Love Is a Sweet Addiction

Esther came out of the house and began to wander in the street.

Terence went to the company and was still full of anger when he left.

Esther had not expected things to turn out this way. Not only did she fail to conceive, but she also strained her relationship with Terence, making Terence more and more disgusted with her.

Esther knew that she became a worse woman than Lila and Anne in Terence’s eyes after last night.

It began to rain early in the morning. Esther clutched the umbrella but did not stop to walk forward. It was as if she could keep herself away from her home of strife.

Esther knew that even if she could leave the house, she could not leave the man. She had already been destined to live with him when she agreed to marry him.

Esther did not know how long she walked, and she finally found a quiet place and stepped in.

It was a café decorated with style, which was converted from a B&B. There were very few customers in the morning. Esther found a quiet corner to sit down, casually ordered a drink, and quietly had it.

On the other side, Terence was also in a bad mood. He was absent-minded when Miss Young reported to him about work.

Terence kept recalling Esther’s every move in front of him the night before, from Esther’s unusual behavior to her clouded admission that it was her plan.

He knew this woman was really not simple!

And what made Terence most annoyed was that no matter how this woman did it or how she played tricks, he could never hate her.

Terence tended to resent scheming women, and gorgeous beauties like Lila were not excluded. But he could not hate Esther.

He wondered, ‘Is it really because she looks like Shirly?’

It was just that Shirly … Was this woman, who he could hardly remember, who had been living in his dreams, really that important to him? Was there such a deep friendship?

What no one knew was that Terence was suffering from another even stranger illness, in addition to his strange, inexplicable illness. He couldn’t keep anything deep in his mind!

Terence had gradually forgotten what had happened five years ago. If it hadn’t been for the painting, for someone who had reminded him, he might have forgotten about Shirly.

They all said Terence was very, very in love with that Shirly girl. In the dream he really loved her, but unfortunately … That girl was in another world now, so she couldn’t guard those memories together with him.

Miss Young called Terence several times but got no answer. She guessed that he and Miss Esther had another quarrel last night.

She cleared her throat and raised her voice. “Terence, what happened between Miss Esther and you?”

Terence finally came to his senses and looked up at her with a flicker of discomfort. “Why do you ask?”

“Except Miss Esther, who else could have made you into such a mess?” Miss Young sighed helplessly. “You two … I can’t believe it. You care for each other, but you have to hurt each other as if that’s the only way to get each other’s attention.”

“What are you talking about?” Terence frowned. He didn’t like people making wild guesses about his feelings.

“Isn’t it?” Miss Young shrugged. “Yesterday you invited Lila to lunch in front of Miss Esther. Didn’t you do that on purpose? Didn’t you want to make Miss Esther jealous?”

As if being seen through, Terence glared at her in a bad mood. “Miss Young, have you finished your work? Now you’re a psychologist?”

“To be honest, I got a lot of free time after coming to this place.”

“Let’s get to business.”

“Kilborn has arrived at the office, and you asked him to look at the new building with you.” When it came to the work, Miss Young was quite serious.

“Since he’s here, let’s go.” Terence stood up from his chair.

When Terence and Miss Young walked out of the office together and went down to the first floor, Kilborn was already waiting in the lobby and saw them coming down. Kilborn smirked. “You’re always surrounded by beautiful women, aren’t you? Even the assistant you chose is as beautiful as a painting. Aren’t you afraid your wife will be jealous?”

After speaking, he blinked at Miss Young. “Hello, Miss Young.”

“Hello.” Miss Young replied with a smile.

Terence didn’t pay any attention to his provocation, only indifferently saying, “Let’s go.”

“Are you sure you want to go to that dirty dark place?” Kilborn raised an eyebrow at him. “Aren’t you afraid of being besieged again?”

“Cut the crap.” Terence didn’t like Kilborn. It started from the last time he teased Esther on the spiral ladder in the Gibson’s. Plus what happened yesterday, Terence didn’t have a good impression of Kilborn.

Terence was glad that his sister did not continue to get involved with a glib man like Kilborn.

When they visited the new building, the owners had forgotten about the watches. They pointed angrily here and there and let out all their frustration.

“I haven’t even lived in it yet, and it’s already getting moldy and leaking. This house of such poor quality will fall in a few years!” An owner huffed.

Terence looked at the cracks on the wall and turned to look at Lawrence. “Are the pipes leaking upstairs?”

“I have checked it, no.” Lawrence said, “Maybe it’s because of the rain today.”

“Someone replaced PVC pipes with cheap ones when building the house and now the pipes are cracking under the cement. I know it!”

“Nonsense, how could that be?” Lawrence retorted angrily.Nôvel(D)rama.Org's content.

“Well, this is what you say. How dare you cut corners on the project? You even fooled the quality control personnel!” The owner was so angry that he jumped to his feet. “Hateful profiteer! Now the Gibson Group has lost my trust!”

“No wonder the houses are so bad,” the owner of the other floor said.

“Okay … Sir, calm down please.” Lawrence hurriedly explained, “Mr. Terence is just telling a joke. We’re a big company. How could we tamper with building materials? Surely it can’t be!”

Kilborn shrugged his shoulders and smiled. “That’s right. I was just joking. Everyone, don’t be so agitated.”

Terence pondered for a moment before asking Lawrence, “Are there any more samples of PVC pipe? Show me one.”

“Yes, of course, there are. They are all in the warehouse.”

Terence nodded and did not say anything else.