Chapter 3

Over the next few days, Sebastian forwarded me screenshots of his social media chats every single day.

Just as I expected, Mia had gone behind my back and added him as a friend.

She didn't reveal her true colors right away. Instead, she put on a flawless facade of deep concern for me.

Her very first message was an incredibly sincere-sounding voice note: "Hi, Sebastian. I'm Chloe's best friend, Mia. Chloe has been hurt a lot in her past relationships, and I really can't bear to watch her suffer again. As her closest friend, I just want to get to know you a bit beforehand and see if you're truly someone she can rely on. I hope you don't mind me trying to screen you for her."

I scrolled through the chat logs Sebastian sent.

Once her request was accepted, Mia became relentlessly attentive, actively initiating conversations with Sebastian every single day.

During what seemed like casual small talk, she began to drop "unintentional" hints about my private life.

"Chloe often comes home super late, and she swaps out her dates so quickly... Oh, gosh, I'm so sorry, I shouldn't be saying these things about her."

While putting on this hypocritical act of apologizing, she proceeded to send massive blocks of text trashing me.

In her twisted narrative, I was painted as a promiscuous, brainless woman with an extremely messy private life.

To make her lies more credible, she even added that all my ex-boyfriends had ultimately dumped me because they simply couldn't tolerate my chaotic lifestyle.

Pushing the character assassination even further, she completely inverted the truth about my family background.

She told Sebastian that I was actually just the daughter of her family's maid.

"I often feel so sorry for Chloe, which is why I let her wear my designer clothes and jewelry," she sighed heavily in one voice message.

"But she always loves to tell outsiders that she is the heiress of a corporate director. I know this kind of vanity is terrible, but she is my best friend after all. I've never exposed her lies because I just wanted to protect her dignity."

Last night, her tactics escalated to the next level.

She suddenly sent him a photo.

In it, she was standing perfectly posed in front of her closet's full-length mirror, wearing nothing but a set of black lace lingerie that left absolutely nothing to the imagination.

Less than two seconds after the photo was delivered, she quickly followed up with a panicked message: "Oh my god, I am so sorry! I was just trying on the lingerie I planned to wear as a bridesmaid and meant to send it to Chloe for her opinion. I accidentally clicked on your name! Please don't misunderstand."

Under my instructions, Sebastian played the part of a naive, easily manipulated nice guy on the other end of the screen.

He responded to every single one of Mia's fake, "concerned" messages with warm, oblivious appreciation.

While Mia was busy tapping away on her phone playing the role of a devoted soulmate, I finished dealing with Julian swiftly and cleanly.

I gave him one short phone call, officially notifying him of our breakup.

Immediately after, I successfully convinced my father to issue an executive order cutting off all commercial partnerships between our family's enterprises and Julian's company, withdrawing every single cent of our investments.

In the tragedy of my past life, Julian might not have been the mastermind who pushed me off the roof, but he was absolutely an unforgivable accomplice.

The moment the capital chain snapped, his company was instantly plunged into a massive financial crisis.

Over the past few days, he had driven to the gates of my apartment building multiple times, frantically ringing the intercom downstairs, desperately trying to apologize face-to-face and salvage the situation.

I refused to see him even once. Instead, I used my intercom to order the security guards to physically drag him and his car off the premises.

I had far more important things to do now; I wouldn't waste another millisecond of my time on him.

Seeing the timing was ripe, Mia took the initiative to invite Sebastian to a downtown coffee shop.

Sebastian recorded their entire face-to-face conversation on his phone and handed the audio file directly over to me.

In the recording, against the backdrop of the cafe's soft background music, Mia started by letting out another drawn-out sigh before rehashing her smears against me.

Then came the faint scraping sound of a hard object sliding across the polished table.

She had handed him a USB drive.

It was fully loaded with the fake, heavily photoshopped "evidence" she had meticulously fabricated over the past few days.

"This drive is full of proof showing just how messy Chloe's private life really is."

Muffling her voice with a thick, noticeable sobbing tone, Mia put on a fake crying act.

"I really didn't want to bring this out, but I simply couldn't bear to watch you get played by her anymore."

Then, lowering her voice, she casually dropped a highly calculated suggestion.

"You really should teach her a lesson at your engagement party."

In the next second of the audio, Sebastian feigned absolute shock, gratefully accepting the USB drive.

That very night, Sebastian brought the drive straight to my home study.

Sitting in my computer chair, he plugged the drive into my laptop. The folder immediately popped up on the screen.

Right in front of me, he ruthlessly clicked his mouse, permanently emptying and deleting every single forged photo and document inside.

Next, he pulled out a second USB drive—this one packed with the real evidence he had been gathering over the last few days.

It contained screenshots of Mia’s relentless flirting, the lingerie photo she "accidentally" sent, and, thanks to Sebastian's extensive connections, a comprehensive log of every hotel room Mia had checked into with countless different men over the past several years.

I looked at his calm profile and softly asked, "If I hadn't come to you beforehand, would you have actually believed a word she said?"

Sebastian turned his head, his dark eyes locking onto mine. "No."

"Why not?"

"Because I trust you," he answered without a second of hesitation. "Besides, her lies were painfully clumsy, and her attempts at seduction were incredibly cheap."

I stared deep into his eyes.

"Thank you," I told him softly.

Thank you for always standing by my side, I whispered silently in my heart.

Whether in my past life, or in this one.