"I called you five times. Why didn't you answer?" Cathy walked in front of Alex as she asked her question in a daze.
"What do you want to say?" Alex looked at her. She was acting like a lunatic. He didn't want anything to do with her anymore.
"Alex, I was wrong… it was my fault before. After I split from you, I found out that I couldn't leave you. You're the only one who treats me so well without asking for anything in return. Let's start over again, okay?" she pleaded, looking into his eyes.
She wasn't lying to him. After the treatment she had received from Billy and Simon Phillips, she now truly understood how good Alex had been to her. It also helped that she now knew that he was from a wealthy family.
"Impossible!" He didn't feel anything for her anymore, and he didn't know if she had other motives. He looked at Russell and said, "Give her fifteen thousand dollars."
"No! I don't want your money. Believe me… I'm serious. I'll treat you well. I'm willing to be with you for the rest of your life!" she said excitedly. She missed Alex who had doted on her and treated her like she was a treasure.
"Cathy, don't be silly. Take the money and leave. Don't interfere with my store's business any longer." He pressed the money into her hand.
"That's not what I want!" She threw the stack of bills onto the ground, grabbed his hand, and held it to her cheek. "Alex, did you forget that I'm your Cathy? Don't you remember our time together? You dated me for almost a year, and I didn't even let you touch my face. Now that I've let you touch me, can you forgive me? Let's start over again. We'll be very happy together."
She held his hand so tightly that he couldn't pull it out of her grip.
"Let go! How long are you going to keep causing trouble?" He pulled his hand with all his might, causing her to stagger forward.
"Why? We used to be such a great couple. You even said that you would protect me forever. Even if I made a huge mistake and hurt you, you said you wouldn't blame me and would always treat me well." She desperately wanted to save their past relationship.
"All right, since you want to know why, I'll tell you right now. It's because you were my first love. I didn't know what love was before we fell in love, so when we were together, I just gave it my all. I ended up in a world with only you, and I didn't ask myself if this was real love or not.
"After we split up, I met Debbie. When Debbie and I were together, it was so different when I was with her. She would think about me and care for me. When she wasn't there, my heart felt empty. Being with her felt like happiness. It didn't feel like a burden.
"So, I started to ask myself if what you and I had together was really love. I think it was just me being a poor loser and wanting to feel some accomplishment. Hmm… now that I think about it, it's quite funny. But I don't think we should have any regrets. We all make mistakes when we're young," Alex reflected openly.
Cathy was stunned. His words were a death sentence to her hope of rekindling their relationship. Alex would never take her back.
"So, if I hadn't broken up with you back then, when you met Debbie and Kelly Phillips, would you have left me?" she asked quietly. This was what she most wanted to know.
He felt pity while he looked at her.
He knew that if she had not broken up with him he would have remained with her, even if he had met Debbie, Kelly, or any other woman who was better than Cathy. Even if he had realized that being with her had been a mistake.
But if he were to tell Cathy this now, her heart would probably be in a worse state.
"I think so," Alex said lightly while looking at her. He chose to answer her in a way that wouldn't hurt her feelings so much.
Her eyes welled up in tears. The tears started to slide down her cheek, but she didn't make a sound. She was trying her best not to fall apart in front of him.
Alex wanted to walk toward her and comfort her, but it would be too easy for that to lead to something else, so he kept the pain in his heart.
Cathy moved sluggishly. She didn't look at him. She turned and slowly walked away.
Watching her disappear around the corner, he let out a light sigh. He thought that from that day forward, this woman, whom he had shared so many experiences with, must have finally ended her feelings for him.
"You guys carry on with your business. The fifteen thousand dollars will be split between your bonuses for this month." Alex picked the money up off the ground, handed it to Russell, and left.
A half an hour had passed by the time Alex returned to the night market. He stood at the intersection and looked at the bustling crowd. He wondered if Rose and Suzan had already left, so he took out his phone to call Suzan and ask.
**
Rose and Suzan were still strolling through the night market. Rose was still unhappy with Alex's previous behavior.
"Hmph… he really pissed me off. Suzan, you saw it too. He was so calm and didn't feel ashamed at all. He seems to think he's worthy of me! Have you ever seen such a shameless person?" Rose asked.
Rose had been saying those words over and over again all evening. Suzan was tired of hearing them.
