Having lived a life of pampered luxury for over forty years, even the elite power players of Capital City would lower their heads and speak to her with deferential respect.
No one had ever dared to order her around or push their luck with her.
Clara was the first person to ever climb over her head.
And it made her furious!
Isabella gritted her teeth, "Fine! I'll help you, but you better remember what you promised me!"
Clara sneered, "And you better remember what you promised me. There aren't many days left of those fifteen!"
Isabella choked, unable to retort. She shot Clara a venomous glare and marched off.
Her little assistant followed closely behind, too scared to breathe loudly, but secretly full of admiration for Clara's audacity to speak to Madam like that!
...
But little did they know.
As soon as they left, Clara's forced composure crumbled. Her shoulders slumped in pure exhaustion...
It wasn't until Susan called that she snapped out of her daze, answered the phone, and brought it to her ear.
"Susan, what is it?"
Susan: "Ms. Vance, a courier just dropped off a huge box of things. Is it yours?"
Clara hadn't expected Nora Quinn to mail that pile of fakes back so quickly.
She began walking briskly toward the exit.
"It's mine," she said. "Don't bring it into the house. Just leave it in the yard."
She was going to burn it all!
Susan: "Alright."
Clara hung up.
She walked out of the hospital gates and hailed a cab home.
The hospital wasn't far from the villa district. She arrived in half an hour.
As soon as she got home, Clara headed straight to the upstairs bedroom. She took out all the gifts Julian had ever given her from the glass display cabinet and inspected them one by one.
The more she looked, the colder her heart grew...
For her twenty-second birthday—her first birthday after they got together—the jade bangle he gave her was fake.
For their second anniversary, the carved Hetian jade was fake.
Even the sapphire necklace he bought to coax her when she was upset was fake...
With trembling fingers, Clara clutched the necklace. Under the light, the faint blue halo of the sapphire reflected against her deathly pale face...
"Ha..."

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABEL
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Three years of loving him, three days to erase myself from his world