After hearing what I said, lan didn’t know if he should laugh or cry. He croaked out, “That means we could’ve ended up together. I thought you didn’t like me. That’s why I approached Elaine. I wanted to make you jealous, but things got out of hand. Elaine kept reminding me of you, so I found all sorts of excuses to explain why I was being
nice to her.
“Every time I saw you feeling hurt and upset, I felt bad too. But at the same time, I was consumed by a peculiar feeling. I wanted to see you feeling hurt and getting jealous because of me. I never thought you’d actually leave.”
Elaine couldn’t take it any longer. She slapped Ian in the face, screeching, “So what if you were using me? I’ve been using you too! You’re screwed now, Ian! Mr. Thornton is going to fire you. Go ahead and check the office group chat to see for yourself. You’ve lost everything now!”
However, Ian didn’t care. He continued to wallow in his anguish.
Elaine glared at me resentfully. “Why must I be your subordinate? You’re worse than me in both academic credentials and looks, but you get to lord over me! It’s not just your job I wanted to steal. I wanted to steal the man you loved too! I wanted to make you my assistant so that I could order you around instead. I wanted to make all the people you care about take my side!”
She even tried to hit me, but Ian grabbed her by the wrist and squeezed down hard. As she screamed in pain, Cameron shoved her aside.
Eyes filled with hostility and detestation, he said, “Stop pretending, Elaine. You were never pregnant. Ian, Elaine asked me to help hide the fact that she was faking her pregnancy because she wanted you to take responsibility after sleeping with her.”
Panicked, Elaine wanted to refute that, but Cameron had turned to me. He stared at me somewhat dazedly for a while before asking hoarsely, “Can we have a proper talk?”
Nodding, I replied, “Sure.”
Elaine wanted to cause a fuss, but she was stopped by the police officers who suddenly arrived.
Flashing a mocking smile at her, I said, “Don’t forget that the statute of limitation for your crime hasn’t passed yet. I can still report you for locking me up in the cold storage two years ago. Do you think I was going to let you get away with it? That counts as attempted murder. If you’d like to challenge me, feel free to duke it out with my lawyer in court.”
