He Chose His Love, I Chose My Career

When Mimi ran off again, Madeline said slowly and surely, "Mimi was my birthday gift. It's just that I was immunocompromised at that time, and I'd get itchy rashes all over my skin as soon as Mimi came near me.

"My boyfriend felt sorry for me, so we decided to give Mimi away, although it broke our hearts. He told me that he'd given it to his old college friend. Turns out, it's you!

"Maybe I should reintroduce myself to you, Ms. Houston."

Madeline then straightened her clothes and flashed Lacey a smile as she formally said, "Hello, my name is Madeline Carlton, and I'm Timothy Bloomberg's girlfriend."

Lacey looked elsewhere and said faintly, "Ha, I never thought you'd be smarter than I imagined."

Madeline chuckled self-deprecatingly and said, "Well, if my boyfriend's ex-girlfriend did everything she could to make public appearances with him, made up random excuses every time to call him away, or even pretended to bump into the actual girlfriend and called it a coincidence… Any woman with a sixth sense would be able to figure it out at once. You must have really thought I was daft."

Madeline said everything in an unhurried way, the corners of her lips lifting upward in a half-smile.

Sure, she'd already decided to leave Timothy before this, but it didn't mean she'd allow herself to be belittled or picked on by Lacey.

"Ms. Houston, I don't know what motive you have in trying to get close to me. Is this premeditated 'coincidence' a special way you use to make friends?"

Lacey couldn't hold back anymore. "What do you mean by that?"

Madeline shrugged. "Nothing. I don't care about your past with Timothy, but I hope you stop disgusting me with whatever is going on between you and him right now. If you keep loitering around and appearing in my life like a homeless stray again, I swear that I will not be treating you as civilly as I am right now."

Her tone was hostile and aggravating, but her eyes were still smiling at Lacey. The stark contrast was enough to send a chill down anyone else's spine.

She turned to leave, but Lacey called out to her, her expression calm. "I pity you."

"What did you say?" Madeline said, stopping and turning back.

Lacey got to her feet so she was on eye-level with Madeline. Then, she repeated in her infuriatingly soft and gentle voice. "I said that I pity you.

"You keep saying that you're Timothy's girlfriend, but that's all that you're ever going to be. What else do you have other than that empty label? Do you dare to bet that he's truly in love with you? Have you ever truly owned his heart?"

Madeline wanted to slap Lacey out of instinct, but she suppressed it with all her might.

She stilled for a few seconds, her raised hand clenching and unclenching in silence.

"I think you're the pitiful one instead," Madeline said. "You sacrificed your dignity and the most basic human decency to try and rob other people of their boyfriends. How shameless is that?

"As for whether or not he truly loves me, or if I've ever owned his heart—I honestly don't know. But I do know that at least, you still don't have it yet."

Madeline turned around to face Lacey and punctuated each of her next words. "As long as I am still dating Timothy, you will forever be his shameful side piece."

Lacey's face paled. All sorts of colorful words and curses immediately appeared in her head as she felt immense hate and discomfort toward Madeline. However, Lacey ultimately listened to her rationale and suppressed them all.

Madeline's eyes shone victoriously when she saw that Lacey was beginning to lose her composure. She then waved at Lacey and said, "See you, Ms. Houston."

The way back home was supposed to be short, but it felt long for Madeline. She kept walking away as her smug facial expression gradually faded away.

The smile on her face disappeared. She drew her lips in a thin line and bit on them as a sad expression gradually took over. She wanted to pretend that she was happy, but it just turned out weird.

Had she truly won in that exchange just now?

If she hadn't won, then why did she feel so good about it?

But if she had won, then why did her heart still hurt so much?