Chapter 9

Two days before Neal's departure date, he deleted the contacts of Joyce and all of her friends, even blacklisting them for good measure. After all, he wasn't the one Joyce loved, and her friends all thought she was meant to be with Corey. Once he went abroad, there was no point in keeping in touch with any of them. Having cleaned up his contacts list, Neal proceeded to leave all of the group chats he'd joined for Joyce's sake. When he'd finally gotten rid of everything related to Joyce, he started packing his things. He'd lived in this house for five years, so it did take a bit of effort to gather his belongings. Thankfully, Joyce had left the house in a hurry this morning. She said the law firm had taken on a new case. This gave him ample time to sort through his stuff. Once everything was done, Neal piled his luggage at the door, which is precisely when Joyce came back. The moment she entered the house, she saw the suitcases at the door and got a bad feeling about it. "What's going on?" she asked. Neal was taken aback. Why was Joyce home so soon? However, he looked over at his luggage and came up with an excuse without even batting an eyelash. "A lot of my stuff is getting pretty old, so I plan on changing them out. These are the things I'm tossing." Joyce cast a doubtful glance at the bags, but in the end, she withdrew her gaze. She'd returned at this hour for a reason—one that pissed her off. Nevertheless, when she brought it up, her tone was a little fearful. "Why did you delete me from your contacts list all of a sudden?" Neal didn't expect her to discover this so quickly. He took his phone out and pretended to be shocked when he checked his WhatsApp. "Oh. Why am I logged out of my WhatsApp account?" Under Joyce's watchful gaze, he logged back into his account before giving Joyce an apologetic look. "I'm guessing that's why you were deleted. My account was hacked." Joyce didn't quite believe Neal. Perhaps he'd done a poor job of acting, or maybe it was because she'd sensed that something was off about him lately. "Well, add me back then. I want to watch you do it," she said as she remained standing in front of him. Neal had no choice but to use his phone and scan the WhatsApp QR code Joyce pulled up on her screen, but before he could do it, her phone started ringing. Corey's name appeared on the screen, and Neal swiftly retracted his phone. Joyce took the call, and once she heard what Corey said, her expression stiffened slightly. "Calm down, Corey. I'll be right here," she said before heading straight for the door. Neal calmly closed his WhatsApp. He was just about to put his phone away when he was notified of a trending topic on social media—"Corey Swank's Plagiarism Scandal". Corey was an up-and-coming jewelry designer who was trending recently because he'd joined a national competition for new talents and managed to emerge victorious. Alas, someone exposed him for plagiarizing the design that earned him the top prize. Coincidentally, he'd plagiarized Neal's design. This explained why Corey had hastily given Joyce a call. She was both a lawyer and his ex-girlfriend. Surely she would be able to help him resolve this matter in next to no time. Unfortunately for him, plagiarism was a death sentence in the design world. He had dug a hole for himself—one that he could never climb out of. That being said, this had nothing to do with Neal. He proceeded to book a flight ticket for Linkton, which departed tomorrow. Everything had been settled now. All that was left for him to do was to leave tomorrow. Joyce came back the next morning, looking rather rushed. When she saw Neal having his breakfast, she hesitated for a while before saying, "Neal, a few days ago, someone exposed Corey for plagiarizing his design. I saw the original design. It's from the True Love collection that you released on Twitter five years ago. "Corey just posted a statement saying he didn't plagiarize the design. Instead, it was created in collaboration with you. Could you please help him out just this once by retweeting his statement with your account?" Five years ago, when Neal decided to give up on his jewelry design career, he spent several sleepless nights finishing up the designs of his True Love collection before releasing them online. At the time, Joyce asked him why he wanted to give up on pursuing his career when he loved it so much. He told her that his career was nowhere near as important as she was. The True Love collection was the first one he released after they started dating. He'd designed it for her, and he was ending it for her as well. Joyce knew full well just what the True Love collection meant to Neal, and yet, she chose to ask him for such a favor just for Corey's sake. She was asking the victim of plagiarism to clear the plagiarist's name. Amused by the irony of it all, Neal couldn't resist laughing. He looked at Joyce and asked, "Do you really want me to help him by retweeting that statement?" Joyce looked at him in silence, but he got the hint anyway. She wanted him to help Corey, and she made the request because she thoroughly believed he wouldn't refuse to do it. After all, she knew best just how much he loved her. Seeing the calm, clear look in Neal's eyes, Joyce felt a little guilty. After giving it some thought, she decided to try and make it up to him. "You said you wanted to visit Earome's Saintlear Island, right? Once you make your statement, let's take a trip there. What do you say?" As if to prove she meant it, she immediately bought two flight tickets to Earome. However, as soon as she paid for the tickets, she got a call from Corey. "Joyce, someone posted my address online, and a mob has gathered outside! I'm scared!" Corey cried out tearfully. Upon hearing that Corey was being mobbed at his house, Joyce panicked. She only stuck around long enough to remind Neal to retweet Corey's tweet and clarify things on his behalf before rushing off again. Even so, Neal simply watched in silence as she disappeared through the door. He didn't bother trying to keep her. After slowly finishing his breakfast and washing the dishes, Neal finally took his phone out and logged into the Twitter account that had remained dormant for five years. He retweeted Corey's post with a caption that said, "No such collaboration exists. It's plagiarism." Neal didn't care about the storm he'd just stirred with that tweet. Once he posted the tweet, he took out his SIM card, broke it, and tossed it in the trash before gathering his things from his bedroom. After giving the place one last look, he stepped out and got a cab to the airport with all of his luggage in tow. From now on, he would never put his life on hold for anyone else again.