"Rose, stop thinking so much about it. Alex has a quiet personality. It's not like you don't know that. Plus, he already has a girlfriend, and their relationship looks pretty good. Don't make wild guesses," Suzan said. Alex had not told anyone about Debbie's disappearance because no one would be able to help anyway.
"He has a girlfriend, but he's still so shameless. He's so disgusting." No matter what Alex did, he was still a scumbag in Rose's mind. "Also, didn't you say Joe asked him to come here to watch over us? Where is he now? When you go back, tell Joe that this guy has no sense of responsibility, so we should stop hanging out with him."
"Maybe he can't find us because we moved ahead in such a hurry?" Suzan said. But she also felt that when Rose had been angry, he had run away instead of comforting her with a few nice words. Wasn't that what he did to make Rose hate him right now?
"Ouch!" As the two girls were walking, they didn't bother to pay attention to where they were going. Rose bumped into a man who was lying on the ground.
"You almost knocked me over!" Rose shouted anxiously. She was only a small woman, so it didn't take much to knock her over.
"Rose, don't you see that he is… oh my! Let's quickly help him up." Only after hearing Suzan start to explain did Rose realize that the man that she had bumped into was blind. She stopped feeling angry and followed Suzan to help the blind man stand up while handing him his walking cane.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Rose and Suzan hurriedly apologized to the blind man.
"It's fine," the blind man said while fumbling with his cane.
"Have you got a sore throat?" Rose asked with a puzzled expression, as his voice was hoarse. She thought the man looked familiar, but his face was obscured by his wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses.
"I'll be going now..." The blind man grasped his cane and was about to walk forward, but, with so many people in the night market, he was sure to crash into someone else.
"Wait a moment!" Rose pulled the blind man aside and looked at Suzan. "How about we help him walk out of the market? Look at the crowd… it's definitely not going to be easy for him to get through all these people."
"Hmm, I think so too." Suzan looked at the man.
How did a blind man get in here? Wouldn't this be hard for you, and cause trouble for the people around you? she thought.
"We'll go with you." Rose and Suzan each held one of his arms as they walked him out of the night market. He thanked them in a soft voice.
He told them that he had come with a friend in a car that was parked by the side of the road, so they walked him to that location.
The car was a Mercedes CLK limousine. As the two girls watched in amazement, he mumbled that he had his friend's car keys and proceeded to unlock the doors.
"Ladies, please go sit in the car for a moment and rest. Thank you for walking out with me," he said politely to the pair.
"Fine, but I don't see your friends around. Suzan and I will be quite worried if you're here alone." Rose had been walking for so long that she was getting a little tired and wanted to rest.
"Suzan, let's sit down for a bit." Rose opened the back door and pulled her into the car. She saw that the blind man was still waiting outside. She said to him, "You come in the car with us for a while."
The blind man simply nodded at her.
Suzan's phone rang. It was Alex.
"Hey, Suzan, where are you? Why can't I find you?" he asked.
"Where have you been? We've been walking around the night market. Why haven't we seen you?" Suzan was also a bit unhappy with Alex, and he knew that he was at fault.
"I'm sorry…I had a problem. Where are you guys now? I'll go look for you," he offered.
Rose snatched Suzan's phone away from her.
"Why are you following me? We don't need you. Just go!" Rose said loudly.
"Joe told me to watch over you two. Where are you? Don't let anything happen to you!" he said.
"You're expecting something to happen to us, aren't you? Why would anything happen? Even if something happens to you, nothing is going to happen to us," Rose said sarcastically.
"I'm not insulting you… I'm just saying that if something happens—" Alex tried to reason with her.
"Now let me tell you… even if something really did happen to me, it would be none of your business. Please don't bother me again, okay?" she said.
"If that's what you want," he sighed.
"You tell me… what's wrong?" she asked.
While Rose was on the phone with Alex, the blind man had quietly slipped into the driver's seat.
"Why are you—?" Suzan saw the blind man insert the key into the ignition. "Hey! You're not blind!" she exclaimed.
Suzan tried her door and discovered it was locked. The blind man turned his head to look at her.
"You only realized it now?" he said with an evil smile as he took off his hat and sunglasses.
"Luciel Brennan!" Rose screamed loudly. The person sitting in the driver's seat turned out to be Luciel, who had previously harmed her family.
"What's happening?" Alex's excited voice came over the phone.
"Ha!" Luciel snatched the phone from Rose's hand and cut the call. He turned to look at the girls and gave them a sinister smile.