I spent three days in the hospital.
Three days without Julian.
Three days without Camille.
Not one person came.
The man who had promised to protect me…
The best friend who had sworn to stay beside me forever…
Both disappeared after destroying everything I believed in.
But strangely…
I didn’t cry anymore.
Maybe because there was nothing left to lose.
When the doctor discharged me, I returned to the old apartment with one thought:
Find out what my mother had been hiding.
The key she left behind was old.
Heavy.
The kind of key that belonged to another time.
I held it tightly while standing in front of the address written on the note.
A place I had never heard of.
A small house on the outskirts of the city.
Not luxurious.
Not impressive.
But when I opened the door…
I froze.
Inside were dozens of boxes.
Documents.
Photos.
And a notebook with my mother’s handwriting.
My hands started shaking.
Because on the first page…
There was Julian’s name.
I spent the entire night reading.
And slowly…
I realized my mother had known more than I thought.
She knew Julian’s family.
She knew about the Fu family’s business problems.
She knew about his so-called bankruptcy.
But the most shocking part…
Was that she knew Julian had been investigating me.
Testing me.
Before our marriage.
A letter was hidden inside the notebook.
My mother’s handwriting was trembling.
“My daughter.”
“If you are reading this, it means something happened.”
“I wanted to believe I was wrong about Julian.”
“But a man who tests your love by making you suffer is not testing love.”
“He is testing how much pain you can endure.”
I covered my mouth.
Tears finally fell.
Because my mother had seen the truth…
When I was still blinded by love.
Then I found another document.
A property certificate.
My name.
My grandmother’s old house.
The house my mother mentioned.
The one Julian didn’t know existed.
It wasn’t just a small abandoned property.
Years ago, my grandmother had purchased land that later became part of a major development project.
The value had multiplied dozens of times.
My mother never told anyone.
Not even Julian.
Because she had always said:
“Never let someone love your money more than they love you.”
I sat there silently.
And suddenly everything made sense.
The five hundred thousand yuan.
His fake bankruptcy.
His cruel words.
The so-called test.
Julian wasn’t trying to know whether I loved him.
He was trying to prove that I was not worthy of him.
That afternoon…
Julian finally appeared.
I was sitting in the house when the door opened.
He walked in wearing an expensive suit.
The same man who had claimed he had nothing.
The same man who bought Camille a five-million-yuan necklace.
He looked at me.
For a second…
There was surprise in his eyes.
Then it disappeared.
“You left the hospital without telling me.”
I looked at him.
“You noticed?”
His expression changed.
“Don’t be like this, Elena.”
“I was angry.”
“You know I didn’t really mean those things.”
I almost smiled.
Didn’t mean them?
The words that destroyed me.
The night I lost my mother.
The night I lost my child.
Those were just emotions to him.
Julian walked closer.
“I transferred the money because I wanted to see your attitude.”
“It was a misunderstanding.”
I looked at him.
“A misunderstanding?”
“Julian.”
“You paid five million for Camille.”
“But you refused five hundred thousand when my mother was dying.”
His face stiffened.
“I already explained…”
“No.”
I interrupted.
“You explained enough.”
He noticed the folder on the table.
The property documents.
The old house papers.
His eyes narrowed.
“What is that?”
I closed the folder.
“Something that doesn’t belong to you.”
For the first time…
Julian looked uncertain.
Because he realized something.
The woman standing in front of him…
Was not the woman he thought he had married.
Then his phone rang.
The screen lit up.
Camille.
Julian immediately rejected the call.
But it was too late.
I had seen it.
I smiled.
“Answer it.”
He frowned.
“What?”
“Go ahead.”
“Your five-million-yuan investment.”
“Your real choice.”
His face became complicated.
For the first time…
He looked uncomfortable.
Because Julian had always believed one thing:
I needed him.
But he didn’t know…
That the moment he chose to humiliate me…
I stopped needing anything from him.
And the biggest secret he had never discovered…
Was that the woman he called a gold digger…
Was the person who could destroy everything he had built.
But before I could reveal the truth…
A message appeared on my phone.
From an unknown number.
Only one sentence:
“Do you want to know why your mother never trusted Julian?”
I stared at the screen.
Because underneath that message…
Was a photo.
A photo taken three years earlier.
The day Julian first met me.
And standing beside him…
Was my mother.
Talking to him.
As if they already knew each other.
