What?
He found a sugar mama?
And he heartlessly dumped his girlfriend for her?
The peanut gallery was buzzing with excitement now. The earlier incident with the attempted flirting was mildly entertaining, but this? This was a gold mine of dramaâa man dumping his devoted girlfriend for a rich woman!
The crowd surged closer, eager to witness the unfolding spectacle.
Even the store employees abandoned any pretense of intervening, determined to see this juicy drama through to the end.
James froze when he heard the shrill voice coming from behind him.
Slowly, he turned around, his eyes locking onto the furious woman who was striding toward him.
She was wearing a bright red dress emblazoned with the Givenchy logo, her face caked in heavy makeup.
Her eyes were narrowed, and her lips were twisted into a sneer.
Anna Rivera!
The realization hit James like a punch to the gut, and suddenly, the balding man's face clicked into place.
He's the guy Anna was cheating on me with! I saw them together that night in the car.
A cold smile crept onto James's face as he said,
"Who I'm with is none of your business. You're not my girlfriend."
Anna's eyes widened, her face contorted with rage. Her voice was sharp and piercing as she shrieked,
"I was with you for years! And now, for her money, you're going to play daddy to her kid? What kind of person are you?"
Anna had indeed come to the mall with Delwen.
While she was in the fitting room, she'd overheard the commotion outsideâJames's voice, and then Delwen's pathetically begging for mercy.
She'd wrongly assumed that James had caught her shopping with another man and had come to confront her.
So, she'd lingered in the fitting room, too scared to come out.
But then, she remembered that she and James were broken up. She could be with whoever she wanted. He had no right to interfere.
Cautiously, she peeked out of the fitting room.
To her surprise, she saw Delwen had scurried away like a frightened rat.
Instead of confronting her, James was laughing and playing with a little girl.
And next to him was a stunningly beautiful woman, gazing at him with open adoration.
The happy, harmonious scene of the three of them instantly triggered Anna.
How dare they be so happy while I am made to look like a fool, she fumed silently.
It suddenly dawned on her that James had blocked her on WhatsApp and cursed her out a couple of days ago, claiming he had money now.
He must have found a sugar mama! she concluded. That's why he's so cocky.
Anna couldn't stand it anymore. She was determined to expose this gold digger for who he really was.
"James, you disgust me," she spat, her voice dripping with venom. "You're willing to be a stepfather just for money? I'll never respect you again."
"You were a security guard, a delivery driver, and I stood by you even when people talked behind our backs and looked down on us. I never gave up on you," she continued, her voice rising in pitch.
"I was stupid enough to save myself for you, and this is how you repay me? By latching onto some secondhand goods..."
James was starting to get really annoyed by her theatrics, finding her words and actions disgusting.
"Have some dignity, will you?" he snapped. "Just get lost would you? You're embarrassing."
He then pointed to his head and explained to Amanda,
"Don't mind her. She's crazyâthere's something wrong with her brain."
Anna, playing the heartbroken victim, started sobbing dramatically.
"Look at you now! Have you forgotten everything you said to me?" she wailed.
"You said I was your salvation, that you'd love me forever. You promised to give me the best life, even if it meant you had to eat dirt. And now you're deleting me for this woman? Is money really that important to you? What about all those years we spent together?"
James's gaze turned icy.
This woman had wasted three years of his life, and now she was trying to ruin his future.
His anger flared.
"Bro Jay, hold her down for me," he ordered, his voice low and dangerous. "I'm going to shut her up for good."
Jay Johnson's eyes narrowed, and he took a menacing step toward Anna.
Anna, mistaking Jay for one of James's friends, panicked.
Not wanting to risk a physical confrontation, she quickly darted behind the crowd of onlookers, screaming,
"Help! They're trying to kill me! Help!"
As she dodged Jay, she continued her tirade:
"Someone, please, you have to help me! He's a cheater and a gold digger! And she's no betterâprobably cheating on her husband with this loser..."
Her words ignited a firestorm of whispers and murmurs among the crowd.
"That woman is way too pretty. I bet she's trouble. I saw on the news about this wife who teamed up with her lover to poison her husband..."
"Whoa, seriously? That's some modern-day 'Water Margin' stuff right there."
"People these days will do anything for money. Look at that guyâhe's clearly only with that woman because she's loaded."
"Rich people are all messed up."
"That guy's probably a smooth talker. Super good at sweet-talking women into bed."
"Yeah, but what good is it now? His ex just caught him red-handed. Look at the rich woman's faceâshe's probably going to dump him as soon as they get home."
Amanda's expression turned dark.
Whatever James had done in the past, no woman had the right to talk about him like that.
With so many people around, calling her own enforcers from the bar would only escalate things and make the situation messy.
They needed to leave first and deal with this later. Once she got Anna alone, she could teach her a lesson she wouldn't forget.
She grabbed James's hand gently and said,
"Come on, let's go. She's not worth your time."