Seraphina Jones woke up with a slight headache at midnight and felt her mouth as dry as a bone.
Even so, Seraphina was still happy.
Seraphina was a perfumer and had been working on a perfume for a long time. After she finally made it, she named it First Love. It would be sent to attend a perfumery competition tomorrow night. After she won the prize in the competition, she and Julian Brown, the man she loved, would start discussing their marriage plans.
It had been five years since Seraphina and Julian knew each other at college. Besides, they had been in love for three years.
Seraphina gave up a lot of things and devoted herself to the study of perfume. Her efforts finally paid off. With her help, Julian's company grew bigger. A bright future seemingly smiled at her. For this reason, she drank a few more drinks at night.
Seraphina pinched the bridge of her nose and planned to find some water, but she heard a strange noise from the next room.
Seraphina lived alone in the small rented apartment. Julian would stay occasionally, but he would only stay in the guest room alone.
Hearing the noise, Seraphina couldn't help worrying about if there was anything wrong with Julian.
But when Seraphina got closer to the door of that room, she heard a woman's voice.
"Julian, will Seraphina hear us?"
"Isn't it exciting? Don't worry, honey. I put a drug in her drink. I'm sure she won't wake up till tomorrow morning." Although the man's voice was full of short gasps, Seraphina could recognize that it was Julian's voice.
Seraphina's heart sank. Seraphina put so much concentration into the study and development of perfumes over the years that she often suffered from insomnia and needed sleeping pills to help her fall asleep. Therefore, she developed some resistance to drugs that helped or made one sleep.
"When I win the award with the new perfume at tomorrow's competition, I will be a senior perfumer and have a stable position in this circle. There will be plenty of investors for you to choose from in the future. Moreover, you can recruit as many perfumers as you want, including those better than Seraphina."
Seraphina, who was standing at the door, clenched her hands and recognized it was Vivian Garcia who was speaking inside that room.
Vivian was Seraphina's best friend from college. However, since they were still college students, she had been keeping an improper relationship with Julian whom Seraphina took as her fiancé.
Seraphina naturally heard of some rumors. She just stubbornly chose to trust Julian and Vivian, but the reality gave her a fierce slap in the face.
"Sweetheart, I even included part of the letters of your name in my company's name. You know how much I love you! As for Seraphina, I just take her as a springboard. If it weren't for you, I would not have tampered with her formula in the perfumery competition that was held for beginner perfumers before," said Julian.
"I don't want you to mention her name. Tell me whom you love more, me or her?" Vivian's voice was already soft. At this moment, it could dazzle Julian as Vivian deliberately spoke in a nasal sing-song voice. However, Seraphina only found it disgusting.
Seraphina gritted her teeth, widened her eyes, and glared at the door as if her gaze could go through the door and fall on the nasty man and woman inside.
"Of course... I love you!" Julian mumbled.
There then came some waves of laughter and groans that made Seraphina sick. Seraphina clenched her hands into fists, pressing her fingernails against the skin hard. The pain in her palms brought her to her reason which then suppressed her urge to rush in.
Never had Seraphina expected that what waited for her after years of dedication was a lie and betrayal from her boyfriend.
Three years ago, Seraphina became famous in a provincial perfumery competition. At that time, she received invitations from a lot of companies, including major companies like Apex Corporation. But she refused them all and focused on helping Julian as he just started his business.
In a perfumery competition two years ago, something went wrong with the perfume Seraphina developed. Seraphina was then mocked as a "noseless perfumer". Seraphina racked her brains at that time but couldn't find out what went wrong with her perfume. Julian had always been around and thoughtfully asked her to quit attending any competitions and focus on studying and developing perfumer behind the scenes. Vivian then replaced Seraphina and began to attend the relevant competitions and activities for publicity.
Seraphina was moved at that time, thinking that they would go through all kinds of hardships as long as Julian and she supported and accompanied each other, but now she found that she was more like a pawn in Julian's hand.
Julian named the company "Prosperian Company" back then. He explained that the company would overcome all the difficulties and embrace prosperity through their joint efforts. Seraphina believed it. But now, it turned out Julian named it that way only because it had a part that was the same as Vivian's and Julian's names.
Clearly Julian and Vivian made the company a testimony to their deep love for each other in a way that was hard to be noticed by others, including Seraphina who had been in high spirits and always wanted to help Julian get his company stronger. Now Seraphina felt that she was ridiculously stupid!
Seraphina's anger finally calmed down. She stayed up all night, and it was almost dawn when she heard that Julian and Vivian left.
Immediately, she got up and rummaged around. Finally, she found a gilded business card.
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