tops. Well, it’s been a month now. He keeps heading over to the office and your old apartment to lie in wait for you.”
Chuckling, I texted her back, “It’s fine. They’re just temporarily having a hard time adjusting to the change. They still have Elaine anyway, so they’ll be fine without it.”
Instead of responding to me through text, Jenny sent me two videos.
Chapter 6
