Corace checked into a new room for the night,


    , and as she was about to rest, her phone suddenly buzzed with a message from the work group chat


    Curious, she opened it and found her coworkers gossiping about her


    Someone had posted a picture of her back.


    "Valy is Grace Staying in a hotel


    The probably has some date tonight. She''s always surrounded by men, right?


    Honest, she only got into thepany because of her connection with Mr. Henderson"


    Grace rassed an eyebrow, realizing they had probably forgotten she was in the group.


    she quickly typed a message. She asked, "Since when have had a lot of men around me? Howe I didn''t know the


    Thedon in the group had been pretty lively, with people em guessing she had slept with Yancey to get into thepany but once they saw her message, they suddenly sumbered she was part of the group.


    The group chat went sent Grace tagged the person who had taken her photo. She questioned, "Have you never


    theart stayed in a hotel before?


    The group chat became even quieter. If this weren''t a work-


    rted group chat, it would''ve likely been disbanded by now.


    Gracefortably went to sleep, knowing it wasn''t her fault they were talking behind her back. The embarrassment they felt wasn''thers


    When Grace arrived


    at the office the next day, she immediately felt the awkward tension, she pretended like she had no idea what was going on and focused on her work at her disk After work, one called her and asked if she wanted to go shopping


    Since Grace had bought


    a new house, there were still some furniture pieces the needed to check out in person despite already ordering some items online.


    The house was rtively new, so the future was also new She''d had a cleare in, and after picking up a few small things, she could move in right away


    Joanne was a bit surprised when she heard that Grace had bought a 15-ion-


    dor house. For a moment, her smile seemed forced: "Grace, weren''t you string financially? How did you suddenly get so much money?


    "Unexpected windfall," Grace replied casually, picking out a tablemp. She asked a nearby sales clerk,


    "Do you have any more


    nee vintage styles?


    "Right this way."


    They were in arge mall surrounded b


    d by lummary brands—baps, furniture, you name it—


    and every item cost thousands of dors. Grace bought themp, left her address for delivery, and continued shopping.


    Joanne


    followed closely behind, and she widened her eyes when she saw the 50,0000-


    dormp she subconsciously curled her hands into a fist


    "Did Yancey give you that money? Or someone else? Joanne asked.


    Grace picked out a few more small items to be delivered, and she was already thinking about the new house. She was looking forward to moving in that evening "Neither. It''s a long story. Do you want toe Joanne forced a smile "Sure, I''ve never seen a 15-million-dor house before."


    How many people in Drunville worked their whole lives and couldn''t even afford to buy a house the size of a bathroom?


    As they passed by a designer handbag store, Grace didn''taven


    pause She preferred a simple canvas tote than those bags worth tens of thousands.


    But then a familiar voice rang out, followed by a hand grabbing her wrist


    "Grace, long tote no see. Hurry up and pay for this bag It''s only 30 thousand dors, and I really like it."


    The woman who grabbed her was in her 40s, well-


    maintained but with calcting look in her eyes.


    Greefurrowed her brow and gently pulled the woman''s hand off her arm, "Who


    are you?!


    The woman''s expression changed instantly after hearing that. She speed, "Come on, what are you ying at? Just pay already"


    Grace found the situation amusing and turned to leave.


    But the woman grabbed her wrist again, this time with a threatening tone "dieace, what''s your problem? told you to pay. Don''t make this hard. Don''t you want me to go to Yangry and say something nice about y Grace''s expressionrkened. "Let go"


    Joanne, standing behind her, said calmly, "This is Yancey''s second aunt. You used to spend a lot of money on bags for her and others like her, Oh, and Yancey has an older aunt whour bnd owes a huge gam Grace''s head throbbed at the revtion it took her few seconds to process it, and then she chuckled settly "Are you sure?"


    So, she''d been financially restricted because she spent everything on these leeches!


    At this moment, Yelena Parker crossed her as with a smug look. "Hurry up. Where''s your card? You''re not short on money."