Revenge is best served cold

Elsa's little tricks made me laugh.

I took a step aside while keeping my composure, calmly watching Elsa and Jeremiah.

Elsa pretended to congratulate us on reconciling, but in reality, her eyes were already welling up with tears. Her pitiful look could soften anyone's heart. If I were a man, I might have softened.

Jeremiah's expression shifted slightly. He was about to speak when he remembered I was beside him, so he quickly masked his feelings.

He cleared his throat and said to Elsa, "Can you give us some space?"

Elsa, who had already been looking hurt, froze at his words. She didn't expect him to be so cold. In an instant, her eyes welled up with more tears, but she still nodded. "Okay, I'll leave now. You two can talk."

As she finished speaking, her body swayed and she collapsed.

Jeremiah, with practiced ease, supported her body and lifted her in his arms. Then, he turned and walked away.

Before leaving, he glanced back at me and said, "Don't leave yet. I need to talk to you."

With that, he carried Elsa upstairs without another word. I silently watched him disappear from view, then turned and walked away. He really thought of himself as a king, making me wait around like this. It was utterly ridiculous.

But before I even made it home, Jeremiah's call came through. I ignored it several times, but he persisted. Reluctantly, I picked up.

"Didn't I tell you to wait for me? Why did you leave?" The second the call connected, his accusing voice blasted through the speaker, nearly deafening me.

I didn't care and replied nonchalantly, "I never agreed to that."

There was silence on the other end for a moment. Finally, I broke the quiet. "Is there anything else? If not, I'm hanging up."

"Wait a minute."

His voice sounded again. "What did you say to my mom? Why did she leave in a huff? My mom is usually so patient, so you must have said something outrageous!"

Sure enough, when someone was completely speechless, they really did end up laughing.

I scoffed. "You have quite the

imagination. You're asking me

I said to her? Why don't you just ask

your mother directly?" Cope whet

That simple, unremarkable sentence seemed to set him off. "We're not divorced yet. She's your mother-in- law!"

I rolled my eyes. "It's already a done deal. Why are you still hung up on titles?"

Facing someone with such a strange way of thinking, I really didn't want to get caught up in any more of his

nonsense.

Jeremiah went silent again, and just before I hung up, he muttered softly, "It's just your tactics. I don't believe it."

Before I could reply, he ended the call. To make sure he wouldn't bother me again, I blocked his number.

Every time we talked, it was nothing but pointless chatter. It was better to not listen at all.

What I didn't expect was that the next day, after wrapping up my work at the studio, I ran into Jeremiah downstairs.

Levi had left early to finalize a contract with a clothing supplier.

At that moment, I was the only one left downstairs. When I saw Jeremiah, I quickly stepped into the surveillance area and kept a wary eye on him.

5

To my surprise, he didn't get angry. Instead, he had a rare, gentle smile on his face.

"What do you want?"

Seeing him like this sent chills down my spine.

"Nothing. I just wanted to grab dinner with you," he replied.

When I didn't respond, he continued, "I already talked to my mom

yesterday. Even though your attitude wasn't great, she's willing to forgive you."

I looked up in surprise. "Are you being serious right now?"