Chapter 3

After getting home, my best friend bombarded me with calls.

"What's going on with you and that college student?"

I told her everything: "The day Ethan threw the banquet for him, I slept with him."

She screamed in disbelief: "WHAT?!"

I hadn't wanted to tell her about Ethan's affair.

But I couldn't keep it in.

After telling her, I felt much better.

She cursed up a storm: "Those two pieces of trash! How dare he?!"

She couldn't imagine Ethan being that kind of person—neither could I.

After all, he was so good.

Whether in the eyes of family, lovers, friends, or outsiders, he was a really good man.

But underneath, this outstanding person had long since rotted through.

If I were twenty, I would have screamed and confronted him, made a scene with him.

But I was already twenty-seven.

I just thought, college students have great stamina and great bodies.

My best friend asked when I was going to divorce him.

"No plans for now. Whether I divorce or not is basically the same to me."

She stopped talking and just kept sending me photos of hot guys.

Young, handsome, great bodies—wasn't any one of them more tempting than Ethan?

But looking at these guys' photos, all I could think about was Barry's face.

He couldn't speak, but he sure could go all out.

Crying and going all out at the same time.

It was really addictive.

The third time I ran into Barry was at the hospital.

Because I couldn't be sure when Ethan started cheating, and I didn't know if he'd picked up anything outside.

Just in case, I planned to go to the hospital for a checkup, plus a full physical.

That's when I saw Barry in the hallway, holding a payment notice and silently sobbing.

When he cried, his shoulders shook, his hands covered his face—he looked so pitifully helpless.

I shouldn't have gotten involved.

After all, he'd clearly rejected me that day.

But I just felt sympathy stirring in my heart.

I had someone look into it and learned that Barry's mother was also at this hospital.

She was in the ICU every day, money flowing out like water. The $100,000 Ethan gave him was quickly used up.

The rate at which he could earn from part-time work couldn't possibly keep up with the rate of spending.

Ethan would only give him tuition and living expenses, not money for his mother's treatment.

Now her condition had worsened and she needed surgery. The doctors told him to prepare at least one million dollars.

How could he possibly come up with a million?

So I quietly paid this bill for him.

Consider it building good karma for myself.

I did a good deed without leaving my name, but somehow Barry figured out that I had paid the money, and within a few days he found me.

While I was drinking with my best friend at a bar, he suddenly appeared in front of me.

She elbowed me, raising her eyebrows suggestively. "Here's your chance, go go go!"

I took him to a private room at the bar.

He skillfully typed on his phone and played: "Thank you for your help. I will pay you back."

I sat on the bed, looking at him with a half-smile.

"How are you going to pay me back?"

He was a bit flustered, and continued typing: "I'll repay you, with interest."

Actually, he didn't know how to repay me.

In his eyes, money was very important, so this was the only way he could think of to repay me.

But I didn't need money.

I rubbed his calf with the tip of my high heel.

He startled and backed away a few steps.

"You know what I want."

From the very beginning, what I craved was his body.

Barry's expression was conflicted, an internal battle waging. After thinking for a long time, he gritted his teeth and took off his clothes.

I was just surprised that he actually agreed, when suddenly he knelt in front of me, his trembling hands reaching to pull down my dress zipper, and looking up he kissed me clumsily.

His face was red enough to bleed, he was almost crying, but he was still very earnestly, very obediently "repaying" me.