Chapter 43: One of the Betrayers
April quickly ducked into a neighboring booth, grabbing a large, oversized laminated menu and holding it right up to her face to hide herself.
Alexander, thoroughly confused but strangely entertained, sat across from her, pulling up his own menu to mimic her actions.
"What the hell are we doing?" Alexander whispered loudly behind his menu. "Are we spying on Xavier Reed’s assistant?"
"Shh! Shut your mouth or I’m charging you double," April hissed, peering over the top edge of the card.
Through the gaps in the decorative ivy, April watched Samuel. He was staring at his watch every three seconds.
A hidden violinist he had clearly hired was standing on standby in the shadows, and a couple of restaurant staff members were subtly holding a rolled-up banner nearby.
Samuel was planning to whip up a grand, romantic surprise the moment his girlfriend arrived.
And then, the main character arrived.
She walked past April and Alexander’s table, heading toward the corner but the moment the woman passed, a sudden, heavy sense of dread slammed into April’s chest.
It wasn’t the kind of dread that came with a premonition. This was an entirely internal shock.
April’s eyes widened as she stared at the woman’s back.
This woman... She knew her.
How could she not know her?
They had spent three agonizing years together in the dirt, blood, and terror of the apocalypse.
They had shared meager rations, fought off hordes, and huddled around dying fires. Right up until the day the group’s supplies ran out, and this very woman—alongside the others—had coldly voted to tie April to a street pole while they, as stupidly as it sounded, lured the zombies away, when she was actually made to act as a screaming distraction so they could escape.
Mei.
April’s breath hitched slightly, her grip tightening on the menu until the laminated plastic crinkled under her fingers.
She watched as Mei approached the corner, and the moment Samuel saw her, his rigid, immaculate corporate posture completely melted away.
He stood up, a warm, soft, and genuinely vulnerable smile breaking across his face—a look April had never imagined the robotic assistant was capable of making.
So, she was the woman who Samuel loved and planned to propose to.
In an instant, a vivid flashback flashed across April’s mind, dragging her back to a dark, fire-lit night in the dead world.
Mei had been huddled under a blanket, sobbing bitterly as she recalled her tragic dating history, complaining to the group about her past.
"I always had the absolute worst luck with guys," Mei had cried, wiping her nose. "Before the world ended, I finally found a rich guy who supposedly liked me and took care of me. But he was always so damn busy! He could literally marry his work. I swear he was cheating on me and taking me for a fool. I mean, who works twenty-four-seven? He was so inconsiderate. We were together for three years and we never even took a single vacation together, despite his fat paychecks! Sure, he sent me money and paid for things, but he completely lacked emotional intelligence. He never gave me real romance. I just ended it with him. Since he wasn’t going to propose anyway, I figured I’d start over with another guy." Mei had let out a bitter, hollow laugh. "And look what happened. The new guy I started over with abandoned me the moment the apocalypse began and ran for his life. Men are all terrible!"
Back then, the entire survival group had comforted her. Even Cai, the only guy in their group, had nodded along and cursed the anonymous ex-boyfriends.
But now, sitting in this luxurious restaurant in the year 2026, April looked at Samuel’s anxious, deeply loving face, and then looked at Mei’s cold, distant expression.
A wave of profound bitterness washed over April. Mei had been a truly, utterly colossal fool.
Samuel wasn’t cheating on her, and he certainly didn’t lack emotional intelligence; he was just a man working himself to the bone for a tycoon who equally didn’t know what rest meant, likely trying to build a secure, flawless future for the woman he loved.
He was literally standing there right now with a violinist and a proposal banner, his hands trembling with nerves.
If Mei had just stayed, if she had just listened to him instead of throwing a tantrum and running into the arms of a coward, she would have had the protection of the most powerful corporate assistant in the city when the world fell apart.
Samuel would have used every resource of Reed Industries to keep her safe.
Instead, she was about to throw him away like trash.
April felt a sharp, bitter sting of irony, but she felt absolutely zero obligation to step in and help Mei.
Why should she? In her past life, Mei had looked her dead in the eye and voted to turn her into zombie food. They had thrown their faces away, completely discarding the three years of camaraderie and the countless times April had helped them survive, leaving her tied to a pole to be torn apart.
What had she done so wrong? Why couldn’t they have all survived together? Just why...?
The question still bitterly clung to the back of her mind whenever she thought back to that day. She never did anything wrong and they were all on good terms and yet they...
April let out a heavy breath and shoved those thoughts aside. Even if the question was lingering aimlessly in the back of her mind, she would never find the answer so she would stop thinking about it.
That future was erased. What mattered now was the future she had in front of her.
A dark, incredibly malicious smile slowly replaced April’s bitterness. Her eyes danced with a terrifying, cold light.
’Go ahead,’ April thought, her gaze locking onto Mei like a predator watching a marked target. ’Break his heart. Run away to go be with your coward of a man. I can’t wait to see the look on your face when the apocalypse comes.’
Later, when the world will fall into ruin, Samuel will already be safely entrenched in a fortress of supplies, backed by Xavier Reed, all because of April’s predictions would be involved.
She would not let her clients die—for the right price—and since Samuel was so involved with Xavier Reed, Samuel would equally be saved.
He would survive, thriving in luxury while the rest of the world rotted. April couldn’t wait to see Mei starving, desperate, and broken in the dirt, begging on her knees for a single scrap of bread from the very man she was about to humiliate.
Across the table, Alexander slowly lowered his menu. He wasn’t looking at Samuel or Mei anymore. He was staring directly at April.
The sheer, haunting malice radiating from her face was enough to make a seasoned mafia boss break out in a cold sweat.
Her eyes were fixed on the couple, but the aura around her was so dark, so heavy with a bloodthirsty, cursing hatred, that Alexander actually felt a chill crawl up his spine.
He swallowed hard, wondering to himself what kind of unholy, demonic curse this woman was currently spinning in her mind—and who, God help them, was unfortunate enough to be the target of it.
