Kate turned around at the sound of her brother Eddie’s voice in her ear. There he was, standing at the doorway not far away, dressed in a white coat.
“Bro! What are you doing here?” she exclaimed.
Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Nora and Master Stephen had just left the Prince family with no cash on them and less than $500 in their bank account. Nora was still recovering from an illness and needed to eat well every day to build up her strength. They stood on a busy street as the cold wind blew past them. Despite the freezing weather, Nora wore only a black skirt to maintain her feminine image.
The wind howled from all directions making it hard for Nora to breathe as she took a step. She asked Master Stephen softly,”What do we do now?”
Master Stephen looked around helplessly at this wide and straight road with dim yellow lights.
He sighed quietly before leading them towards an ATM machine by the roadside of a bank. “Let’s withdraw some money first, then find somewhere to stay for tonight. Tomorrow I’ll start looking for work!”
He paused briefly before gazing deeply into Nora’s eyes. “Nora, don’t worry! From now on, I’ll work hard and earn enough money to take care of you.”
Standing outside that shabby motel building made Nora regret following him there but Master Stephen didn’t notice it at all as he continued planning their future together.
Nora didn’t pay much attention when he made those promises; instead she followed him reluctantly into the bank where they discovered that his account had been frozen!
All the lucky money he received over these years amounted up to five or six million dollars which were now inaccessible because his mother had frozen his account.
Master Stephen turned pale, staring blankly at the digit displayed on screen while muttering under his breath, “Nora, my mom froze my bank card.”
Finally, he sighed and looked at her seriously, saying, “Or else, why don’t you take out some money first and we can rent a room to sleep in.”
As soon as Nora heard Master Stephen suggest renting a room together, her hypocritical nature was exposed and she was not happy with his proposal.
“I ran away from home, fainted and had to be hospitalized. Then I followed you back to the Prince family, only to be kicked out again. During this whole time, I’ve been with you. Do you not know whether or not I have money?” Nora questioned him angrily.
Master Stephen blushed in embarrassment at Nora’s question and stuttered before finally explaining himself.
“Nora, you misunderstood me. What I meant was that I would borrow some money from you first and then pay it back later,” he clarified.
Borrow?
Nora’s reaction after hearing this was a cold laugh; she had never met such a man before.
As a man himself, how could he ask for money from a woman? She couldn’t believe how shameless he sounded when he said those words.
Her lips twitched as she answered Master Stephen’s plea firmly but softly. “No! Right now, I don’t have any money on me.”
After hearing this response from Nora, Master Stephen’s eyes darkened.
He had lived for almost twenty-five years but it was the first time that he experienced what it felt like to have no money. When the word “poverty” came upon him suddenly like this; He realized just how helpless poor people really were.
Just then Nora suddenly saw the pawn shop at the corner of the street.
The storefront wasn’t big; its decor looked old-fashioned which indicated that it must be an antique store with long history.
For pawn shops in particular, the longer they are open means their credit is better.
She quickly pointed towards that pawn shop while speaking up towards Master Stephen. “Otherwise why don’t we sell your Swiss watch there?”
“It’s worth something after all! It’s so cold outside right now… let’s book our room first so we can hide away from this terrible weather… I’m really cold,” She pleaded pitifully while looking up at him expectantly.
Master Stephen softened his heart for her momentarily agreeing to her suggestion – selling off his watch.
This watch on his wrist was given by his uncle as an 18th birthday gift worth seven figures!
The dial inside is made of pure gold while outside has 108 diamonds embedded into it making its value quite expensive!
The middle-aged man who guarded over the pawnshop looked around forty or fifty years old. He put on his hat and stuffed his hands into his sleeves, looking as if he didn’t care about anything.
He looked between the two young men with disdain and teased, “A pair of eloping lovebirds? Tsk tsk… This watch is not bad-looking, but the dial is a bit worn out.”
“And the strap looks like it was once broken and then replaced. It’s not original,” she added.
No wonder he had been in the pawn industry for over ten years; he had seen everything valuable in this world.
“Three hundred thousand dollars,” said the shopkeeper after putting down his magnifying glass and cleaning his hands slowly.
“What? Three hundred thousand? Boss, take another look! This is a Dirolan watch – one of their classic models from their love series! I bought it for seven figures!” exclaimed Master Stephen in disbelief.
Three hundred thousand seemed like an insult to him; he clenched his fists tightly.
He had bought this watch for over two million dollars; if only he had used that money to buy a house instead of wasting it on this piece of jewelry… Now here they were under someone else’s roof with nowhere else to go.
“It’s just three hundred thousand. If you’re not happy with it, then forget about it. To be honest, I don’t even want to take your watch back because I’ll have to replace its movement and strap.”
Precision instruments such as watches required high-quality parts which increased costs significantly when purchasing replacements.
Should he sell or keep it?
Master Stephen actually didn’t want to part ways with this item but if they didn’t sell tonight, then both him and Nora would be sleeping on streets soon enough, so he reluctantly decided. “Sell it!”