Chapter 5

Mia was brought to me very quickly.

She wore a revealing dance costume and heavy makeup, but none of it could hide the ambition and unease in her eyes.

“Donna.” She bowed to me respectfully.

“Sit.” I pointed to the sofa across from me.

Then I handed her a check.

“Five hundred thousand euros. When it’s done, you’ll get another five hundred thousand.”

Mia stared at the number on the check, her eyes going wide.

“W-What do you want me to do?” she asked, swallowing nervously.

“It’s simple.” I leaned back against the sofa and spoke unhurriedly. “Get close to Ethan. Make him fall for you. Make him lose his mind over you.”

Mia’s expression shifted slightly.

“Donna, Ethan already has Chloe by his side…”

“That isn’t your concern.” I cut her off. “All you need to remember is this: make him believe you are his true love. Make him willing to abandon everything for you, including Chloe.”

I paused, then added, “Copy the woman in the videos I gave you. Her behavior. Her habits. Her way of speaking.”

Mia froze.

She looked at my face, then seemed to think of the old photos and videos of me in the files I had given her. Confusion filled her eyes.

“Why?”

“Don’t ask questions you shouldn’t ask.” My expression cooled. “Just do your job, take the money, and leave.”

Mia immediately shut her mouth.

Tempted by the money, she agreed soon enough.

Over the next few days, under Jasper’s deliberate arrangement, Mia and Ethan “ran into each other.”

The place was a bar Ethan often visited.

That night, Ethan was already irritated because of the project. After another huge fight with Chloe, he sat alone, drinking in silence.

Mia appeared in front of him wearing a simple white dress and no makeup, looking like a pure lily untouched by the world.

She did not flatter him or throw herself at him like other women.

She simply sat quietly not far away and played a piano piece he had once loved the most.

It was… The piece I used to love playing for him.

Ethan’s gaze was caught instantly.

From the surveillance footage Jasper sent me, I could clearly see the intoxication and nostalgia in Ethan’s eyes.

He must have remembered the old me.

The me who had loved him with all my heart. The me who had treated him as my entire world.

How ironic.

He had killed that version of me with his own hands. And now, he was falling for a cheap imitation.

Everything that happened next went exactly as I expected.

Ethan started going to Mia more and more often.

He took her to upscale restaurants and bought her expensive gifts, just as he had once done when he pursued me.

In Mia, he searched for the shadow of the past.

And Mia played her role perfectly.

She was innocent, kind, and not interested in his money. She only said she loved him for who he was.

All of it gave Ethan, who was exhausted by family pressure and Chloe’s hysterics, a comfort he had never felt before.

He fell completely.

He began staying out all night.

Chloe’s questions and tearful outbursts only made him more annoyed.

Their relationship was already hanging by a thread.

And all I needed to do was give it one final, gentle push.