Chapter 607: Fell in love with a lie

Lily’s face brightened as she jumped to where Penny was. "Penny~!"

"Penny!" Ginnie grinned, watching Lily embrace Penny.

"You’re late," Grace remarked playfully before taking another sip of her drink. Nina, on the other hand, smiled in relief as soon as her eyes fell on Penny.

"Finally, you’re here."

Penny chuckled at the warm welcome from her friends. She knew they wouldn’t be angry at her for being late, but she still felt a little bad about it. Even so, Penny apologized, which they dismissed with hugs and cheerful greetings. Once it was over, everyone settled into their seats, with Lily hugging Penny and resting her head on Penny’s shoulder.

"Penny, that guy really wronged me," Lily mumbled dejectedly. "Please stand up for me."

Penny smirked as she glanced at Lily. "Let me know what company he runs. He’s never going to get close to me."

"Really?"

"I don’t want to associate myself with someone like that."

Lily looked up at Penny with teary eyes, hugging her even tighter, and didn’t hesitate to yell the name of her ex’s company. Unlike Nina and Ginnie, who were oblivious to the corporate world, Lily and Grace understood what Penny meant.

Lily and Grace were aware of the Prime Group and its influence. Grace might know more about the internal affairs, but Lily was even more aware of the outside influence Penny had. After Penny established herself in Anteca, people looked at her with much more respect and admiration, which she deserved.

Even if Penny wouldn’t do anything directly to Lily’s ex, her avoidance and disregard for him would be enough to humiliate him. Thus, Lily didn’t waste the chance.

"I’m so glad I have a friend like you who will always protect me," Lily cooed. "Now, I feel better!"

As if moving on from her broken heart was a piece of cake, Lily straightened her back and grinned. Her friends looked at her for a moment, puzzled. But they didn’t dwell on it; seeing Lily happy was much better than watching her cry.

With that, they happily chatted, asking Penny why she was late. Penny simply gave them whatever excuse she could think of. Thankfully, they didn’t press the matter. When another round of drinks was served, Penny just glanced at her drink but didn’t touch it.

Penny arranged this meeting for the drunk Penny. However, after reflecting on the memories of the drunk Penny, she knew it wasn’t safe to let her out at the moment. After all, Penny barely contained her anger and emotions—she managed to do it because of her years of practice in this lifetime.

The drunk Penny didn’t have much of a tolerance.

Smiling, Penny raised her eyes, only to notice the odd look on Nina’s face. She tilted her head and furrowed her brows before she finally spoke.

"Nina, is everything okay?"

"Hmm?" Nina looked back at Penny, smiling. "Me? Of course, I am. Everything’s okay."

"Are you sure?" Penny’s question interrupted the conversation, making everyone look in Nina’s direction.

Seeing that everyone was now looking at her, Nina turned to Penny again. "Penny, I’m fine."

"No." Grace shook her head. "Penny is right. You don’t look well. Are you hurt somewhere?"

Ginnie kept her mouth shut because she had no idea. Although she knew Nina, she wasn’t very close to her. All she knew was that Nina and Penny had reconciled and had been friends since then. Lily, on the other hand, narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"Boy problem?" Lily guessed, arching a brow. "Oh, Nina. What is it? Is Finn cheating on you?!"

"No!" Nina exclaimed defensively. "Finn is never going to do that!"

Grace, Lily, and Ginnie narrowed their eyes, making Nina’s face crumple in frustration. Penny simply raised her brows.

"Then, if that’s not it, what’s wrong?" asked Grace. "You look like the entire world is about to crumble in front of you."

Nina pursed her lips and sighed. "It’s not like that at all. I’m just... curious."

"About?" Ginnie asked.

"Lily." Nina let out a shallow breath, casting Lily a look. "Lily, I’m just curious. Before the surprise party, didn’t you notice the red flags? For him to do this, he must have been a bit of a jerk."

Lily scrunched up her nose. "You’re asking because?"

Nina pursed her lips and thought of an excuse. "Because I don’t want to make the same mistake you did. I know Finn wouldn’t do this to me, but just to be sure, I want to save myself from it."

"Ahh..." Lily nodded while the others chuckled.

In the hour they had been chatting while waiting for Penny, they had already grasped that Nina was the type to play it safe—not the bad type. But Nina seemed to be the mindful type, which surprised both Lily and Ginnie, as they had known her since childhood.

"Well..." Lily cleared her throat as she pondered it. "My ex is very kind."

"Huh?" everyone, not just Nina, raised their brows at Lily’s first description of her ex.

Lily chuckled. "Come on, girls! I wouldn’t like him or fall for him if he wasn’t kind. I don’t look for appearances, but he’s also cute. He doesn’t do grand gestures, but the little things make my heart melt. There came a point where he wanted to give up on me because my parents didn’t want him at all. His reason was that he didn’t want to break my relationship with my parents."

"All I’m saying is that until the surprise birthday party... he was everything I prayed for." Lily’s smile grew weary as her eyes softened. "Until that surprise party, everything was perfect. Only then did I realize that everything was a lie."

Slowly, Lily lifted her eyes to them, and this time, a tear rolled down her cheek without her throwing a huge tantrum. "He is not the man I fell in love with. I fell in love with an illusion... I fell in love with the man he wanted me to fall in love with."