He Took My Car for Her, I’m Its Owner

Chapter 2

"Pay... pay for the bill?" Eric froze for a second.

Then he quickly reached out and swept the black cards on the table back into his bag.

"A card this exclusive isn't meant to be used at some ordinary restaurant."

He forced himself to stay calm, but the veins on his neck were already bulging.

"The payment system here can't even recognize a chip of this level. Using it here would only lower my status."

Flora immediately clung to his arm like she was afraid he would disappear.

"Exactly. Chloe, do you even understand how things work?"

She looked up at Eric with admiration written all over her face.

"Eric has a status to maintain. How could we possibly make him pay for a meal like this? I'll treat everyone today."

Then she raised her voice sweetly. "As long as Eric takes me to the Sterling Department Store counter tomorrow to pick out a few designer bags."

Eric's expression finally relaxed. He naturally reached over and brushed the back of Flora's hand.

"No problem. Pick as many as you want."

To cover up the awkward moment from earlier, he pulled out a stack of wrinkled paper slips from his wallet.

"Come on, everyone gets one."

He handed them out to the classmates around him.

"These are Sterling Department Store employee discount vouchers. The CEO gave me special access. With these, you can get anything at 90% off."

Everyone accepted them excitedly, thanking him over and over.

A few pieces of paper landed in front of me. I lowered my eyes and looked closely at the words printed on them. They were defective vouchers from a printing mistake last month.

They didn't even have the most basic anti-counterfeit watermark. The company had already thrown them away as waste.

The girl sitting next to me gently tugged at my sleeve. Her name was Diana Brown. We weren't best friends back then, but we had always gotten along well.

"Chloe, stop pretending you're fine." Diana lowered her voice and tried to persuade me.

"Back then, you worked three jobs a day and lived as cheaply as possible just to put Eric through college. Now that you're struggling and he's finally made it, lowering your head once isn't going to kill you. At least it's better than standing on the street selling things."

Eric had sharp ears. He immediately caught every word.

He let out a cold laugh and slammed his lighter onto the table.

"Diana, that's not how you should put it." He stood up straight, making sure everyone in the room could hear him.

"Back then, Chloe was the one who insisted on paying for my education. I never forced her."

He looked down at me, his eyes filled with a cruel kind of pity.

"Chloe, I'll admit you treated me well in the past. But now I spend every day taking care of the female CEO. Sure, it's exhausting. But it's still a thousand times better than struggling through life with you. Can love put food on the table?"

The harsh lights in the private room shone on his face, highlighting every trace of vanity and arrogance.

I quietly looked at him. My mind drifted back to three years ago.

My mother desperately needed heart surgery. I ran around borrowing money from everyone I knew, finally managing to gather $50,000.

But while I was exhausted and asleep, Eric secretly used my phone and transferred that life-saving money away. He sent it all to an online streamer known for provocative content.

He even carefully deleted the transfer notifications and fabricated chat records to make it look like I had willingly lent him the money.

At the time, I was desperate to save my mother and had no solid evidence. All I could do was swallow the humiliation.

Later, Eric knelt in the hospital hallway, crying and apologizing. He said he had only wanted to take a gamble, hoping to win enough money to pay for my mother's treatment.

But in that cold hospital corridor, the last bit of affection I had left for him completely disappeared.

After that, I threw myself into building my business. Step by step, I made it to where I was today.

And Eric? He had fallen so far that he had to steal discarded company items just to pretend he was someone important.

"Eric, do you really think your life is going well right now?" I asked softly.

"Obviously," Eric lifted his chin proudly.

"The position I have now is something someone at your level could never reach in your entire life."