Feel the Way You Feel, My Love
Intrinsically guilty to begin with, Susan’s contrite only grew when she heard what he said. “You were
great to me, but I’ve never felt that way for you. The one I love has always been Warren.”
“Then why did you come and seduce me twenty years ago?” Harrison’s eyes widened with rage.
Indeed, he started an affair with Susan all those years ago, but the truth was, it was Susan who initiated
things by coming onto him first.
That day, the project that he was in charge of went awry. Consequently, it was taken off his hands by
an irate Yulia whose decision received the firm support of the shareholders. Harrison was even
castigated for insisting on handling things himself as opposed to passing it over to her right from the
beginning. He was also saddled with the blame for the fallout that ensued.
Embarrassed, Harrison saw his male pride take a massive blow. He keenly felt those shareholders’
mockery and disregard for him, and how they thought him less capable than his own wife.
In a fit of anger, he went off to the club where he shared a few drinks with his no-good friends. It was also
there that he met Susan Sullivan.
Susan was young and pretty, and capable of being demure and alluring in equal measure. That was
something that a career woman like Yulia could never muster.
She matched his ideal of what a woman should be like; one who existed to serve men. He thought that
there was no reason for a woman to compete with men in the corporate arena. In spite of Yulia being
well aware that he was a proud man, she purposefully showed him up in front of so many shareholders.
That really upset him and drove his desire to get back at her, and under Susan’s intentional enticement,
he erred.
He had previously been panicky and perturbed afterward as he was worried that Yulia would discover his
infidelity. But mostly, the betrayal of his own wife thrilled him and made him feel a debased sense of
superiority. Since you won’t let me keep my dignity intact, Yulia Lawrence, then don’t blame me for letting
you bear the shame of being cuckolded.
This cocktail of excitement and superiority complex was addictive, and so he went to seek out Susan
whenever he was displeased with Yulia. Only with Susan was he able to regain the pride of a man and
experience what it was like to be master of the house. This was how he and Susan were acquainted.
Susan’s confession that she had never loved him thus came to him as quite a shock. “Why? For the
money, of course!” Susan twitched her lips. “Warren and I have been together since twenty years ago.
Because we were born poor, he and I sought to hook ourselves up with some wealthy people so that we
may continue to stay and live in J City.”
That made everything clear to Harrison. It was a pity that only his face was capable of movement after
the stroke he had suffered. “You… So the person you targeted was me?”
“That’s right. We’ve investigated many rich men in J City. Those who were too wealthy were out of our
reach, and those who had too little weren’t to our liking. In the end, we settled for you.”
Susan regarded the agitated Harrison with derision. “You were born humble like us and only able to
establish Smith Group by piggybacking on the rather well-to-do Yulia. To put it bluntly, you lived off on
your own wife while convincing yourself of your own greatness in spite of being as bereft of business
acuity as you are. That was why you couldn’t stand that Yulia was more established than you are in the
company and was jealous of her capability.”
“Rubbish!” Harrison’s grizzled face turned red with rage.
How could he be bereft of business acuity? How could he have been jealous of Yulia?
He dismissed those as the woman’s fabrications.
“Rubbish?” Susan had a hand over her mouth in a halfhearted attempt to suppress her own boisterous
laughter. “You should know better than anyone else whether that’s the truth, Harrison Smith, except that
you’re just too proud to admit it. Just like you keep telling yourself that it was you who made her Mrs.
Smith when it was really you who was riding on her tailcoats.”
“S-Shut up!” Harrison howled.
Susan rolled her eyes. “I don’t want to. Since you already found out about Warren and me, I’m going to
let it all out today. Like you, we came from a similar background, and likewise, we also refuse to accept
our station in life. So we understand perfectly how you think. We know that you can’t stand being
outshone by Yulia and would only grow in resentment of her. That’s why I used that as an entry point to
get close to you, and predictably, it worked like a charm…”
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