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…”

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

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

way, but she recalled how she’d scoured Ian’s bank statements. Over six months, he’d gone to the same hotel 86 times…Now that Erin had a location, she tracked down the hotel room he’d reserved permanently and secretly

…

taxi after leaving the hotel. The driver asked, “Where to,

she recalled how her best friend, Holly Green, had dragged her to the city’s most renowned private club when she was drunk

in so much pain she could barely breathe, and her chest

driver turned to look at

returned to her senses and dazedly tugged a few

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

the club, made a beeline for the front desk, and slapped a debit card on the counter. “I have five million dollars here. Get me the most handsome man in

receptionist sized her up and said politely, “Welcome, miss. Are you referring to

wet

why don’t you take a 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

the hell? How dare you send me a photo of

Mr. Dunn, but…she has five million dollars…” The receptionist couldn’t resist giving it a

his office. His tone turned frosty as he said, “I heard from Jamie that you’re new. I’ll give

to explain to Erin when she saw Erin stand up and

toned waist, and long legs made Erin’s blood rush to her head. The man was also unbelievably handsome. She gulped and trained her gaze on him, but her question