The Man Who Ruined My 22nd, the Customer Who Wanted a Steamed Bun Chapter 03

The Man Who Ruined My 22nd, the Customer Who Wanted a Steamed Bun Chapter 03

One by one, Vivienne’s belongings were moved into the house.

Her contact with Elliot also increased in ways anyone could see.

And I no longer even had a right to be angry.

My parents stopped planning my birthday party.

Then, using the excuse that I was the fake daughter who had taken someone else’s place, they locked me out of the house.

I stood in front of the gates, entering the passcode again and again, but it would not open.

I cried so much that day.

Elliot held me with promises and said that if Mom and Dad owed me a birthday party, he would make it up to me.

After being abandoned by my parents, I experienced insecurity for the first time in my life.

So I dumped every bit of that missing sense of safety onto Elliot and demanded it from him desperately.

He had to be home before nine at night.

He had to answer my hourly check-in calls.

He had to keep our photo pinned on his profile.

And he had to report every woman who got even a little too close to him.

After one networking dinner, he got drunk and told Vivienne every complaint he had about me.

From that day on, my relationship with Elliot dropped below freezing.

His relationship with Vivienne, meanwhile, only grew warmer.

So on my twenty-second birthday, inside an elegant gift box, there was a neatly placed twelve-week ultrasound photo.

Elliot officially broke up with me.

Then he married Vivienne on the date I had once chosen with so much care for our own wedding.

After the wedding, Vivienne sent me a screenshot of their messages.

I would never forget the feeling. It was like being struck by lightning.

I had once thought Elliot, the man who claimed to truly love me, had only approached me for my family’s money and resources.

So after I was thrown out and cut off, in order to keep his position at the company, he got together with Vivienne, the biological daughter.

I replied, [He only wants money. You still want him?]

She replied, [But I have money. More than I could ever spend.]

With trembling hands, I deleted every contact I had for both of them.

Then I deleted every photo.

Thank you, I thought. Thank you for teaching me the most honest lesson about human nature.

My parents, my friend, and the man I loved had all been ashamed of me.

Even the so-called friends who once flattered me became dead, silent names in my contacts.

Winter came, and the wind turned bitter enough to cut.

I lifted my head and forced my tears back.

Then I turned around and walked, quiet and lonely, into the life where I was supposed to have nothing.

A warm breeze suddenly swept over me.

I came back to myself.

Winter had passed long ago.

Now it was the height of summer.

I turned back, the corner of my mouth lifting faintly, and said to him calmly, “It’s all over.”

“We shouldn’t have known each other then. There’s no reason to know each other now.”

“I really don’t need your cash. Take the card back.”

After saying that, I walked back into the shop, washed my hands, and began cutting the dough into rounds.

But Elliot suddenly rushed in and hugged me from behind.