Late at night.

A bar.

A rich young heir in head-to-toe designer labels set a document in front of Clara Whitfield. "I’m engaged to the Ashford family’s real daughter. Since you’re not actually their biological child, I can only trouble you to sign the breakup agreement."

He paused, then added with a greasy little smile, "But if we can’t be husband and wife, we can still be lovers."

Clara had waist-length black hair falling straight down her back and wore a light blue linen dress. Her skin was pale and smooth, her eyes bright as stars. She sat there quietly, watching him put on this whole act, with only one thought in her head.

Was this guy seriously sick in the head?

The heir then placed another document, a room key card, and a car key in front of her.

He went on talking like he was the main character. "This is a property transfer agreement. As long as you live in that apartment for five years, I’ll transfer it into your name."

"And there’s also a Maserati downstairs. Brand-new, this year’s model."

"Once you sign these two agreements, this car key is yours."

Clara let out a soft laugh.

Be his mistress for five years, and she’d get an apartment worth three million and a sports car worth two million?

That came out to one million a year.

Less than a hundred grand a month.

Did he really think he was being insanely generous? Did he honestly expect her to cry tears of gratitude on the spot?

The way Clara looked at him, like she was watching a cheap show, made Sebastian Gould’s face stiffen.

He lifted his wineglass with practiced elegance, took a small sip of the ten-thousand-yuan red wine, then said, "You’ve always been proud. Signing something like this may feel humiliating to you."

"But the Whitfields are really poor. There are five sons in that family, and they’re all crammed into an old house in the old district."

"Trust me. Someone like you, raised in comfort, absolutely won’t be able to stand that kind of life."

"Take the apartment and the sports car. You’re going to need them."

Clara smiled again, still calm. She leaned forward slightly, picked up the pen, and quickly signed the breakup agreement.

When Sebastian had chased after her, he’d sworn eternal love and acted like he’d give her his whole heart. The second he found out she wasn’t the Ashfords’ real daughter, he rushed to dump her. The speed of that face change was honestly hilarious.

And disgusting.

She’d watched this little performance for five minutes already. She was bored. Time to leave.

Sebastian was dazed all over again by her smile. His heart wobbled, and he couldn’t help licking his lips before saying in a syrupy voice, "Clara, I really do like you. As long as you’re willing, I can support you for the rest of your life."

"If you want children, I’ll acknowledge them too. They just can’t enter the Gould family."

After signing, Clara picked up one copy of the agreement and slid it into her cloth bag. Then she stood up. "Thank you, Young Master Gould, for calling off the engagement. Let’s never meet again."

With that, she turned and walked away.

Sebastian froze for a full five seconds before it hit him. His face darkened. He rushed over and grabbed Clara by the arm. "Clara Whitfield, don’t push your luck!"

"I’m the heir to the richest family in South City. I’m handsome, generous, and an elite who studied abroad. Since I was a kid, I’ve had no idea how many women throwing themselves at me."

"The fact that I’m willing to keep a fake heiress from a poor background like you is your blessing!"

"If you dare walk away, I’ll make sure you regret it!"

Clara’s wrist turned lightly. Nobody even saw what she did, but she shook his hand off in one smooth move. Then she raised a middle finger at him, tossed out a crisp "Pah," and kept walking without missing a beat.

Sebastian clenched his fists in fury. "Stop her!"

It had taken him three whole years to get Clara. He hadn’t even held her hand once. How could he possibly swallow just letting her leave like this?

At the very least, he had to sleep with her once and film it, just to prove his so-called charm was real. Otherwise how could he live up to the title of "South City’s number one rich young master"?

The few useless rich friends he’d brought along to show off immediately jumped out from the side and blocked Clara’s path. Grinning like idiots, they said, "Clara, Young Master Gould has done so much for you. How can you be this cold and just leave?"

"If you’re going, at least give Young Master Gould one last round of love, right? Otherwise how is that fair to everything he’s done for you?"

