Chapter 1
After I called off my engagement to Max, we ran into each other in the maternity ward of the hospital.
He was holding hands with his first love, Ava, their fingers intertwined, their every move an intimate dance.
When Ava saw the pregnancy report in my hand, her eyes instantly welled with tears.
Max’s brow furrowed, his expression cold as Ice. “Deal with it. Don’t make a scene.”
I shot him a chilling glance. “It’s not yours.”
Later, his voice was tight with desperation, “Even if it’s not mine, I’ll claim it.”
But then he saw Teddy, wrapped in a towel with his sculpted torso on full display, strolling out of the bathroom.
“Well, Max,” Teddy drawled, “Trying to steal my wife and my kid? You really are ambitious, aren’t you?”
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The text from Max canceling our engagement arrived while I was at the hotel, finalizing the layout and details with the wedding planner.
“Ava’s back. The engagement is off.”
I stared at the screen, the air knocked from my lungs. I was frozen in place.
The planner was still talking right next to me, but his voice was a muffled drone. I couldn’t make out a single word.
“And then what?” I typed, my hands trembling.
Max’s reply was instant, devoid of any hesitation.
“She’s been diagnosed with severe depression. She’s back in the country for treatment and can’t handle any stress.”
I remembered the taunting message Ava had sent me just last night. “As long as I want him, you two will never get married.” I had thought, with both our families and all our friends already notified, that Max wouldn’t indulge her games this time.
But I had underestimated how much she meant to him.
Swallowing my rage, my fingers flew across the screen.
“So when she’s cured, we can get engaged then?”
I had no intention of arguing with him about whether Ava was truly sick. Even if I exposed her lies, Max would just see it as me being unreaso-
nable.
He didn’t reply. My message vanished into a digital abyss.
A wave of icy dread washed over me, starting from my toes and creeping to my fingertips, as if I’d been doused with freezing water in the dead of winter. He always did this–ran from our problems.
In his mind, I’d cool down and come back to him eventually.
But this time, I was just… tired. I had no fight left in me to compete with Ava for his love, no energy left to wait for another empty apology and another broken promise.
I called off the hotel staff and paid the cancellation fee.
Then, I sent Max one last message.
“We’ll notify our own friends and family.”
His reply was brutally simple: “Okay.”
A bitter laugh escaped my lips.
I deleted him from my contacts.
2
09:53
Chapter 1.
My seven years with Max had been a roller coaster of breaking up and getting back together.
And every single time, it was because of Ava.
He loved her but couldn’t marry her.
He didn’t love me, but I was the one he was supposed to marry.
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Max’s mother had once told me, quite bluntly, that she wasn’t looking down on my family’s fallen fortune. She had pushed for this engagement under immense pressure because she thought I was beautiful enough, and that the history we shared as childhood sweethearts was strong enough.
She hoped I could be the one to finally tie Max down and drive away the delusional woman hovering around him.
I used to believe that if I just tried hard enough, if I just stayed by his side, one day he would finally see me.
But that day never came. My love for him had been worn down, plece by piece, until nothing was left.
When I got back to our house to pack, Max still wasn’t home.
He was at a restaurant, having dinner with Ava.
She’d posted a picture on her Instagram. Max’s face wasn’t in it, but the ring on his hand was unmistakable. It was one of the engagement rings we had picked out together.
I slipped my own ring off and placed it on the dining table.
But then I reconsidered. Why bother trying to get his attention?
I picked up the ring, walked to the bathroom, and flushed it down the toilet without a second thought.
I was dragging my suitcase to the front door when Max walked in, carrying Ava in his arms.
“Long time no see,” I said breezily, nodding at Ava.
Ava looked startled, glancing at Max, completely at a loss. I suppose she was used to me turning into a screaming wreck after a few of her provocations. My current state of calm seemed to have thrown her off completely.
Max’s gaze landed on the suitcase in my hand. His surprise was fleeting, his expression quickly returning to its usual indifference.
“This is for the best,” he said. “You moving out for a while will be better for Ava’s recovery.”
Asking his fiancée to move out of their home so his first love could recuperate there.
He said it so shamelessly, so matter–of–factly.
And I had loved this piece of trash for seven years…
I was done playing games. I pulled my suitcase and walked out without looking back.
As I walked away, I heard him say, “Don’t worry about her. She always comes crawling back.”
Ava’s voice was a sweet pout. “You’re not even going to comfort me when I’m upset?”
“How could I ever bear to make you upset?”
I fought the bile rising in my throat and walked faster.
3
I moved back into the apartment I’d bought myself.
It was situated above a bustling commercial district. I liked the noise, the energy, the feeling of life.
Max preferred quiet. He hated this apartment.
And he especially hated my neighbor, Teddy. Another golden boy born with a silver spoon in his mouth, just like him.
Max despised Teddy. I think it was because he was jealous of Teddy’s courage to fight for love, a courage Max himself lacked. Teddy had the
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Chapter 1
guts to break with his family over a woman, Max didn’t.
And Teddy was far more reckless than Max ever could be.
The woman Teddy wanted to marry was a B–list actress, plagued by scandals from the moment she entered the industry.
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His family would never allow an actress, a “performer,” to marry their heir. So Teddy simply walked away, ready to build his own empire rather than compromise.
Compared to Max, who wanted to have his cake and eat it too, I genuinely admired Teddy’s unwavering
