Unsurprisingly, she lost her high–paying job.
The System started a countdown for me.
【Six months until payback. The villainess is going to regret this.]
Regret?
That word wasn’t in my dictionary.
Great. That gave me six months to make their lives a living hell.
I moved Silas into the tiny, cramped staff room Jenna used to occupy.
He seemed to like it so much, after all,
1 didn’t kick him out immediately, not because I was holding onto some fantasy of a redemption arc where he’d come crawling back.
It was purely because he was too expensive. I’d listed him online, but no one was buying.
Just throwing him out would be like gifting Jenna three hundred thousand dollars.
And I would never do that.
Silas’s grand suite was now empty.
S
”
a
=
11:22 PM dd
And I would never do that.
Silas’s grand suite was now empty.
Every time I walked past it, I’d sigh.
My feelings for him were complicated.
I had loved him. Adored him.
G
I gave him everything I had, everything I didn’t have, and everything I ever wanted for myself.
But I never felt that because I paid for him, he owed me his soul.
N
If he had liked me, clung to me, that would have been wonderful.
If he didn’t, as long as he was well–behaved, that was fine too.
For a fleeting moment, I imagined his fluffy tail wagging in front of me.
But he’d never let me touch it.
If he had just been a little grateful, a little kinder…
If he had simply told me he loved Jenna, I might have even agreed to let them be together.
But Silas had no concept of gratitude.
My money and my heart had been a bad investment.
But there were plenty of other beastmen in the world.
So I bought a new one. A female fox beastman. I named her Annie.
She moved into the grand suite.
Annie was sweet and adorable.
She loved to curl up on my lap and purr, her tail brushing against my cheek as she called me “Mama.”
I would buy her anything.
When Silas came out of his hovel for his generic beastman kibble, he would glare at us, his jaw tight.
I couldn’t tell if he hated me for sending Jenna away,
Or if he hated me for giving all my affection to Annie.
It didn’t matter.
As long as he was miserable, I was happy.
When I returned to Apex Corporation, the System’s words echoed in my mind.
After Jenna returned to the Graves family, I would be fired.
Fired. That was a serious problem.
Waiting for the axe to fall wasn’t my style.
I contacted the headhunter who had been pursuing me for months.
I sent a single message: [Available.]
11:22 PM d
[Calla! I’m here.]
[Do you have a moment, Calla?]
