Ace picked up his phone and dialed Joanna’s number with practiced familiarity, only to suddenly rember that she had blocked him. He beca even madder.
"Rose!"
He angrily summoned his secretary.
The secretary walked cautiously into the office and asked, "What can I do for you, Mr. Moran?"
"Lend your phone."
"M–My phone?"
Although Rose was confused, she still handed her phone to Ace respectfully.
Without saying another word, Ace dialed Joanna’s number again.
The phone rang for only three seconds before it was picked up.
"Hello?"
Joanna’s lazy voice, with a trace of joy, ca from the other end of the phone.
She just swindled hundreds of thousands of dollars from him! Of course she would be happy!
"Sounds like you’re in a good mood."
Ace said sarcastically with a stiff face.
Joanna imdiately recognized Ace’s voice. She replied, "I’m not feeling too bad!"
"You have such a great business mind, don’t you? You made hundreds of thousands of dollars just like that. I underestimated you."
"You flatter . Thanks to your generosity, I can now renovate my house. You’re welco to be even more generous if you
want."
Ace: "..."
He never thought the forrly subservient Joanna Pierce could beco so irritating.
She would be the death of him!
"Since I just gave you a few hundred thousand dollars, shouldn’t you unblock out of courtesy?"
Ace resisted the urge to rush over and strangle her. He calmly argued for his rights.
After all, he just spent over a million dollars. He could not let them go to waste.
If it could get him unblocked, the money was worth it.
"Nope."
Joanna refused without hesitation. "The money is a voluntary gift from you. If you want it back, feel free to file a lawsuit. If you think you can beat in court, that is."
"You...!"
Before Ace could finish talking, the sound of disconnected call ca from the other end of the phone.
Goddammit, Joanna actually hung up on him!
It would be too humiliating for him to imdiately call her again. Besides, she most likely would not answer.
After giving it so thought, Ace decided to try an alternative thod. He would do as Ethan says and use a burner number.
"Rose, get a new SIM card imdiately."
He ordered coldly.
Rose heard the entire conversation between Ace and Joanna. All she could think of right now was: "What goes around
cos around!"
The proud Mr. Moran had been humbled.
’As expected, one should not fall in love that easily. Once you fall in love, it doesn’t matter if you’re a pure young man or a domineering CEO, you’ll just turn into a simp!’
The Pierce Residence.
After Joanna hung up on Ace, she felt inexplicably down.
Her forr husband was actually acting that humble in order to persuade her to withdraw her charges against another woman. It made her feel like a failure.
She sacrificed so much and acted dignified and dutiful like a daughter–in–law of a prestigious family should. Even when she was mistreated, she rely kept quiet in order to not make it difficult for him.
All she got in return was his betrayal.
What made her really mad was, if he was going to cheat on her, at least pick a good woman, like his first love Cecilia, who Joanna could accept losing to.
But he actually cheated on her with a pretentious bitch like Alice.
Not only was she pretentious, she’s also evil!
Losing to a bitch like that, Joanna felt the love she had given for four long years was so not worth it!
Because Joanna was in a bad mood, she went to bed early.
In the middle of the night, she suddenly woke up and could not go back to sleep anymore.
She looked out the window at the moon and could not help feeling a bit sad, so she picked up her phone to listen to so
songs.
When she unlocked her phone, she saw a friend request on WeChat.
The profile picture happened to be a pearl white moon on a vast ocean, which gave off a sense of loneliness.
The verification ssage was: "Up for a chat?"
Joanna initially wanted to ignore it, but she happened to be a bit bored right now, so she accepted the request.
She did a quick check of the person’s friend list. It was even cleaner than his profile picture – it was completely empty. This was a brand new account.
Joanna wondered for a mont if it might be Ace’s burner.
But she soon ruled out the possibility.
Ace was the CEO of Moran Group. Surely he would not do sothing so childish.
The person did not start a conversation. Joanna’s curiosity was piqued, so she asked, "Do I know you?"
The person’s status beca "typing...".
However, even after a long wait, no new dialog box appeared.
Joanna’s curiosity was piqued even more. She asked, "Are you new?"
Now, even the "typing..." status was gone. The person was playing dead now.
No reply?!
Joanna was originally not interested, but she now had a strong desire to conquer this challenge.
The guy was quite the character. He was probably a handso young man that was used to won’s adoration. That’s why
he’s so arrogant.
Joanna happened to be in a bad mood and wanted to pour out her negative emotions, so she simply treated the person as a tree hole.
After all, a tree hole only had to listen and never had to speak. That’s its function..
The phone lit up with a faint light in the dark room. Joanna typed a wall of text into the chat.
"Lil bro, is there anyone who really annoys you?"
"You’re young, so probably not, but big sis does know soone like that. The most ironic thing is, this person I hate is
soone I used to deeply love."
"I swear, I’ve never seen a bigger fool, so let’s call him The Fool from now on!"
On the other end of the phone, Ace sat in the brightly lit CEO’s office, looking out the window at the flashing neon lights with
mixed feelings.
Joanna’s ssages kept popping up, which forced him to put down his work temporarily.
He frowned when he saw the word "fool". It made him so mad that he felt like hitting soone.
Could she have guesses that it was his burner number so she was flaming him on purpose?
He did not know what to reply, so he simply did not reply to anything.
anwhile, Joanna’s bitter words poured out of her continuously like flood water.
"How annoying is this fool, you ask? He pretends to be as emotionless as an ice cube, but he’s actually a la guy with extrely poor taste. He knows that the other woman is rotten to the core, but he still indulges her unconditionally. Don’t you think he’s blind? I’m really ashad of the fact that I once liked a person like that..."
Ace: "..."
He’s now even more suspicious that she knew it was him and she’s mocking him!
Ace was about to reply sothing when Joanna sent another ssage.
"But it’s strange. Obviously, I don’t like him anymore, but why do I still feel sad? Does love have a residual effect?"
Ace stared at the chat for a long ti.
A trace of pain inexplicably erged from the depth of his heart.
Perhaps he was indeed too cruel in the way he handled the matter with Briar, but he had no choice.
Briar was the woman the elder brother he respected the most asked him to take care of before his brother’s death. The child in Briar’s belly was the only offspring his brother left behind.
His brother sacrificed his life to save him.
He must keep his promise and take care of Briar and her child no matter what.
If he had to choose a person to disappoint, that person could only be Joanna or, more precisely, it could only be himself!
Ace felt like he had a lot to say to Joanna, but in the end, he did not say a word.
He looked out the French window at the full moon that shined like jade, took a picture of it, sent it to Joanna, then put away his phone.
When Joanna saw the picture of the moon, it ward her heart for so reason, even though there was no word attached to the
picture.
"The moon is beautiful, isn’t it? I hope he sees it too."
After sending that ssage, she put away her phone too. Her sense of loneliness had subsided a bit. She closed her eyes and easily fell asleep.
"The moon is beautiful, isn’t it?" is a famous phrase by Japanese author Sōseki Natsu, usually used to express "I love you" indirectly!
Joanna kept this little secret hidden in the deepest part of her heart and would never let anyone else know about it.
Reviews
All reviews (0)