Noreen forced a smile and apologized profusely as she saw the <b>police </b>officer out the door. Only after he left did she turn back to confront <b>the </b>real troublemaker. “What are you doing here?”


    Her face was icy, and her tone matched.


    Seth hated when she was like this. Agitated, he tugged at the cor of his shirt.


    Scarlet blotches had broken out along his neck–he was clearly having an allergic reaction.


    That’s when Noreen realized: Seth was obviously drunk.


    In all the seven years they’d known each other, she’d never actually seen Seth drunk before.


    And now, apparently, he was a terrible drunk–the kind who caused a scene at her ce.


    Fury simmered inside her, and her expression darkened.


    But Seth, stubborn as ever, simply ordered her around, just like old times. “Do you have any allergy meds here?”


    “No!” she snapped.


    What did he think this was, a pharmacy?


    “Then get me a ss of hot water,” Seth muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose, his mood sour and restless.


    “Mr. Harcourt, you really do have a selective memory. Did you mistake me for your ever–obedient Secretary Gilmore?”


    Seth bristled at her sharpness. His voice dropped, low and reprimanding. “How long are you going to keep this up?”


    Noreen could hardly believe it.


    After everything that had happened, he still thought she was <b>just </b>throwing


    2011


    a tantrum?


    Sorry, but she didn’t have time for his drama.


    “I’ve said what I needed to say, and done what I needed to do. If you still don’t get it, Mr. Harcourt, maybe you should take a dor and find one of those kiddie rides outside the supermarket. Sit on it and keep rocking until you figure it out.”


    Seth’s expression turned even darker, his eyes almost ck, and a cold, oppressive air seemed to fill the room. He let out a chillingugh. “So now that you’vetched onto Dn, you don’t even <i>bother </i>pretending anymore?”


    He stepped closer, voice dripping with sarcasm, his face void of warmth. “Noreen, did you already forget how you used to grovel for me?”


    There it was. Even now, he still treated her like she was beneath him.


    But if she could be her own person, why should she let him treat her like a dog?


    “You said it yourself–that was before. People change, Seth. Haven’t you?” Her voice suddenly softened, so quiet it almost vanished.


    So quiet, it slipped right through his grasp.


    “So, you’re nning on using those same tricks to win over Dn now?” Seth sneered, not holding back an ounce of malice.


    But this time, Noreen didn’t feel hurt by his cruelty.


    It wasn’t the first time he’d tried to belittle her, after all.


    She couldn’t even bother to exin herself. “Think whatever you want.”


    Turns out, fighting fire with fire–dealing with a jerk on his level–was both satisfying and efficient.


    She didn’t even have to ask him to leave. Seth stormed out on his own.


    And he made sure to m the door.


    Chapter <b>101 </b>


    Noreen wasn’t troubled by his visit in the slightest. She <b>went </b><b>about </b><b>her </b>evening as if nothing had happened.


    The next morning, as she headed out to toss her trash, the cleaning <bdy </b>in the stairwell was grumbling under her breath again.


    “Who keeps throwing all these cigarette butts everywhere? Some <b>people </b>have no manners, honestly!”


    On her way back, Noreen’s phone buzzed with a call from Sophia.


    She sounded rushed and worried. “Noreen, have you seen the


    messages?”


    “What messages?”


    Sophia hesitated. “You haven’t? You’d better check.”


    As soon as Noreen hung up, Sophia sent her a string of chat screenshots. She opened them–and nearly exploded.


    Someone with the WhatsApp name “Sunny” was spreading rumors in a popr Rivercrest City finance group.


    The message imed that Noreen had cozied up to Dn, the new executive director at Omniva Group, and had quit her job at Aurelion Group to jump ship.


    The posts were loaded with innuendo, painting Noreen as a social climber who used her looks to get ahead.


    Worse, the rumor monger even said that after Noreen failed to pressure Seth into marrying her, she pulled every trick she had totch onto the Wilder family.


    The tone was cruel and/contemptuous.


    Sophia messaged her “These people are unbelievable–twisting the truth and making things up! I tried adding that person as a friend so I could give them a piece of my mind, but they wouldn’t ept. If they had, I’d have told them off so badly they wouldn’t know what hit them!”


    <b>0729 </b>


    “Forget it. There’s no point.”