Ace picked up his phone and dialed Joanna's number with practiced familiarity, only to suddenly remember that she had blocked him. He became even madder.
"Rose!"
He angrily summoned his secretary.
The secretary walked cautiously into the office and asked, "What can I do for you, Mr. Moran?"
"Lend me your phone."
"M–My phone?"
Although Rose was confused, she still handed her phone to Ace respectfully.
Without saying another word, Ace dialed Joanna's number again.
The phone rang for only three seconds before it was picked up.
"Hello?"
Joanna's lazy voice, with a trace of joy, came from the other end of the phone.
She just swindled hundreds of thousands of dollars from him! Of course she would be happy!
"Sounds like you're in a good mood."
Ace said sarcastically with a stiff face.
Joanna immediately recognized Ace's voice. She replied, "I'm not feeling too bad!"
"You have such a great business mind, don't you? You made hundreds of thousands of dollars just like that. I underestimated you."
"You flatter me. Thanks to your generosity, I can now renovate my house. You're welcome to be even more generous if you
want."
Ace: "…"
He never thought the formerly subservient Joanna Pierce could become so irritating.
She would be the death of him!
"Since I just gave you a few hundred thousand dollars, shouldn't you unblock me out of courtesy?"
Ace resisted the urge to rush over and strangle her. He calmly argued for his rights.
After all, he just spent over a million dollars. He could not let them go to waste.
If it could get him unblocked, the money was worth it.
"Nope."
Joanna refused without hesitation. "The money is a voluntary gift from you. If you want it back, feel free to file a lawsuit. If you think you can beat me in court, that is."
"You…!"
Before Ace could finish talking, the sound of disconnected call came from the other end of the phone.
Goddammit, Joanna actually hung up on him!
It would be too humiliating for him to immediately call her again. Besides, she most likely would not answer.
After giving it some thought, Ace decided to try an alternative method. He would do as Ethan says and use a burner number.
"Rose, get me a new SIM card immediately."
He ordered coldly.
Rose heard the entire conversation between Ace and Joanna. All she could think of right now was: "What goes around
comes around!"
The proud Mr. Moran had been humbled.
'As expected, one should not fall in love that easily. Once you fall in love, it doesn't matter if you're a pure young man or a domineering CEO, you'll just turn into a simp!'
The Pierce Residence.
After Joanna hung up on Ace, she felt inexplicably down.
Her former husband was actually acting that humble in order to persuade her to withdraw her charges against another woman. It made her feel like a failure.
She sacrificed so much and acted dignified and dutiful like a daughter–in–law of a prestigious family should. Even when she was mistreated, she merely kept quiet in order to not make it difficult for him.
All she got in return was his betrayal.
What made her really mad was, if he was going to cheat on her, at least pick a good woman, like his first love Cecilia, who Joanna could accept losing to.
But he actually cheated on her with a pretentious bitch like Alice.
Not only was she pretentious, she's also evil!
Losing to a bitch like that, Joanna felt the love she had given for four long years was so not worth it!
Because Joanna was in a bad mood, she went to bed early.
In the middle of the night, she suddenly woke up and could not go back to sleep anymore.
She looked out the window at the moon and could not help feeling a bit sad, so she picked up her phone to listen to some
songs.
When she unlocked her phone, she saw a friend request on WeChat.
The profile picture happened to be a pearl white moon on a vast ocean, which gave off a sense of loneliness.
The verification message was: "Up for a chat?"
Joanna initially wanted to ignore it, but she happened to be a bit bored right now, so she accepted the request.
She did a quick check of the person's friend list. It was even cleaner than his profile picture – it was completely empty. This was a brand new account.
Joanna wondered for a moment if it might be Ace's burner.
But she soon ruled out the possibility.
Ace was the CEO of Moran Group. Surely he would not do something so childish.
The person did not start a conversation. Joanna's curiosity was piqued, so she asked, "Do I know you?"
The person's status became "typing…".
However, even after a long wait, no new dialog box appeared.
Joanna's curiosity was piqued even more. She asked, "Are you new?"
Now, even the "typing…" status was gone. The person was playing dead now.
No reply?!
Joanna was originally not interested, but she now had a strong desire to conquer this challenge.
The guy was quite the character. He was probably a handsome young man that was used to women's adoration. That's why
he's so arrogant.
Joanna happened to be in a bad mood and wanted to pour out her negative emotions, so she simply treated the person as a tree hole.
After all, a tree hole only had to listen and never had to speak. That's its function..
The phone lit up with a faint light in the dark room. Joanna typed a wall of text into the chat.
"Lil bro, is there anyone who really annoys you?"
"You're young, so probably not, but big sis does know someone like that. The most ironic thing is, this person I hate is
someone I used to deeply love."
"I swear, I've never seen a bigger fool, so let's call him The Fool from now on!"
On the other end of the phone, Ace sat in the brightly lit CEO's office, looking out the window at the flashing neon lights with
mixed feelings.
Joanna's messages kept popping up, which forced him to put down his work temporarily.
He frowned when he saw the word "fool". It made him so mad that he felt like hitting someone.
Could she have guesses that it was his burner number so she was flaming him on purpose?
He did not know what to reply, so he simply did not reply to anything.
Meanwhile, Joanna's bitter words poured out of her continuously like flood water.
"How annoying is this fool, you ask? He pretends to be as emotionless as an ice cube, but he's actually a lame guy with extremely poor taste. He knows that the other woman is rotten to the core, but he still indulges her unconditionally. Don't you think he's blind? I'm really ashamed of the fact that I once liked a person like that…"
Ace: "…"
He's now even more suspicious that she knew it was him and she's mocking him!
Ace was about to reply something when Joanna sent another message.
"But it's strange. Obviously, I don't like him anymore, but why do I still feel sad? Does love have a residual effect?"
Ace stared at the chat for a long time.
A trace of pain inexplicably emerged from the depth of his heart.
Perhaps he was indeed too cruel in the way he handled the matter with Briar, but he had no choice.
Briar was the woman the elder brother he respected the most asked him to take care of before his brother's death. The child in Briar's belly was the only offspring his brother left behind.
His brother sacrificed his life to save him.
He must keep his promise and take care of Briar and her child no matter what.
If he had to choose a person to disappoint, that person could only be Joanna or, more precisely, it could only be himself!
Ace felt like he had a lot to say to Joanna, but in the end, he did not say a word.
He looked out the French window at the full moon that shined like jade, took a picture of it, sent it to Joanna, then put away his phone.
When Joanna saw the picture of the moon, it warmed her heart for some reason, even though there was no word attached to the
picture.
"The moon is beautiful, isn't it? I hope he sees it too."
After sending that message, she put away her phone too. Her sense of loneliness had subsided a bit. She closed her eyes and easily fell asleep.
"The moon is beautiful, isn't it?" is a famous phrase by Japanese author Sōseki Natsume, usually used to express "I love you" indirectly!
Joanna kept this little secret hidden in the deepest part of her heart and would never let anyone else know about it.