"Cough! Cough!"
Joanna, who was drinking a glass of lemon water when Ace asked the question, started choking.
'Am I hallucinating? Isn't this stone-hearted prince being too direct? This is too unlike him.'
"Don't be a narcissist, who even told you that?"
Averting her gaze, Joanna denied ever loving him.
"Everyone has been telling me that. They said you loved me very much," replied Ace with a grin that he was unconscious of having.
Plenty of women have confessed their love to him, some even tried to seduce him with their bodies. He would always be annoyed by them, let alone develop feelings for them.
On the other hand, he enjoyed being doused in Joanna's love. For some reason, it gave him a sense of achievement.
"Oh please, you know I was acting during that live stream. Those people are blissfully unaware of what was actually happening," Joanna answered nonchalantly.
She did not intend to reveal her true feelings. It was the only way she could protect her dignity and continue living confidently.
Unfortunately, it seemed that Ace was adamant about uncovering the truth as if he was playing detective.
"If you didn't love me, what's the point of all those secret gifts? If you didn't love me, why were you looking at me with such loving eyes in every picture we took together?"
"And… if you didn't love me, why would you express hostility towards Alice in the first place? Isn't it obvious that you were jealous of her?"
His questions made Joanna feel defenseless and humiliated as if someone had just ripped her wounds open.
"So?" Ace asked again.
'What the hell is he doing? Why is he trying so hard to prove that I used to love him?'
'Is he trying to prove that he can hurt me however he wants? Does he want to see me cry and beg for him to come back to me? Just so he can fuel his ego?' Joanna wondered.
She glared at Ace coldly and spoke with a sarcastic tone, "You are the crudest and most conceited man I have ever met, Ace Moran."
"It doesn't matter if I loved you in the past. I don't love you now, and I never will."
"If you only called me out to hear me admit that I loved you, just so you could prove that you still got it, you need to get a life!"
Just as Joanna was getting up to leave, the waiter brought over two servings of sirloin steak, with beautiful blue flames dancing across the meat.
Ace cut into his steak elegantly with a knife. "Why are you overreacting when you don't love me at all? Come, have a seat, I have something I'd like to discuss with you."
Joanna clenched her fists. Indeed, in the spur of the moment, she had allowed her emotions to take control. It made her appear guilty in comparison to the calm and collected Ace.
'No, I mustn't lose to him!' she thought.
And so, she sat back down and began cutting into the steak. Since she was also feeling quite hungry, she figured she might as well have Ace pay for the meal.
The two remained silent while eating. Thinking back, this was one of the few times the two had dined alone together throughout their marriage.
Joanna was famished, so she cut up bigger pieces than usual and stuffed them into her mouth. Her puffed-up cheeks resembled a squirrel that was gathering acorns in preparation for winter.
Ace was smiling a little wider now as he recalled the woman's modesty from before. She used to smile politely and was rather soft-spoken. She didn't even dare to open her mouth wide while eating.
She seemed like the epitome of modesty and politeness back then. You could throw things at her and she'd never lose her temper.
He did not expect that a divorce would change this woman so drastically.
"So how do you prepare to deal with the aftermath of your nonsense?" asked Ace as he set his cutlery down.
"Me? Deal with the aftermath?" Joanna scoffed. "You can deal with it however you want. Isn't your PR team great at handling these disasters? Aren't they great at manipulating the media? Why are you asking for my opinion?"
Ace smiled slyly.
"So you're saying that I can do whatever I want?" he asked.
"Aren't you always like this, Master Moran?"
Joanna had no idea what the man was planning. She wondered to herself,' Has he gone mad? He's acting really weird right now.'
Just then, Ace raised his hand and snapped his fingers.
All the lights in the restaurant were dimmed, with a single ray of light shining down on Joanna.
By the time Joanna could react, Ace had already left his seat. He now stood behind Joanna with a bouquet of flowers in his hand. They were her favorite sunflowers.
Joanna leaned back in her chair as she stared up at Ace with a horrified expression.
'Wh… What is this? What is happening here?'
"Sunflowers represent unwavering love, just like what I feel for you…" Ace said in a cool and affectionate tone, like the male protagonist of a romance flick.
"I'm so sorry, my dear!"
"I love you so much!"
After saying that, he cupped her gorgeous face with his hands and kissed her on the lips.
