Chapter 1 Give Up Her Love

Joyce Lu was dreaming. Her dream played a scene she thought she had completely forgotten.

On a street by the school, the sun was shining brightly. While a tree provided her with shade, she didn't feel any better. It just made her feel stuffy.

By noon, the sun was directly overhead, scorching the pavement. Two lone figures stood under the tree. One was Joyce herself, and the other was the mother of Braydon Huo, her boyfriend.

The lady pursed her lips disdainfully.

"Joyce, I can give you three million to help the Lu family get out of their current predicament. However, there's one condition: l want you to leave my son." The lady waved a check wedged between her two manicured fingers in front of Joyce's face. "Break up with him," she said in a low voice, carefully enunciating each word.

Perhaps it was because the sun was dazzlingly bright that Joyce's eyes stung. But she smiled at the lady sweetly. "No, Aunt. I love Braydon. I'm not in it for the money."

"Love?"

The lady scoffed. Such sentiment was useless.

"Let me put it this way. What's more important, the Lu family's future or your love?"

Her biting words made all the color drain from Joyce's face. The lady smiled at her condescendingly and gently touched her hair. "Your parents have been good to you ever since you were a child. Doesn't that mean anything to you?

Let me make this easy for you. You can protect your parents' lifetime efforts by abandoning a dispensable relationship. This deal is actually worth it."

Joyce wanted to refute her words, but in that moment, she felt as though her throat was choked with cotton.

Her parents' sighs had not gone unheard. She knew the difficulties they were going through. Closing her eyes to stop her tears from falling, Joyce said calmly, "Okay, I'll do it."

When she took the check, the picture in front of her suddenly wrinkled into distortion. The lady's face transformed into that of Braydon.

She was no longer on the street by the school. Instead, she was in a club, wearing a figure-hugging dress. Sitting calmly amidst the chaos in the bar, she lit a cigarette. Standing in front of her was a livid Braydon.

"What's going on, Joyce? Explain, now!" He jabbed a finger at the unconscious man on the floor, whom he had knocked out seconds earlier.

It was her first time to smoke, but somehow, she was a natural at it. She took a deep drag on the cigarette and breathed out the smoke slowly. "Nothing. I just almost had sex with someone behind your back. But you found me out before we even got around to it."

"You almost had sex with someone else?"

With a crazed look in his eyes, Braydon fixed his gaze on the hickey on Joyce's neck. Gritting his teeth, he said in a sharp tone, "Oh, you're so honest. It makes me sick."

The slender fingers holding the cigarette trembled slightly. Joyce flipped her hair and smiled charmingly. "Thank you for the compliment."

Braydon couldn't believe his ears. He wanted to vomit. "Joyce, we're over. Never show your face to me again. I can't bear seeing a bitch who has slept with countless men."

Then he turned around abruptly and left the club.

The sound of the door slamming shut was deafening. Joyce choked, and the pungent smell of smoke made her cough violently.

There was a searing pain in her chest. She curled up and a tear silently made its way down her cheek.