Chapter 4

The next day, I had barely opened my eyes when I saw Dashiell standing by the bed.

His gaze bore into me, my phone and purse in his hands.

"Serenity, your phone shows a message confirming a contract signing. What contract did you sign?"

"And why did you delete my fingerprint?"

Hearing this, my heart sank as I suddenly snapped out of my daze.

What contract...

Of course, it was my body disposal agreement.

I calmly took the phone from his hand and replied unhurriedly, "I booked a tour group. I'm planning to go on a trip soon."

"The fingerprint and password changes must be due to a system update."

At this, Dashiell visibly relaxed. He sat on the edge of the bed and leaned over to kiss me, a sickly sweet perfume scent assaulting my nose.

I instinctively turned my head, causing the kiss to land on my cheek.

"Didn't you always want to go to Lake Tahoe? When I get back from this business trip, I'll take you there, okay? It won't be long, just a week. I will take you as soon as he's back."

I remained silent. He probably forgot how many times he'd made this promise, always breaking it for various reasons.

And now, I no longer needed it anyway. Dashiell noticed my silence and was about to say something when his phone rang.

He leaned down and kissed my forehead. "Wait for me to come back."

As he said this, he walked towards the door while answering the call.

The moment the door closed, a text from an unknown number popped up on my phone.

I opened it and saw that it contained nothing but a screenshot of an ID account.

I opened the app and found Lavender's ins account. Her profile bio read "Daily love life with Dashiell."

The timeline went back as far as a year ago, and the account had somehow amassed over a million followers.

She hadn't tried to hide anything about this relationship.

Hundreds of posts documented her moments with Dashiell.

"Personally recruited by Dashiell to join the company. Now I can see my hubby just by looking up."

"There were so many people on campus recruitment day. Seeing my roommate sweating and pushing through the crowd, I suddenly felt grateful for having a capable husband who didn't let me suffer at all."

I scrolled down through many posts. He took her to see the ocean, chase the Northern Lights, and helped her check off "100 things for lovers to do."

He even overcame his fear of heights to go bungee jumping with her...

So, it wasn't that he didn't have time.

He just chose to give his time and energy to someone else.I won't look anymore, and I exited her homepage.

The page had stayed open too long, and as I closed it, the main page automatically refreshed, pushing out a new update.

Posted half an hour ago.

The main image was a half-body shot wearing a black lace camisole, faintly revealing a hand resting across the waist, veins protruding, long and powerful.

"Who said men over twenty-five are past their prime? This morning I could barely walk, but he's acting like nothing happened."

In the comments, there was a pinned reply with the most likes:

"Call me an old man one more time and see what happens."

The main character had appeared, sending the fans in the comments section into a frenzy.

Lavender replied pointedly below:

"Men are forever young at heart, but women turn into weeds at thirty. Luckily, I'm still young with plenty of youth left to go crazy with the one I love."

A fan suggestively replied: "How crazy? Do tell."

Lavender responded with a coy emoji.

"To make me happy, someone promised to take me on a honeymoon in Lake Erie. Come and catch us, babies!"

Attached were two plane tickets with the crucial information blurred out, next to which a man's hand was faintly visible.

On the man's ring finger was a simple band engraved with "S".

The initials of my name.