Joanna's mind went blank and her body stiffened up. Although she had slept with the man once, this was the very first time they had kissed.
As she expected, his lips were cold as ice, but they made her bum up intensely.
Joanna's clenched fists slowly loosened up as she closed her eyes, allowing herself to get lost in his sudden embrace…
A few minutes later, a man's voice came from one of the corners, "Alright, we can wrap this up now!"
Soon, the restaurant's lights were once again switched on.
Joanna was finally brought back to reality as well. She quickly pushed Ace off of her with a look of disgust.
'What just happened?'
'Was I out of it just now? How could I have kissed my future ex-husband?!'
Thinking to herself, she immediately wiped her lips clean with her hands, but this action made Ace rather upset
"What are you doing that for? I could tell that you enjoyed it, you know?"
Joanna tightened her fists, suppressing the urge to beat the man up while questioning him. "What the hell is wrong with you, Moran? What are you trying to do?"
Ace put both hands into his pockets with a mischievous grin.
"Nothing really, I was just learning from the best."
His eyes then fell onto the woman's tender pink lips which resembled rose blossoms. After the passionate kiss they shared, the sight of these lips stirred something deep inside Ace's heart.
A chubby cameraman approached the table with a wide grin.
"Mr. Moran, your performance was amazing! It was so romantic, it's even better than most romance movies!"
"Those viewers who called you a bastard are now happily giving their blessings for the both of you!"
"This was such an effective PR plan to deal with our current crisis! The only flaw we've faced is that you two were practically making out, and for far too long, which delayed our schedule. Some of the viewers were even wondering if you were faking it."
Ace seemed dismissive. "Whatever, it was just for show."
Listening to their conversation, Joanna started to piece together the puzzle. Ace had used her to put on a lovey-dovey show on the live stream.
'So this was his attempt at fixing his reputation, huh?'
'Hah, how funny. How absolutely hilarious,' Joanna thought.
She found Ace's actions absurd, but herself even more so.
'To think I felt my heart skip a beat! I'm still just as naive as I was before, this is just embarrassing!'
"Mr. Moran, with this live stream, I'm sure our current issue will be resolved very soon…"
"I'll be honest with you. This plan is way more effective than deleting the posts online, and it's way more cost-friendly too," the chubby man exclaimed while wiping the sweat off of his forehead.
He was one of the core members of the PR team within Moran Group. With this, he was finally able to get a good night's sleep.
"So that means I've done Moran Group a big favor, huh?" Joanna asked the cameraman with a smile.
"Oh but of course! Thanks to your flawless performance, the netizens were completely hooked on the live stream!"
"Mrs. Moran, you were able to portray the right amount of bashfulness too! I was so nervous and excited that I felt my entire body trembling just now!"
"Thank you, thank you," Joanna replied, her face now replaced with elegance instead. She then turned to Ace with a smirk. "So, Mr. Moran, do I get a reward for helping out this time?"
"What do you want?" Ace retorted. It seemed that he could never keep up with her randomness.
"I want…" said Joanna with a grin as she approached him slowly. Before he knew it, she slapped him across the face with as much force as she could muster.
Her smile faded as she continued her sentence in a cold, monotonal voice, 'This."
The atmosphere within the restaurant felt extremely tense. None of them dared to move an inch as if a bomb would explode any second.
'What in the world just happened?'
'Mrs. Moran… the kind and gentle second young miss… slapped Ace Moran!'
'Oh lord, she actually slapped Ace Moran! We're talking about the heir of the biggest family in the City here! Ace Moran, the man feared by all!'
Worse, it appeared that Joanna did not hold back her slap, as evidenced by the bright red handprint on Ace's left cheek.
Everyone expected Ace to explode on her, knowing how hot-tempered he was.
To their surprise, he remained calm as he licked the blood off the corner of his lips
"What is the meaning of this?" he asked.
Joanna shrugged her shoulders calmly. "Nothing, I'm just retrieving my reward for helping Moran Group out!"
"I was going to ask for a few million, but money can't improve my mood right now. A tight slap now is worth more than a couple million!"
'Hmph, using me like I'm some tool and playing with my feelings… I'm letting him off easy with just one slap!' She thought as she turned to leave.
However, Ace grabbed her by the wrist and asked, "What makes you think you could leave after causing this ruckus?"