One Look, for the Rest of My Life

He stared at me for a long time, his expression too complex for me to decipher.

After a long moment, he pulled his car keys from his pocket and tossed them to me, his tone hard and cold. "Go get the car. Take Moira home."

Moira Vance linked her arm intimately through his and shot me a provocative glance before holding a delicate handbag out to me.

"Hold this for me. My hands are busy holding onto Jules."

I nodded, took the handbag, and walked to the elevator without a word.

In the rearview mirror, I could see the two of them whispering intimately in the back seat.

Moira Vance's laughter was like silver bells. She would occasionally lean on Julian Rhodes's shoulder, and he never pushed her away.

He just stared at me unblinkingly through the mirror, his gaze once again unreadable.

I kept my eyes on the road and focused on driving.

The car pulled to a smooth stop in front of the Vance family's villa.

After Moira Vance got out, Julian Rhodes didn't move.

He just said, "Go to the trunk and get the blue gift box."

I did as he said.

It was the birthday present I had given him yesterday—a bottle of perfume I had blended myself.

"Give it to Miss Vance," he said flatly.

My heart felt as if it had been viciously stabbed by a needle, but my face remained expressionless.

I turned and handed the gift box to Moira Vance. "Miss Vance, this is a gift from Young Master Rhodes."

Moira Vance opened it with a look of pleasant surprise, covering her mouth as she exclaimed, "Wow! Jules, thank you!"

She stood on her tiptoes and planted a kiss on Julian Rhodes's cheek.

Julian Rhodes's body stiffened for a moment, but his gaze was locked on me, as if trying to pierce right through me.

But I just stood there quietly, like an emotionless puppet.

'I just feel like my time is running out. I don't want to waste it on such meaningless emotions.'

But Julian Rhodes seemed to have completely lost patience with my unresponsive attitude.

He took me to a party with his friends, then left me alone in a corner to watch him and Moira Vance dance intimately in the center of the dance floor.

Everyone looked at me as if I were a joke.

"See her? That's the gold digger Young Master Rhodes keeps around. I heard she begged him on her knees not to kick her out."

"Tsk, tsk. She's just average-looking. How can she compare to Miss Vance?"

"She's not in it for love, she's in it for the money."

"Look at her, stiff as a board. She's probably calculating how to squeeze more money out of him."

I sat on a sofa in the corner, sipping the lemonade in my cup as my stomach churned.

The side effects of the chemotherapy were getting worse. My body was deteriorating at a visible rate.

Dizziness, nausea, weakness in my limbs.

I forced myself to hold on, not wanting to collapse here and give them more reason to laugh.

Julian Rhodes came off the dance floor with his arm around Moira Vance and walked straight over to me.

He handed me a glass of red wine, a cruel smile playing on his lips.

"Go on. Apologize to Miss Vance."

Moira Vance feigned surprise. "Jules, how can I accept this? It's not like Miss Xia did anything wrong."

"Her biggest mistake was showing up in front of me." Julian Rhodes seemed very displeased.

"If she makes me unhappy, she's the one who has to apologize."