Faux Vows, True Desires

"She just sold him off for just half a million? That's really maddening! Is she that hard up for cash?" Owen thought.

He gave her thirty grand a month as compensation, plus two hundred bucks a day. It was in the name of managing his black card expenses, but everyone knew it was just a cover-up. That two hundred bucks was her pocket money.

Even if that was not enough, his card was in her hands. He had given her the password. She could splurge as much as she wanted.

But ever since the card was handed over to her, she hadn't swiped a single cent.

She was not a money-grubber, but she always made herself look like one.

She even wrote a divorce agreement, signed it, and handed it to Ruby to take it to him!

He'd better not find her.

If he did, he would sure give her a harsh lesson she wouldn't forget.

Selling him off for such a low price, she could've at least sold him for a few hundred million, he was worth that much.

Huh?

No way, he was priceless, so she couldn't sell him off!

She should treat him like a valuable treasure, and keep him safe and sound. He could earn her much more than half a million.

What a lousy calculator she was!

That was a major loss!

She wanted to run a business, but she couldn't even do basic calculations. She would run it into the ground.

As Owen cursed Cecilia's stupidity in his mind for selling him off cheap, he searched every nook and cranny of Serendipity Cafe for her. He even checked the bathroom, but there was no sign of Cecilia. He got his bodyguards to help.

They had searched every inch of Serendipity Cafe, but they couldn't find a trace of Cecilia.

Owen returned to the cash register, raising his hand to slam it down. But remembering that Lucinda might go tell his enemies, he reduced his strength by half, and then by half again, so that his hand didn't hurt when it landed.

"Lucinda, where the hell is Cecilia?"

"I've told you, Cecilia has the night off. I don't know where she's gone."

Owen went quiet for a moment, his voice softening, almost pleading, "Lucinda, tell me, where is Cecilia? I promise I won't lose my temper at her."

"Mr. Martinez, as I've said, Cecilia looks after the shop during the day, and I do it at night. Every night after six, Cecilia is free to do as she pleases, I truly don't know where she is."

Owen was livid, pointing at Lucinda, "Lucinda, Lucinda..."

"If you point at me one more time, I'm gonna chop off your finger!"

Lucinda really hated being pointed at.

Fuming, Owen picked up the divorce agreement and told his bodyguards, "Let's go!"

After getting out of the coffee shop, he left two bodyguards behind.

Once in the car, he tried calling Cecilia again, but her phone was still switched off.

She was definitely feeling guilty!

After Owen left, Lucinda tried to call Cecilia too, but to no avail. So she called Becca instead.

Becca picked up quickly.

"Becca, has Cecilia come home?"

"Cecilia come home? I haven't seen her yet. Lucy, is something up? Why would she need to come home? She usually comes home late at night."

Lucinda quickly explained, "Nothing big. I have other things to take care of during the day, so I can't run the shop. So Cecilia and I agreed that she'll look after the shop during the day, and I'll do it at night. She's already left for home. It's rush hour now, and there's a lot of traffic. I'm just a little worried about her safety, so I thought I'll check."

"I see, her phone's switched off?"

"Yes, she switched it off."

"She must've run out of battery watching videos and forgot to charge it. I'll have to have a talk with her when she gets home. She spends all day watching videos, laughing like a loon. If only she were as enthusiastic about finding a boyfriend, I would be a grandmother now."

After complaining about her daughter for a bit, Becca brightened up and asked Lucinda, "How are you doing, Lucy? How are your moms?"

"Thanks, Becca, my two moms are doing well. They're on vacation right now and will be back soon. Becca, I miss your cooking."

Becca laughed, "If you're craving it, come over anytime. I'll always have something ready for you. My kids are always complaining about my cooking, it really hurts my feelings." Luckily, Lucinda loves her cooking.

If Cecilia and her brother were here, they would say, "we've been eating the same dishes every day, can you blame us for not liking it?"

"I'll come over this weekend." Lucinda said.

"You're always welcome. Bring Mr. Coleman and your brothers along. Your brothers love my cooking too."

Becca had considered Ike as a son-in-law, even Lucinda as a daughter-in-law, but it never worked out.

Ike treated Cecilia like a sister, she knows that well.

Her own son had some feelings for Lucinda at first, but as they spent more time together, those feelings faded away, replaced by a brotherly affection. It was a shame, really.

"Sure."

Lucinda happily agreed.

"Mom, grandpa, I'm home."

Cecilia's voice came in. Becca told Lucinda over the phone, "Lucy, Cecilia's home."

"That's a relief. Becca, you go ahead, I have a customer. I need to attend to them."

After ending the call, Lucinda heaved a sigh of relief.

Her friend was finally home safe.

As long as Cecilia stayed at home tonight, Owen couldn't do anything to her.

As for tomorrow, well, we would cross that bridge when we get to it.

Lucinda greeted the customers, then went back to the cash register. She still needed to write another four hundred words for her update today.

She quickly typed out the remaining words, quickly corrected a few typos, then logged into the authors' backend, uploads two chapters she had written, and waited for the editors to review it. But the system quickly rejected one of the chapters, citing explicit content.

Lucinda was speechless.

Her writing was very clean, and they're accusing her of explicit content.

The system just grabbed stuff based on keywords without considering the context. Sometimes, a perfectly normal sentence could get rejected and needed edits just because it contained some dirty words. All she could do was swapping out those few words flagged in red with synonyms. She was muttering under her breath as she did so. "Readers are always griping about how I skim over the intimate scenes between the male and female leads, without painting a detailed picture. But it's not that I don't want to write, I just can't. If I really put it all out there, there's no way it would pass the review! And so, I've cut out ten thousand words... Long story short, they turned off the lights, and ten months later, they were parents."

The update was finally uploaded today. It wasn't until she saw the approval in the backend that Lucinda finally logged out of the author's backstage.

She gave it some thought, and decided to start on the opening of a new piece. It was a new work featuring Owen and Cecilia as the main characters, and it was gonna be a love-hate relationship kinda thing. Even though she was not short on cash right now and didn't have much time for writing.

But it was such a good theme, and it would be a shame to let it go.

She had a hunch that the new work was gonna be a hit.

Any author who didn't aim to write bestsellers wasn't a good author, and she had always been a top-notch one!