Independence Is a Good Look On Her

We've dated for six years, but my boyfriend had treated me as nothing.

Just when I was about to propose to him on the birthday party, I saw he pulling a young woman onto his lap and kissing her tenderly.

"She's a good woman, and let’s break up."

“Okay.” I nod numbly.

But on the day I decided to let him go, he cried and begged me to love him again.

Everyone knew that I was crazy in love with Hansel.

My entire life revolved around him and I would've preferred it if I could be with him 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Every time we said we broke up, I'd come crawling back to him, asking to get back together within three days or less.

So when Hansel brought his new girlfriend, Ingrid to our friend Calvin's party, everyone fell eerily silent for five whole seconds.

I stopped peeling the clementine in my hands. "Why's everyone so quiet? And why are you all looking at me?"

"Mimi…" Hansel didn't seem to care about anything as he guided Ingrid all the way to an empty spot on the couch with a hand around her waist.

"Happy birthday, Cal." He behaved blatantly, as though he wasn't doing anything wrong.

Today was Calvin's birthday, and I didn't want to ruin his party.

I stood up and headed to the door. “Excuse me, I need to go to toilet.”

As I was about to shut the door, I heard the people in the room start to talk. "Hans! Didn't we tell you that Miranda was still here? Why did you still bring her here?"

"It doesn't matter," Hansel said, finally removing his arm from Ingrid's waist. He then lit up a cigarette and started smoking.

There was a grin in his eyes as he puffed the cigarette smoke into the air, seeming like a playboy who loved fooling around with people just for the fun of it.

I ignored them, rushed to the restroom and couldn't help smiling pitifully at myself in the mirror.

"Hideous." I took a deep breath as I made my decision to ask him whether he would marry me or not.

However, when I saw what was going on inside the room, I tightened my grip on the door handle and stopped.

Hansel's lips were firmly pressed against Ingrid's lips, their saliva thoroughly wetting the thin piece of tissue that was preventing them from properly kissing.

Everyone around them was laughing hard.

"Oh, my god! Hans, you sure know how to rile things up!"

"They're actually kissing!"

"I mean, since everyone's so excited, you guys might as well just kiss!"

I felt my hand shaking. This was the man I'd loved for six years. Now, I felt like nothing but a laughingstock.

"Guys, tone it down," someone suddenly whispered, gesturing at the door. Everyone immediately looked toward the entrance.

"M-Mimi? You're back. Err, we're all just fooling around, you see. Don't mind—"

"Miranda." Hansel interrupted the person trying to explain the situation and just looked at me with a calm expression on his face.

"Since you're here, let me straighten things out with you."

"Okay. I'm listening."

"It's tiring breaking up and making up with you for so many years. The feelings between us have long died."

I tightened my fist, almost digging my nails into palm. However, I couldn't feel any pain. "Ingy is a wonderful person, and I want to make things official with her."

I nodded emotionless. "Okay."

"Even though we've broken up, we can still stay friends. You can still come to me if you run into any problems."

I forced a smile on her face. It was a wan smile, but a smile nonetheless. "Since we've broken up, it's better for us not to have any more contact with each other. That would only be fair to your new girlfriend."

Hansel raised an eyebrow, looking a little shocked.

"Cal,"I said, turning to look at the main character of the birthday party. "Happy birthday to you again. Everyone, help yourselves to the plate of clementines I peeled on that table. Don't let it go to waste."

Hansel hated every type of fruit except clementines. However, he was picky about it and would pick off every single vein on the fruit before eating it.

For the past years, I had meticulously peeled and cleaned clementines just the way he liked them before presenting them to him.

Now, I realized maybe he only see me nothing more than a maid.

When Hansel was in a good mood, he'd hug me and say, "My girlfriend is the best in the world. How could you be so good to me? Should I just marry you?"

He'd known what I'd wanted all along, but he'd never given it to me.

Hansel said, "I'll get Dan to drive you home."

"Don't worry about it. I've already called for a cab."

"Miranda, I'll see you to the door." Cal said. I declined gratefully, shaking her hands at him before turning to leave.

"Hans, look what you… I think Miranda's really mad this time." Hansel looked at the door that wasn't shut properly and smiled coldly. "I say she'll be back looking for me in three hours."

"Okay, Hans wins. The whole world knows how crazy Miranda is for him."

"Why aren't there any women crazy over me like her?"

"You? Get off,buddy!"

"Hahaha!"

It was past midnight by the time I got back to the mansion.

It took me half an hour to pack up all my belongs.

I'd lived here for three years. But when I was about to leave, my belongings only fit in a tiny suitcase.

I didn't take any of the designer clothing or luxurious jewelry which I'd never worn before.

The only thing I wanted to take but couldn't was the wall of technical reference books. Luckily, I'd memorized all of their contents.

My gaze swept over the dressing table. Then I pulled open a drawer.

There was a check at the bottom of the drawer for 50 million dollars.

There was also a pile of documents under the check. The title on the first page read, "Land Title Transfer: Plot 3-5, No. 72, Easternia."

Although the plot of land was in the suburbs, it was still worth about 20 million dollars. Hansel had already signed both the check and the land transfer deed. He'd signed them the last time we'd broken up, and the documents had been in the drawer ever since then.

He's sure I won't take the money because as soon as I do, our relationship is truly over.

Suddenly, I realized I'd managed to strike a bargain. Exchanging six years of my life for 70 million dollars didn't seem like a bad deal after all.

I tucked the two documents away in my bag.

Even if I was out of love, at the very least, I wasn't out of money.

I placed an order to a cleaning company, then set off for my best friend's flat. On the way, the cleaning company called. "Miss, are you sure that you don't want these things anymore?" "I don't. You can do whatever you want with them," I replied before hanging up.