chapter 11

Juniper kept texting Olivia from different numbers, taunting her,

"Olivia, I can get Leander to come see me with just one call. Can you? Hehe.

"Don't you feel defeated? You're the official wife, but you'll never be as important to him as I am, his first love. You're such a failure."

That night at 1 a.m., Juniper snapped a photo of her and Leander intimately curling up together in bed and sent it to Olivia.

"Olivia, Leander said it's only with me that things feel familiar. Still not filing for divorce? He told me he really wants to marry me."

Olivia started the fire after one o'clock.

Leander snapped. He went crazy, hunted Juniper down, and threw her out onto the street.

It turned out that Juniper had blown through the entire five million dollars abroad six months ago. When she couldn't land another rich heir overseas, she had to come back. The moment she returned, she contacted Leander, but he was already with Olivia, and their relationship was solid.

So Juniper went back to her old tricks. She played the victim for Leander, painting herself as the perfect, wronged woman, and tricked him into secretly helping her.

The apartment Juniper lived in, every single dollar she spent—it all came from Leander. She knew he probably still had feelings for her, and more importantly, he felt guilty. She was determined to milk that guilt and those feelings for everything they were worth.

If Leander got divorced, wouldn't the position of Mrs. Vance be hers for the taking?

When Leander threw Juniper out, she cried and screamed, begging at his feet. "Leander, please. I just couldn't get over you. I just love you. Is that wrong?"

Yeah, was it wrong to love someone?

He used to think that way too—that loving someone couldn't be wrong. So he'd let Juniper cross lines. He'd let her push boundaries. Now he finally understood—a selfish love with no boundaries was wrong.

Juniper's tears fell fast and hard, making her pale little face look utterly pitiful.

Now that he was free from her spell, Leander was shocked to find her tears no longer stirred guilt or pain in him. Even her excuses, her refusal to take responsibility, filled him with utter disgust.

Leander took back everything he had given her and wanted nothing more to do with her.

Juniper clung to him for a while, but when it became clear his decision was final, she gave up and moved on to snagging other men to support herself. She had the looks, and her very public history with Leander attracted a certain type of middle-aged, wealthy man looking for a notorious thrill.

It didn't take long for her to become a certain CEO's mistress. He kept her by his side for some time, and she started dressing the part, dripping with jewels.

But after a while, the man's wife found out and had Juniper thrown out. The wife was brutal, beating Juniper while screaming that she was a murderer—how dare she drive someone to suicide and then come crawling after her husband.

During the beating, Juniper lost the baby she had been carrying—a baby she'd fought hard to conceive. It was said to have been a fully formed boy, the son the tycoon had desperately wanted.

After she recovered, Juniper went right back to hunting for the next rich man to latch onto. She had gotten used to the high life. She couldn't stomach going back to being poor.