Leon Sterling walked over to her and took her slender, delicate hand.
He looked down and examined it closely, noticing several hangnails on Hazel Sinclair’s fingers.
“Where’s all that stuff you use for your face and hands?” Leon Sterling asked, looking at her.
“Over there.” Hazel Sinclair pointed.
Several bottles of skincare products were sitting on the black table.
When Leon Sterling saw the few bottles, he couldn’t help but ask, “Just these?”
“Yep.” Hazel Sinclair nodded.
“Just these.
I threw the rest away.”
The body’s previous owner was a big spender.
After moving here with Leon Sterling, she had despised everything about the place.
She had brought too many things and had nowhere to put them, so she’d just tossed them in the trash.
The main reason was that the previous owner never thought Leon Sterling had truly gone bankrupt and that they would have to live in this small, old, rundown apartment complex for good.
She had thrown out a lot of skincare products, dresses, and shoes that had cost tens, even hundreds of thousands.
Who would have thought that after moving out of the big mansion, they would never be able to go back?
Hazel Sinclair remembered the promise he had made her yesterday and immediately asked, “You said you’d buy me a Black Swan today.
Did you get it?”
“And milk tea and flowers.”
The moment she mentioned the cake, Leon Sterling stood up from the sofa.
“I’ve already ordered it.
It’ll be delivered tonight.”
“You just stay here and rest.
I’m heading out to work.” After saying this, Leon Sterling grabbed his vest from the side, put it on, and left the apartment.
Standing in the hallway, Leon Sterling resolved himself.
‘I have to make some real money.’
That scene from earlier today had really gotten to him.
Hazel Sinclair was his woman.
What was this business of her using perfume and clothes bought by another man?
Arriving at the delivery station, Leon Sterling pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, took one out, and stuck it in his mouth.
He didn’t light it, just held it between his lips.
Just then, the stationmaster returned.
Seeing Leon Sterling, he asked, “Leon, what are you doing here?”
You couldn’t make money doing gig deliveries if you weren’t self-disciplined.
For the past two months, Leon had been incredibly hard-working and diligent, always the first to arrive and the last to leave.
He should have been out on his route right now.
Showing up here meant something was up.
“Did you run into some kind of trouble?”
“Stationmaster, didn’t you mention a job that pays really well before?” Leon Sterling took out his cigarettes again, offering one as he spoke.
“Ah, you mean that sales job.” Stationmaster Lombard accepted the cigarette.
“With sales, if you can close deals, you’ll make a lot of money.
If you can’t, you’ll go hungry.”
“Are you that short on cash?” the stationmaster asked, lighting the cigarette and giving him a sideways glance.
“Yeah, very.”
“Did your spendthrift wife hit you up for money again?” the stationmaster asked, exhaling a puff of smoke.
“You’ve got to get a woman like that under control.
Otherwise, she’ll spend every penny you have.
What are you going to do when you run into trouble and have no money?”
“Let me teach you a trick, bro.
Just tell her you’re in debt for a few hundred thousand and all the money you’re earning is going to pay it off.
Then you can just give her fifteen hundred a month.”
Hearing this, Leon Sterling scoffed.
He would, of course, provide for his own woman.
‘Live on fifteen hundred for a whole month?’
A woman like Hazel Sinclair, who loved to spend lavishly, would divorce him in a heartbeat and run off to be Luke Lancaster’s mistress.
After all, Luke Lancaster was open-handed with his money and could satisfy every one of Hazel Sinclair’s demands.
No, with a face like Hazel Sinclair’s, there were plenty of men who would want to keep her as a mistress or marry her.
Hazel Sinclair had no shortage of male admirers, but now he was bankrupt and couldn’t give her the life she wanted.
He couldn’t even do the simplest things to be good to her.
If she divorced him, he would deserve it.
The stationmaster continued, “Then at the end of the year, ask her for two thousand back.
If she can’t produce it, you can call her out for being a spendthrift.”
Leon Sterling looked at the stationmaster and asked casually, “Stationmaster, is that how you treat your wife?”
Asked about his wife, the stationmaster puffed up with pride.
“Of course!
I cover rent and utilities every month, and I give her fifteen hundred to cover our three meals a day.”
“It’s been like this for two years now.”
Leon Sterling suddenly recalled the woman who had brought the stationmaster a lunchbox last time.
She had worn exquisite makeup, and the handbag she carried had to have cost at least ten thousand.
“Aren’t you afraid your wife will divorce you?” Leon Sterling took the unlit cigarette from his mouth, rubbing it gently between his fingers as he asked.
“Divorce?” The stationmaster couldn’t help but scoff.
“She’s been with me since her freshman year of college.
We’ve been together for seven years.
How could she possibly divorce me?”
“She cut off all ties with her family for me.
She has no one to rely on but me.” The stationmaster spoke with absolute certainty, convinced his wife would never leave him.
He believed she would follow him and endure a lifetime of hardship.
Just then, the phone in his pocket suddenly started ringing.
The stationmaster took it out, glanced at the screen, and chuckled at Leon Sterling.
“It’s my wife.
She’s probably calling to ask what I want for dinner.”
To show off, the stationmaster even put the call on speakerphone.
“Leo Lawrence, let’s get a divorce.” The woman on the other end of the line stated this with utter calm.
This left Stationmaster Lombard completely stunned.
Divorce?
“What did you say?!” Leo Lawrence demanded in disbelief.
“I said, let’s get a divorce.”
“Being with you all these years…
it’s been truly disgusting.”
Her voice remained perfectly calm, as if she were casually commenting after spitting out a piece of food she disliked.
There was no anger, no disappointment, not even a hint of questioning in her tone.
Leon Sterling tossed the cigarette into his scooter’s basket, a mocking expression on his face.
‘Once someone has collected enough disappointment, they leave.
No one waits around forever, hoping for scraps.’
“We’ve been together seven years, we were about to have a child, and now you want a divorce?” Leo Lawrence pressed on.
“I had an abortion,” his wife replied, still unnervingly calm.
“I thought about it last night.
You give me fifteen hundred a month for living expenses.
A child born into this situation would only inherit our poverty.”
The child was gone…
Leo Lawrence froze.
He never imagined his wife would actually go and have an abortion.
And without even discussing it with him.
“I don’t want to live like this anymore, either.
Before I was with you, I always had the newest phone, ate the best fruit, and wore the best clothes.”
“But you’ve disappointed me too much.”
After saying her piece, his wife hung up the phone.
Leon Sterling listened to the exchange, lost in thought.
‘I can’t let Hazel Sinclair divorce me.’
「 」
After finishing his last delivery, Leon Sterling drove his scooter toward the grocery store.
He remembered Hazel Sinclair saying she wanted to eat shrimp a few days ago.
Leon Sterling bought two pounds of shrimp and some steak.
Worried that Hazel Sinclair would be bored at home, he bought some fruit from a fruit stand on his way back.
He passed a milk tea shop, went inside, and ordered a cup.
And flowers.
If he forgot the flowers, Hazel Sinclair would definitely throw a fit.
After buying a bouquet, the money he had earned today was more or less gone.
Staring at the remaining balance in his account, Leon Sterling clenched his fists.
‘I have to work harder and make more money.’