Clara looked at them calmly for two seconds. Then her gaze suddenly shifted past them. She smiled and lifted a hand. "Adrian Lorne, you’re here—"

Adrian Lorne?

Sebastian and the others all changed expression at the same time. Shock flashed across their faces as they whipped around.

Rumor had it the heir to the Lorne consortium, Adrian Lorne, had already arrived in South City in secret. Every major figure in the city was trying to get in touch with him. Their families were no exception.

Who would’ve thought that after searching high and low, Adrian Lorne would just be here?

But behind them there was only the crowd going wild on the dance floor. Where was the legendary Adrian Lorne, the man whose brilliance supposedly couldn’t even be hidden by darkness?

Sebastian turned back. "Where is Adrian Lorne? Are you lying to—"

But the moment he looked, Clara was already gone.

His fists tightened again in anger. "Downstairs. We have to catch her!"

They shoved their way through the packed crowd and rushed into the elevator.

In less than a minute, they came down from the fifth floor to the first. There they saw Clara sitting in her plain black domestic sedan, just pulling the door shut.

"Clara, you’re not getting away!" Sebastian roared, sprinting toward her like he was running the hundred-meter dash.

All he caught was the dust from her car.

He angrily brushed at his face and coughed a few times, then jumped into the Maserati. "After her—"

Half an hour later.

Sebastian was still driving around the city like a madman trying to find Clara, while Clara had already returned to the Ashford villa. As she parked, she made a phone call. "Blacklist the entire Gould family immediately."

"Any event hosted by Genesis is no longer to invite anyone from the Gould family."

"All Genesis products are not to be sold to the Gould family."

"All Genesis properties are off-limits to the Gould family."

After saying that, she put away her phone and walked through the villa gates at an unhurried pace.

It was now 12:09 a.m. Bernard Ashford and his wife cared a lot about their health, so under normal circumstances they should’ve been asleep long ago.

But the crystal chandelier in the living room was still on.

The moment Clara stepped inside, she saw Bernard Ashford in a silk robe, seated in a wide leather sofa with his eyes closed, as if resting. A document sat on the coffee table in front of him.

He had clearly been waiting for her for quite a while. The second he heard the door open, he opened his eyes and asked with concern, "Clara, why are you back so late? Did anything happen out there?"

Clara acted like she didn’t know what he was really after and just smiled. "Nothing happened. I just signed the breakup agreement with Sebastian Gould. From now on, I have nothing to do with him."

Bernard used to call her "Little Clara." Tonight, he had changed it to "Clara Whitfield." Was he afraid she might forget that her surname was Whitfield?

The tension in Bernard’s face eased at once, and the corners of his mouth even lifted slightly, like he almost smiled.

But he quickly suppressed that visible relief and said gently, "Clara, are you blaming your mother and me for not helping you keep this marriage?"

"No." Clara shook her head slightly, her tone sincere. "I never liked Sebastian Gould in the first place. A month ago, if you two hadn’t forced me to get engaged to him, I wouldn’t have looked at him even if he dropped dead."

At the time, her grandmother had been critically ill, already unconscious, and had to undergo a surgery that had almost no chance of succeeding. But Clara was still under eighteen, so she couldn’t sign any of the consent forms for surgery, anesthesia, and the rest.

Bernard and his wife had used that chance to force her into an engagement with Sebastian Gould. Otherwise, they refused to sign.

Of course, she could have handled it in secret and gotten around Bernard and his wife to have her grandmother operated on. But Sebastian Gould was just Sebastian Gould. She could dump him whenever she wanted. There was no need to sneak around over someone that insignificant.

So she’d agreed to the engagement without much thought.

Now that the subject had been brought up again, Bernard looked extremely awkward. He coughed twice before saying, "It’s good that you don’t blame your mother and me."

"Sit down. There’s something I need to talk to you about."