"Madeline, don't flatter yourself."
"If it weren't for the fact that you had a government job, and my parents insisted I marry a girl with a stable position, do you honestly think I would've looked twice at you?"
I froze.
Max's family had once been distinguished intellectuals. Word was that one of his ancestors had placed third in the imperial civil service exams generations ago. Even now, with the family fortune long gone and barely any money to their name, they still carried themselves with an unbreakable sense of pride.
But that pride?
All it did was make people laugh.
It was my savings, over a hundred thousand dollars, that I'd handed over for him to invest, to start a small business. That was how the money started growing.
He hadn't even made it to the top yet.
But he already had the attitude of a man who had.
He even had the nerve to say "everyone in his circle" lived like this.
"Max, have you forgotten what you promised me?"
By the time Max arrived at Lakeview Manor, it was already dark.
He shooed the neighbors away and told Abigail to go downstairs. That left just the two of us in the room.