When I Got My Senses Back

Chapter X: A Snake, A Stoned Heart & I, A Multi-billionaire (3)

"You're the clingy ex-boyfriend my girlfriend was talking about? The laughing stock of the Belmont family who is now a pet for the Alexanders to play with?"

The man sneered, pulling a bank card from his coat pocket and flicking it over arrogantly. "There’s two grand on this. Take it and get lost."

Ex-boyfriend?

Reginald froze slightly and turned to Eloise, confused. Since when… was he her ex?

Eloise Payton straightened her back, her expression cold, deliberately stepping away from him. "I finally got that multi-million-dollar project you once promised but never had the ability to deliver. I started my own firm but it's a studio now. I’m a company boss now, worth millions."

She gave a chilling smile. "I heard you just recently started thinking clearly again? Doesn’t matter. Until you’re fully sane, you’re still a lunatic to everyone anyway. We’re not on the same level anymore. You really think someone like you deserves me? I’m the daughter of the former mayor, remember?"

Reginald looked at her, stunned. This woman standing before him, was this really the person he once trusted above all?

The light in his eyes dimmed, turned hollow. Then, suddenly, he laughed. He laughed a cold, bitter laugh that seemed to echo from somewhere deep and dark inside him.

Eleven years. Eleven years of being a “fool.” And now that he’s finally awake, this is what greets him: people like this, faces like these. Like a prisoner finally released, only to live under the shadow of a criminal record forever.

He had come today to tell her everything. He planned to propose, reveal his true identity, and offer her the world. Once she became his wife, they'd burn the Belmont empire to the ground, and deal with the woman whose heart is made of stone—his wife, Christine Alexander.

He had even sent his men to bring over twenty-plus crates of diamonds, sapphires, rubies, all jewels meant for her, Eloise Payton.

And yet here she was. Sitting beside another man, handing him a bank card worth two thousand dollars only, like he was a beggar.

How ironic.

Reginald’s gaze turned ice cold. He raised his hand and flung the card back at her face. "You’re right. We’re not on the same level. But it’s not because I’m not good enough. It’s because you don’t deserve me, Eloise Payton."

He stepped in close, too close that their breaths were almost touching. His voice dropped, low and dangerous, "You really think anything in this world comes for free? Everything you have right now, I could’ve given it to you. I can also take it all away. In one night."

This woman. He once thought she was the purest light in a filthy world. But now? She called him a lunatic. She betrayed him, too.

Eloise shoved him back, brushing her dress like he had dirtied it. She looked irritated.

"Reginald, you don’t actually think I got that multi-million-dollar deal because of you, do you?" She scoffed. "Don’t flatter yourself. That deal came from the Alexanders. They gave it to my studio to protect their own reputation because I threatened to reveal a dirty secret of theirs. It had nothing to do with you."

"Either way, you’re no longer someone worthy of a millionaire like me."

With that she stood up, turned and walked away, decisively and emotionlessly, as if she'd never loved him at all.

The man beside her sneered, still watching Reginald. "Eloise, why even talk to him? He’s arrogant and pathetic. Want me to take care of him?"

"He’s not even fully sane. Not worth dirtying your hands," she replied lightly, not even looking back.

As their silhouettes faded into the crowd, Reginald narrowed his eyes.

Then he remembered that he’d seen a project notification on Christine’s phone last night of how a certain big deal had been awarded to a tiny studio. So that was it?!

And just now, she’d hinted that she knew something about his wife’s company secrets.

He took out an old small phone. It was not his phone though, it was a rental. He wasn’t ready to buy himself an actual one to use yet.

He dialed a number.

"I want everything on the dirt of Eloise Payton. Every detail of everything shitty."

Not long after, the call came back.

"Lord Reginald, Eloise Payton’s been dancing at underground clubs for eight years in exotic shows, private rooms, the whole thing. She hangs around older men, some twice her age. She’s also been involved in several illegal trades."

"She’s a playgirl. Ever since she was sent abroad to study, she never behaved. The school nearly shut down over her scandals. She got expelled in her second year and her degree is a fake. Aside from her current boyfriend, she had seven others at the same time!"

"Back when she was with you, she was only using you as a bank account to fund her other lovers. Now that she got the project and made money, she dumped all of them. Her current boyfriend… he’s the heir to a multi-million-dollar AD Shoes company. She’s aiming to marry into real money now."

Reginald hung up slowly. His gaze darkened. "Trying to marry rich, Eloise Payton? Not unless I give the word."

He turned the phone in his hand, the corners of his lips curling into something cruel. He had already thought of hundreds of ways to bankrupt her and her boyfriend, if he wanted.

But he wouldn’t act directly, well, not yet. If he did, Christine would get suspicious.

He was the hidden emperor of RMG—the MR. MOGUL. And that identity could never be exposed. Not to his wife. Not even to his family.

The best way here was to let Christine, his stoned heart wife, handle that snake herself! Let Eloise feel what it’s like to be crushed, humiliated, and abandoned too.

Reginald’s smile widened. "Eloise Payton… your downfall begins now."

Just then, chaos erupted outside.

"AHHHHH—!"

"No way!!!"

"That’s a Maybach!"

"Look! A custom GNX!"

"A gold-stretch Lincoln… it’s blinding!"

"Gray Audi! That’s my dream car!"

Reginald walked over to the window. Outside there were eighteen luxury cars lined up in the street of the café store, theri engines still humming, but their doors were shut tight as if none of the persons inside the cars were willing to come down.

A crowd was gathering and soon all phones were out. Cameras started recording and people began shouting. Live streams were going up over something that had never happened in this street before. 18 cars?!!!

“Wait a minute…” Reginald frowned and counted the cars again, one by one. “This is wrong. Weren’t there supposed to be twenty-two cars?”