Roman only felt reassured when he knew I didn't have feelings for Lyra anymore.When I returned to the villa, the housekeeper was unexpectedly the first person to congratulate me on winning the award. "Mr. Smith, you're amazing. You went out and came back with an award!"I smiled and thanked her. "Thank you."She then looked at me with a hint of concern in her eyes. "Mr. Smith, these past few days must have been exhausting for you, right? You've lost weight again."The housekeeper offered to make some soup for me, but I declined. I told her I'd be leaving again soon, so there was no need.The reason I didn't tell her the truth was simple. If Lyra found out, I wouldn't be able to leave.But things didn't go as planned. Just as I finished packing and was ready to leave, Lyra returned.When she saw the suitcase in my hand, her expression shifted from the sheer joy of getting out of the car to a stormy gloom. "Isaac, what are you doing?"I smiled

I couldn't help but expose her lie. "You're lying to me again. How long has it been since I graduated? You've been studying abroad for so many years. What degree have you reached now?""Oh, come on, you're always calling me out," Chloe said with a laugh. "My adoptive parents abroad weren't in good health, so I was delayed until now to come back. They're my family. I couldn't just ignore them, right? But I was really studying! I'm already a postdoc."All these years, I'd just been wasting time. Those years abroad were even more unproductive because of Lyra, and I didn't even think of her."Are you planning to settle down in the country this time?" I asked as Chloe and I moved to a quieter spot to chat. I finally learned a bit about what she'd been up to all these years.It turned out that when she went abroad back then, her adoptive parents were already in poor health and had planned to go overseas for medical treatment.While taking care of her sick parents,

"Lyra, while you're insulting me, have you ever thought about what you've done in the past?" I asked, my voice calm but biting. She thought she could insult me as she pleased. "If meeting my friend's mentor counts as a secret meeting, then what about all the men you brought back to our bedroom? What does that make you? At the very least, there's Luka, right? Tell me, should I be questioning Luka about what's going on between you two?"Lyra froze for a moment, but she quickly lashed out again. "So, you've finally said what's on your mind. Isaac, everything you're doing is just to get back at me. Deep down, you still have feelings for me. You just want my attention, don't you?"Her words were utterly ridiculous. "Lyra, sorry, but I don't have time for your madness."With that, I hung up. Her insanity was becoming more and more unfamiliar to me. But as I turned to walk toward Chloe, I didn't expect to see Lyra already heading my way.She ignored Chloe and grabbed my

I asked the delivery guy, but he said he didn't know either. All he could tell me was that the sender's last name was Foster.I knew it was Lyra.Was it something I said before that upset Lyra, making her send all these packages?The delivery guy glanced at the pile of packages and couldn't help but joke, "Bro, you're lucky to have such a great woman."'Lucky?' These gifts meant nothing to me. I had already told her that material things couldn't make up for the pain in my heart. Snapping back to reality, I told the delivery guy to return all the packages.The delivery guy looked stunned and nervously asked, "Bro, was it because of something I said? I'm sorry, okay?"He explained, "If you return all of these at once, I'll get fined. If there's something I did wrong, just tell me, and we'll figure it out together."I quickly smiled to ease the tension and asked, "Would returning all of these really cause you trouble?"He nodded. "Yeah, one or tw

Since Lyra had shown up, I knew the journalists downstairs would disperse soon.As expected, it didn't take long before I saw from the upstairs window that they were gone. I planned to leave through the underground parking lot.But as soon as the elevator doors opened, I found Lyra waiting there in the parking lot. Smoke faintly swirled around her as the cigarette in her fingers flickered on and off.She was smoking again. Maybe because she saw me coming out, she quickly threw the cigarette to the ground and stomped it out.When she noticed me trying to avoid her, she immediately approached me. "Isaac..."I stopped in my tracks, not because I heard the tremble in her voice or felt sorry for her, but because there were things that needed to be made clear.When I got into her car, I could tell she was still nervous. "Isaac, I swear, I didn't authorize this. By the time I found out, it was too late. Somehow, he managed to evade the medical staff's watch. W