The Devil's Good Girl-Chapter 227: I am not the one who got the short end of the stick

[SHORT FLASHBACK]

"I need to know the preview, and I’ll make it happen. Maybe even better."

If there was a lesson Fil learned all this time was not to put all her eggs in the same basket. However, she also learned that sometimes, she needed to take a leap of faith. Risk was inevitable and in her case, she had to make a timely decision the moment she found out Marcus was going out with Elise, and when she "encouraged" the same man to break up with Elise.

Naturally, Marcus’s attention would fall right back to her. Fil couldn’t afford a person clinging to her or having these trashes find their way to pollute the relationships she now has. Hence, to end it once and for all, she had to trust Michael.

"I want to catch them red-handed. Vincent, Marianne, Marcus." Resolve slowly formed on her face, eyes on Michael. "Your parties are the ones I hate the most, but it’s a place where everyone lowers their guard. Of course, I’ll fund it! Throw a party for me."

"Will you look at that? I should congrats you on finding your ticket out of this hell. Very well. I am expecting a great show — oh, I have a better idea. Come here and listen."

Fil leaned forward a little to listen to him.

"How about I will not only let you catch them red-handed but hand you over countless witnesses who will happily testify for you?" Michael wiggled his brows. "You know, I’m not worried about Vincent and Marianne. Those two will not keep their hands to themselves if they have enough drinks. But Marcus, your real target... I don’t know."

"What do you mean?"

"In case you don’t know, I’ve been sending women to Marcus’s way in the past three months. He turned down all of them."

"What?"

Michael shrugged nonchalantly. "Even I am surprised, but yeah. This night’s not gonna be different."

"That’s not good."

"But that’s why I am here!" Michael grinned from ear to ear. "Don’t worry. He might turn this thing down, but it’ll still give you enough reason to slap him right across the face. And those guys? Even if they want to deny everything, they can’t."

Fil pursed her lips while staring at the amusement and excitement circling in his eyes. "Michael, are you a villain in your previous life?" This guy was really confident and good at this.

Michael simply smirked at her as a response.

*****

[PRESENT TIME]

Fil had expected this when she came to Michael for help. However, she didn’t expect that things would be better than how she imagined it. She thought Marianne and Vincent would be discreet and she would have to search for them among the crowd. But no, here they were, making out in plain sight.

She quietly sat across from them, watching their lips and tongue twisting in between. It wasn’t like she felt hurt anymore by watching them. She knew these two blatantly saw each other and wasn’t discreet about it to anyone but Fil. Even so, seeing them do this out in public, Fil truly and deeply felt sorry for her old self.

Her eyelids drooped as Marianne and Vincent parted, resting their foreheads against each other.

"Let’s get the hell out of here."

"I think we should."

As those short sentences filled with anticipation slipped past their lips, Marianne and Vincent were about to get out of this party for a more private time. But the moment they saw a figure from the corner of their eyes, they turned their head and they instantly knew their worst nightmare just came to life.

"Fil." Marianne quickly jumped away from Vincent’s lap, wide-eyed. "Fil, it’s not what you think it is."

"Fil." Vincent blanked out, pushing himself away from the seat to stand. His mouth opened and closed, unsure how long she had been in there and how long had she been watching.

"You two..." another layer of frost coated Fil’s eyes, but the side of her lips curled up. "... I’m glad you happen to get along."

"Huh?"

"Why are you two so surprised?" Fil cocked her head to the side. "Vincent and I broke up months ago, and he’s pretty much free to date anyone."

She paused as her smile faded, pushing herself to stand up. "Unless this relationship isn’t something new, nor did it start after the relationship ended."

"Fil, let me explain —"

"Anne, you lost all credibility to explain yourself when the first thing that came out of your mouth is it’s not what I think it is because you and I knew it is what I think it is." Fil shook her head, taking a step closer to Vincent. "You, on the other hand, explain yourself."

"That article months ago involving you two, is it true?" She raised her chin, eyes glinting sharply. "Did you fuck her while you were still with me?"

Vincent opened and closed his mouth, wanting to deny it. But alas, lying to her was simply putting an entire tank of gas into a bonfire. The second he lied, Fil would know. They were together for a long time and, whether they wanted it or not, they knew each other from inside and out.

As for Marianne, she nervously darted her eyes between Fil and Vincent. "Vince, why are you not answering?" she asked in panic. "Fil, I know you don’t want to hear it from me, but it’s not like that. Tonight, Vincent and I were just a little too drunk — we’re not thinking! We —"

Again, Marianne stopped when Fil raised her hand at her. She kept her gaze on Vincent, letting Marianne talk to her hand.

"I’m sorry, Fil," Vincent confessed under his breath. "It was a mistake. I know it was and everything I’ll say now will sound just an excuse. But I didn’t want to do it."

"You didn’t want to do it?" Fil took another step closer to Vincent. "Then, can you tell me in all honesty... how many times did this mistake happen while you were with me? Is it more than once?"

"Fil."

"I see. So you made the same mistake you claim you didn’t want to do more than once." Fil rocked her head, chuckling. She took another languid step until she was a step from him. Instead of slapping him as she should, Fil carefully reached for his tie to fix it.

"You... are one pathetic son of a bitch," she dawdled, pulling up his tie tightly around his neck. "Fooling around behind my back is one mistake, but losing me? It’s an entirely different one."

Twisting her fingers around his tie, she pulled him down until their faces were a palm length away. She let him take a closer look at what he had missed before she continued. "I am not the one who got the short end of the stick here and you know that, Vincent."