Julian headed to his office as soon as he arrived at their company's building.

As he ran, Julian called out Stella's name. When he opened the door to his office, Julian could see that some documents were scattered on the floor. There was no one in the room.

He kicked Stella's desk in frustration. A bottle of eye drops toppled and fell to the floor.

"As expected, the eye drop solution was on her desk. She still cares about my eyes. She's just feeling upset at the moment," he thought.

Julian's vision improved considerably after he applied a few drops of the solution to his eyes. He wiped off the tears that had formed naturally from the corners of his eyes. Then, he turned on Stella's computer to try and look for clues about her whereabouts.

However, Julian froze the moment the computer was turned on. The homepage was completely empty. It appeared someone had formatted the computer. Th

Julian stared at his signature, which was scrawled on the resignation letter. The memories from that night came back to him.

He realized Stella had tried to ask for some of his time back then because she wanted to bring up her plans to resign. Yet, Julian signed the document right away without looking at it first since he was in a hurry to propose to Ariana.

"Why didn't you say anything, Stella?" Julian bellowed internally.

There was no way he would ever sign the letter and let her leave if Stella had told him that she was planning to resign.

"No, it can't be. If she's resigning now, what about her debt? Is she not worried about the repercussions?" he pondered.

Julian grasped onto his final hope and opened the page showing the loan platform.

Since the day he and Stella signed the contract, Julian had asked for her account information on the platform so that he could always monitor 

Suddenly, Julian could feel his eyes starting to ache, as though the corneas' original owner wanted to punish him if it was the last thing he did.

As he covered his eyes, he came up with a random excuse to visit the washroom. There, he dug around his pockets for his eye drops.

It wasn't there.

Julian instinctively directed his next question to the person he was the most familiar with. "Stella, where did my eye drops go?"

No one responded to him. Only then did Julian remember that Stella had vanished from the venue.

Then again, she was probably too embarrassed to stay here after pulling off that stunt. 

After recognizing Ariana in the video, Julian drew his conclusions straight away, thinking that Stella had spread the video just to get her hands on money. Even though he wasn't sure where Stella had obtained the video, he was very certain that she was the culprit. After all, both the evidence and the witness were there.

Oh, Stella… If she really needed money that badly, she could've just asked him for it! As long as she provided him with her services a few more times and let him toy around with her body, extracting money from him would be like taking candy from a baby!

Why must she still resort to such underhanded tactics?

Julian recalled the days when he kept getting rejected by Stella. 

Seriously, why did she put up that stubborn and disgusted façade? He had already fucked her countless times, so what was with that pretentious act of protecting her chastity?

Did Stella think that Julian was all wrapped around her little finger by throwing a tantrum or two? Did she seriously think that she could do whatever she wanted in front of him?

No way!

"Stella Atkinson, I'll settle the score with you once and for all right after the engagement banquet is over!" Julian thought angrily.

In the end, Julian couldn't find the eye drops at all. He recalled that Ariana was the one who had helped him pack his bag before leaving the manor this evening. With his eyes narrowed, he stumbled through the crowd in search of her.

The crowd's clamor and loud discussions were starting to frustrate Julian greatly. He had to rely on his memory in order to find his way back to Ariana and his mother, Christine Cavanaugh.

He was about to ask Ariana for the eyedrops when he overheard the women's conversation.

Christine asked Ariana in a friendly manner, "Aria, since we've decided that Ms. Atkinson shall be the child's surrogate mother, you and Julian should arrange for the surgery to take place as soon as possible. We'd like to meet our grandchild soon."

Ariana smiled bashfully in return. "Don't worry, Mom. I've already arranged a meeting with the doctor. Once the time comes, they'll insert the zygote into her body. She's a money-minded person, after all. Once she gives birth to the child, we'll just send her packing with 20 thousand dollars or so."

What?

Didn't they agree that Julian would get Stella impregnated so that she'd give birth to the baby that Ariana would be raising?

How dare Christine and Ariana hide the fact that they wanted Stella to become the surrogate mother from him!

This was completely different! In this case, the child wouldn't belong to him and Stella!

Ariana soon noticed Julian, who was still covering his eyes. Startled, she quickly approached him in concern.

"Jules, what's wrong with your eyes? Did dust get into your eyes? Let me blow it out for you."

Unexpectedly, Julian subconsciously avoided Ariana. He asked hoarsely, "Where's my eye drops?"

Ariana was taken aback by the question. Feeling confused and nervous, she replied with another question, "What eye drops? I've never seen you use any eye drops before. If you need it that badly, you can tell Ms. Atkinson to buy a bottle for you…"

Before Ariana could finish speaking, Julian turned around to ask Christine another question, as though he didn't care about Ariana's answer at all.

"Mom, back when you told me to let Stella give birth to my baby, did you mean that she'd be undergoing IVF treatment?"

Christine was momentarily startled, but she quickly replied in a matter-of-fact tone, "Of course! Genes belonging to an inferior commoner like her don't have the right to merge with yours! Don't tell me you thought you'd—"

Having received his answer, Julian began making his way toward the hotel's exit with what limited vision he had left in his eyes. He completely tuned out Christine and Ariana's shouts at that moment.

No! This was all wrong!

Stella must have thought that he wanted her to become his child's surrogate mother! That was why she decided to get revenge on Ariana out of anger!

Yes, that must be it!

That must be why Stella had repeatedly refused Julian's advances in the past! Ariana and Christine must have told her the truth behind his back, which led to her feeling disappointed!

What Julian actually wanted was an actual child produced by his and Stella's DNA. While he owed Ariana a permanent bond solidified by marriage, he owed Stella an official title that marked her his lover.

That was why he wanted to make it up to Ariana by giving her a wedding and a marriage certificate with their names on it. As for Stella, she'd receive a child made up of their genes and all the money in the world.

Julian had always been one who believed in equilibrium exchange, after all.

With trembling hands, he began dialing Stella's number. He dialed her number a dozen times, only to receive the same response—her phone was turned off.

Enraged, Julian hurled his phone at the ground before punching the pillar outside the hotel. Sharp pain jolted up his arm instantly, and his heart soon began trembling from the pain.

After that, Julian flagged down a cab. He instructed icily, "Go to Chapman Group's headquarters! Hurry!"

He thought, "Stella, I know now that this is all a misunderstanding. I can forgive you for getting revenge on Ariana, but you're not allowed to escape from me! We have a binding contract! You're mine!"

Julian headed to his office as soon as he arrived at their company's building.

As he ran, Julian called out Stella's name. When he opened the door to his office, Julian could see that some documents were scattered on the floor. There was no one in the room.

He kicked Stella's desk in frustration. A bottle of eye drops toppled and fell to the floor.

"As expected, the eye drop solution was on her desk. She still cares about my eyes. She's just feeling upset at the moment," he thought.

Julian's vision improved considerably after he applied a few drops of the solution to his eyes. He wiped off the tears that had formed naturally from the corners of his eyes. Then, he turned on Stella's computer to try and look for clues about her whereabouts.

However, Julian froze the moment the computer was turned on. The homepage was completely empty. It appeared someone had formatted the computer. There was not a single file saved on the computer.

"What's the meaning of this? Does she not want to 

Chapter 10