Love's New Bloom by Simone Hastings

Chapter 1 Heartbroken

It was 10 pm on a summer night. A beautiful woman in a body-hugging dress and exquisite makeup sat in a hotel room at one of the city’s five-star hotels. A cigarette wisping pungent smoke dangled from her trembling fingers, showing how unstable her emotions were at the moment. She was eavesdropping on a conversation going on in another hotel room that she’d bugged, and it made her heart twist painfully.

The conversation was between a man and a woman. The woman said, “Ian, you’ve been coming to me so frequently that I’m on the verge of collapse…”

The man said, “Don’t tell me you’re unhappy about this.”

The woman giggled. “I’m ecstatic!”

“She’s going on a business trip tomorrow, so you can come over.”

“Ian, I’m curious about something. Back then, Erin was known as the belle of our university. Don’t you love her anymore?”

Ian said, “She’s worse than a sex doll. We’ve been married for a year, but I haven’t even laid a finger on her. That’s what she deserves for acting all high and mighty and leading me on! I’m not even interested in her anymore.”

The woman gasped. “That’s terrible. What’s the point of your marriage, then?”

“Who cares? It’s all she deserves. Alright, let’s stop talking about her…”

to the rest of their conversation. She removed the earbud and stared blankly at the

had shocked the grogginess out of her. Tracy? Was he talking about Tracy Brown, her classmate from university? They’d

of wanting her to come up with a design for their bathroom because she wanted to renovate it. Tracy had come over that afternoon, and Erin took the opportunity to peek at her phone while she was in the bathroom. It was locked, so she couldn’t see its contents, but the fact that it had automatically connected to the Wi-Fi was enough to

scoured Ian’s bank statements. Over six months, he’d gone to the same hotel 86 times…Now that Erin had

…

the

dragged her to the city’s

heart felt like it had been soaked in acid; she was in so much pain she could barely breathe, and her chest felt unbearably heavy. She pressed a hand to her chest hoping it would help soothe the pain, but it didn’t help

turned to look at

to her senses and dazedly tugged a few hundred-dollar bills from her

into the club. “What a pity. Such a pretty woman, here

a beeline for the front desk, and slapped a debit card on the counter. “I have five million

up and said politely,

Erin whipped out some wet wipes from her bag and removed

seat at the lounge over there while I make a call? It’ll only be a short while.” As Erin turned to leave, the receptionist secretly snapped a photo of her side profile and sent it to the owner of

and growled, “What the hell? How dare you send me a photo of such an ugly woman! You’ll be out of a

but…she has five million dollars…” The receptionist couldn’t resist giving it a shot at the thought of the commission she’d earn from

give you one more chance instead of firing you, and I’m warning you: I’m the

she saw Erin stand up and

dark, fitted suit. His broad shoulders, toned waist, and long legs made Erin’s blood rush to her head. The man was also unbelievably handsome. She gulped and trained her