Ficorpio
Chapter 1
In the third year of living with Ethan Sterling in our cramped rental apartment, a torrential storm flooded our home.
I lay across his shoulder, miserable and exhausted.
He said it broke his heart to see me suffer. Then he turned around and donated one hundred million yuan without blinking.
A group of Capital-Born Heirs laughed among themselves.
“With all those heiresses throwing themselves at him, why bother playing around with some poor nobody?”
Ethan narrowed his beautiful eyes, the corners lifting in an amused smile.
“My darling works three jobs a day just to save enough for a ring. Can any of them do that?”
Someone suddenly asked, “What if she actually proposes? Aren’t you already supposed to get engaged to Victoria Ashford?”
“It’s just a game. You don’t seriously think he’d bring her home as his wife, do you?”
After a pause, Ethan answered with absolute certainty.
“Besides, Claire Bennett will never find out. Not in this lifetime.”
What he didn’t know was that I was standing right outside the door.
I had rushed through the storm to find him.
My lab coat was soaked through and clung to my body, cold as a sheet of ice against my skin. But even that couldn’t compare to his words. They drove into my heart like shards of ice, leaving every inch of me aching with cold.
Inside the private room, the conversation continued.
“Exactly. If she found out, she’d probably go insane.”
“She’s been his kept lover for three years. Ethan casually donates one hundred million yuan, and they still call him poor? Even television dramas wouldn’t dare write something that ridiculous. Ha-ha!”
“So does that mean Young Mr. Sterling will reject her when the time comes?”
Ethan lifted a hand, signaling the server to open another bottle. His voice remained careless.
“Reject what? I’m not done playing yet.”
He rested his fingers against his chin and lowered his gaze, apparently thinking it over.
A moment later, he narrowed his eyes and smiled with lazy mischief. The red mole at the corner of his eye seemed brighter than ever.
“Why don’t I threaten her with a breakup? After all, I only make three thousand yuan a month. Wouldn’t want to hold her back, right?”
“Playing games like that, Young Mr. Sterling, aren’t you worried she’ll actually leave?”
“You don’t get it. How many times has he threatened to break up with her? And every single time, Claire cries and begs him to take her back.”
Ethan clearly enjoyed hearing that. He lazily raised his glass toward the speaker.
The man being toasted looked flattered and hurriedly lifted his own glass in return.
Then someone clicked his tongue.
“She’s really that pathetic? Like some stray dog nobody wants. Throwing herself at him just so he can take advantage of her without giving anything back…”
I couldn’t listen anymore.
Chapter 2
I dragged my leaden legs away from the private room, numb and hollow.
When my hand slipped into my coat pocket and brushed against the ring box, I yanked it back as though I’d been burned.
Behind me, the laughter in the room gradually faded.
Ethan had one hand draped over the back of his chair while the other slowly turned his wineglass. His face was expressionless as he glanced sideways at the man who had spoken.
Everyone else watched him in silence, carefully studying his mood.
They were all young heirs from the Capital Elite Circle, but even among them, there was a rigid social class system.
The Sterling Family held influence across Jingshi’s political, commercial, and military worlds. Ethan had been personally groomed by Arthur Sterling as the family’s designated successor. No one wanted to provoke him.
“Young Mr. Sterling, I drank too much and lost my head. I shouldn’t have insulted your sister-in-law!”
The man raised his hand and began violently slapping his own face, apologizing over and over.
The people around him rushed to smooth things over.
“You idiot. Didn’t you know our sister-in-law is a researcher at Jingbei University? She’s a highly educated professional. Who do you think you are to insult her?”
Only after the man’s face had swollen did Ethan finally speak.
“That’s enough.”
He looked at him again.
“You’re with the Hayes family? The ones who run a pharmaceutical company?”
Marcus Hayes nodded rapidly.
Ethan leaned forward, propping one side of his face on his hand while casually lifting his glass.
“About the research Jingbei has been working on lately…”
“Young Mr. Sterling, I understand! I understand! Thank you for giving me the chance to show my respect to your sister-in-law!”
Before Ethan could finish, Marcus hurriedly cut in.
I went home in a daze.
The words I had overheard kept echoing in my mind.
“She was seriously that stupid. Getting fooled was practically her own fault.
“Three years ago, Young Mr. Sterling lost a drinking game and had to pretend to be a male escort at a karaoke bar.
“The first few women who came in knew exactly what was going on. But her? She actually believed him.”
I really had been that stupid.
I hadn’t recognized that the sweater full of holes was Balenciaga’s latest design.
I hadn’t known that the plain silver watch he wore was a Richard Mille worth tens of millions.
When he told me his father was a gambling addict and his mother was sick, I thought I was looking at a reflection of my former self.
I looked at that beautiful, youthful face, so much like the male lead in a Japanese drama, and filled my eyes with tenderness.
I never realized he had been sizing me up the entire time.
Chapter 3
Seriously? What an idiot. How could anyone believe a story that ridiculous?
I had gone to endless lengths to convince him to turn his life around.
I had helped him find a respectable job.
Even after I had just become a research assistant and was earning only a few thousand a month, I had still been willing to spend two thousand on a decent suit for him.
Meanwhile, I wore the same trench coat for three years.
He would always narrow those beautiful eyes of his and give me a careless smile.
“You’ve been so good to me, beautiful older girl. I’ll have to make it up to you.”
Then he would pull me into his arms, and we would become tangled together.
He was twenty, and after tasting desire for the first time, neither of us could stop.
The old rental apartment had terrible soundproofing. The more tightly I bit my lip to keep quiet, the harder he tried to draw every sound from me.
He would keep going until I was forced to beg him softly for mercy. Only then, again and again, would he finally relent.
He was beautiful. He loved to act spoiled. He enjoyed cooking.
I had truly believed we would cling to each other for the rest of our lives.
After deciding that I would propose, I even took on two extra jobs and saved every penny for a ring.
On my way home, I passed Huangzhuang Station, where Ethan usually got off the subway.
A crowd had gathered around the entrance.
Firefighters, paramedics, people who had just been rescued…
I stopped.
A message came through on my phone.
Claire, I dropped my phone in the water. I just got it fixed.
I bought you a little cake. I’ll be home soon~
He followed it with a sticker of a cartoon puppy holding up a heart.
The caption read: Your puppy loves you most.
For a moment, I felt dazed.
A long time passed before I lifted my hands and typed a reply.
I’m at Huangzhuang Station. Exit A.
Not long afterward, Ethan Sterling appeared around the corner.
He was tall and slender, with red lips, perfect teeth, and skin so pale it almost glowed. He wore nothing more than a plain white T-shirt, a gray hooded coat, and dark blue jeans, yet somehow he carried himself like a celebrity.
He was impossible to miss. More than a few people nearby stole glances at him.
“Didn’t I tell you to stay home?” he scolded, taking off his coat and draping it around me. “You know how easily you get sick, and you still came out in the rain.”
His familiar scent, faint and fresh as pine needles, wrapped around me. My nose stung at once.
“I thought you died in there.”
I pointed toward the subway entrance.
I had thought I would scream, that I would fall apart in hysterics. Instead, my throat felt like a broken air duct.
Hoarse. Choked. Exhausted.