h4Chapter 178: Chapter 178/h4

    Immediately Cora snapped out of her daze, blinking quickly, and shook her head. "No," she replied a little too quickly. "Nothing is wrong. Why would I be suspecting anything?" She gave a faint, dismissiveugh, trying to push the moment aside.

    But as she spoke, her own words betrayed her. The more she denied, the more it felt as if Oliver’s question carried a truth she hadn’t realized until now. In her mind, she thought, Why am I acting like this? Why does it feel as if I’m jealous... as if Oliver belongs to me?

    The thought stung her, almost embarrassing in its rity. It was as if she had answered her own question, Oliver was right. Her actions were giving her away. She was behaving like they were dating, like she had the right to suspect him. She bit her lip silently, chastising herself.

    ’What is wrong with me, by the way?’

    ***

    At that moment, James was pacing inside his room, up and down like a restless lion trapped in a cage. His mind was in turmoil. He didn’t know what to do anymore. William was on his neck. So many other people were on his neck. The pressure was unbearable. The meeting he attended the other day had been aplete disaster, one by one, contracts were terminated, and now those same people were threatening to hunt him down and get their justice. The walls felt like they were closing in on him.

    "Why?" he muttered to himself. "Why is everything turning upside down when I was supposed to be moving forward? Why now?" His voice cracked, and frustration etched lines across his face.

    Without wasting another second, he pulled out his phone with trembling hands. His breath was uneven as he scrolled to Emily’s number. She had to pick up. She just had to.

    The phone rang once. Silence.

    It rang a second time. Still no answer.

    James’s patience snapped. "What’s wrong with this bitch?" he shouted into the empty room, gripping the phone tightly as though his anger alone could force her to pick up. "It’s because of this bitch I did what I did to Cora! Because of her! I thought everything was going to be smooth everything was going well for me. My life felt like Milk and horny, everything grand, everything perfect. But now? Even Rock is better than me! Rock! Damn it!"

    His voice shook with rage as he dialed again. The third attempt. The phone rang, his heart thumping hard in his chest. It rang again, and then again.

    "Pick up, you crazy bitch!" he screamed. "You gold digger!"

    Then finally the call connected.

    The moment he heard the faint sound of the line opening, James’s entire tone changed. His voice dropped from rage to a soft, almost trembling whisper, like a man trying to hold on to dignity that was already gone.

    "Hello, Emily," he said, his voice low, almost begging.

    But before he could even finish his words, Emily cut him off coldly, her voice sharp andced with disdain.

    "James, are you actually calling me to tell me that you have resolved all of your mess? I hope that’s the reason why you are calling."

    Upon hearing what Emily just said, Jim’s eyes slowly closed. The weight of her words sank into his chest like a stone being dropped into deep water. He felt a sadness that went beyond simple disappointment, it was the kind of sadness that drained the strength out of a man. His lips trembled slightly as he fought to breathe steadily. How could she? How could Emily not even pause for a moment to ask about him, to wonder if he was okay, if he had been holding on through the storm that swallowed his life? He couldn’t believe it.

    The woman he once thought understood him better than anyone else stood there, caring not for the man but only for the possessions he had lost. She wasn’t seeing him. She wasn’t even trying. All she was concerned about was the wealth that had slipped through his fingers and the emptiness of his hands now.

    His voice, when it finally came out, was low and broken, heavy with sadness. "Emily... I’m very, very disappointed in you," he whispered. "You didn’t even ask how I’ve been. You didn’t even think about me, about how I’ve been faring. All you care about is what I have and what I’ve lost. You never once asked if I was alright, if I could still stand after everything that happened. You never—"

    But before he could even finish, Emily’s sharp voice cut him off like a knife slicing through fragile fabric.

    "Why should I care about that?" she snapped, her face hard and cold. "What does it matter if you’re sad or not? You called me just to b, James. Do I look like some kind of therapy to you? Am I supposed to heal you? Or what, am I an investment bank that’s going to give you back everything you lost? If you haven’t even gotten yourself out of the mess you dragged yourself into, then why are you calling me at all?"

    Her words stabbed deeper than he imagined possible, but she didn’t stop there. Then her eyes narrowed, her tone thick with contempt.

    "It seems to me, James, that you’re not even serious with your life. And let me say this clearly, for the first andst time, it’s not going to work anymore. Whatever you thought this was, it ends here. I thought you were different. I thought you were serious about your life. But now I see you’re not. You’re useless. You’re like those ordinary men i see every day in this society, wandering without direction, without purpose. Only you’re worse. Far worse than what I ever thought before."

    At that moment, James’ phone almost slipped from his trembling hands. He stood there like a statue, frozen in ce, every harsh word from Emily crashing against him like a wave he couldn’t fight back. His ears burned, his chest tightened, and his heart felt as if it had been split open. When it all began, he had told himself this was a mistake, that Emily was only upset, that maybe she was speaking sharply just to push him to do more, to be better. He thought it was some twisted form of encouragement, but the longer she spoke, the clearer it became. There was no misunderstanding. There was no hidden motivation. This was Emily revealing herself, revealing her true colors, and what James saw was nothing but cruelty and disappointment.

    With his voice shaking between anger and pain, James finally spoke. "Emily... after everything I’ve done for you? After everything?" His voice cracked as he listed it out, his pride breaking with each word. "I took you shopping, I gave you vacations, I made sure you had the best of the best. I gave you more than I even gave myself. And still still, I betrayed my wife, my love, just to be with you. And this... this is how you repay me?" His words were not just questions but cries of betrayal, echoing from a ce deep within him that still couldn’t believe this was happening.

    Emily’s tone, however, was cold colder than James had ever heard before. She sighed sharply, as though his pain was an annoyance. "James, I don’t have the strength to be exchanging words with you anymore. Honestly, it seems you still don’t understand what’s going on here." Her voice was firm, detached, merciless. "Let me make it simple. This us it’s not going to work. I have better things to do than waste time exining. I’m busy preparing for my birthday party, and I won’t waste another second on this nonsense."