Chapter 5 Too Deeply in Love

In the luxuriously dreamy decorated room, Vivian listened to the maid's report. When she heard that Evie had taken several expensive pieces of jewelry, she acted like it was no big deal on the surface, but inside she was furious and cursed under her breath several times.

After the maid left, Vivian angrily muttered, "Evie, you bitch, you come back and steal my stuff right away!"

Then Vivian thought of something and smirked smugly.

In the hallway, Margaret was holding a new set of clothes to take to Evie's room when she saw Vivian hugging her jewelry box, wiping tears and sobbing.

Margaret hurried over, worried, "What's wrong?"

Seeing Margaret, Vivian stopped crying right away and forced a sweet smile. "Mom, I just sent the maid to Evie's room to pack stuff. The maid said Evie took all my jewelry, saying... saying I owed it to her. I thought maybe Evie just got back and wanted to dress up nice, so I decided to give her all the jewelry I have left."

Seeing Vivian so wronged but still sensible, Margaret felt heartbroken and grew even more disgusted with Evie.

Margaret opened the jewelry box and looked inside, feeling bad. "These are your favorite pieces. How can you give them to Evie?"

"It's okay, Mom. Evie suffered for three years, so it's normal if she hates me. If I give her these, maybe she'll forgive me." Vivian smiled.

Margaret wanted to say more, but then Evie's door opened. Evie stood there casually, watching Vivian.

"Since you're so generous and want to give me all your jewelry, I won't say no. I'll take it."

With that, Evie walked up and took the jewelry box.

Vivian froze, not expecting Evie to actually take it.

After a while, she snapped out of it, tears dropping. "As long as you're happy. It's just some jewelry. Even if you want my bags, that's fine too."

"Really?!" Evie said excitedly. "That's great! Go get your bags for me then."

Vivian gritted her teeth in anger. She thought Evie would yell at her, but Evie just climbed all over her offer.

Margaret looked upset. "Evie, what kind of behavior is this? Vivian cares about you and is willing to put herself out just to make you happy. But you don't care about sisterly feelings at all—you just take!"

Evie shrugged. "She said she wanted to give them to me. I didn't force her. If I don't take it, I'd look ungrateful."

As she spoke, Evie called over some maids and had them fetch several limited-edition luxury bags from Vivian's room. Each one was worth hundreds of thousands.

"Wait!" Vivian blurted out, her heart bleeding.

Evie looked at her and smiled. "What's up? Can't bear to part with them now? Were you just pretending to be generous earlier? Did you plan to act nice and then let Mom scold me?"

Margaret heard this and looked at Vivian too.

Now Vivian was stuck. She forced a smile and shook her head. "No way. I just wanted to tell you how to take care of these bags."

"No need, thanks."

With that, Evie grabbed the bags and went back to her room, slamming the door.

Back in her room, Evie burst out laughing. Seeing Vivian get shut down felt so good.

Evie quickly sorted through the jewelry and bags, took a shower, changed into clean clothes, and headed out with the stuff.

At the door, she bumped into Jasper.

They locked eyes. Evie ignored him and tried to leave, but Jasper stepped forward, looking like he wanted to say something but held back.

"Something up?" Evie frowned.

"I heard from Vivian that you're getting back at her by taking her jewelry and bags. If you need those, just tell me. I'll buy them for you. Don't bully her." Jasper sighed.

"You'll buy me whatever I need?"

Jasper nodded and pulled a blank check with a stamp from his pocket. "You must be short on cash since you just got back. Here's a check—fill in whatever amount you want."

Evie raised an eyebrow. She set down her bags, took the check, and stared at it blankly for a bit.

Jasper thought he had moved her. "This is my way of making up for it. Three years ago, I accidentally pushed you out. Take the money and let go of your feelings for me. I can tell you still like me, but you have AIDS now. We can't be together."

Evie didn't respond. She took a pen from her pocket and started writing on the check.

Jasper leaned over curiously. When he saw the number, his face turned green.

"Nine million nine hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine..."

"Wait!" Jasper stopped her immediately.

Evie looked up coldly. "Wasn't I supposed to fill in any amount? Now you're backing out? If you can't handle it, don't make big promises. It's embarrassing for you."

She tore up the check and threw it on the ground.

"And one more thing—I have no feelings for you anymore. The moment you pushed me out, you were dead to me."

Evie didn't say more and left the villa.

Jasper watched her go, his feelings all mixed up: Evie, you say you have no feelings for me? If that's true, why didn't you take my check? Why bother Vivian just to get my attention like this? You must be really into me.

Evie had no idea what Jasper was thinking. She took a cab to a second-hand luxury store and sold all the jewelry and bags.

Since they were high-value items, she had to visit several stores to sell everything. In the end, she got about ten million.

Luckily, even though she'd been gone three years, the Vance family hadn't declared her dead, so her cards still worked.

With the cash, Evie bought a new phone and SIM card, logged into her account, and restored all her data.

She opened her online banking—over fifty million sat there.

Evie checked the records. It was from three years ago, before she went to Thailand: three paintings she'd put up for online auction had sold.

Seeing all those zeros calmed her down a lot. With money, she had the confidence for revenge.

Evie opened her social app and logged in. Messages poured in instantly.

Invites from top galleries in the country, plus messages from painter friends.

Some had 99+ messages, all asking why she stopped replying—had something happened?

The latest one was from that morning.

If her identity wasn't anonymous, they would've called the cops to find her.

It warmed Evie's heart. So there were people in the world who still cared about her.

Evie opened the chat with Iris, boss of the top gallery Aetheris Gallery, and sent her the last painting she'd made three years ago.

[Same old rules: auction the painting, three-day limit, highest bidder wins.]