My fiancée claimed she was devoted to God, untouched by worldly desires between men and women.

So I revered her like a saint, never daring to defile her with so much as a thought.

But I accidentally caught her, cheeks flushed, sprawled across a prayer cushion, surrounded by men.

For an entire week, shameful noises spilled from her so-called sacred room each night.

When I finally gathered the courage to confront her, I overheard her giggling with her friends.

“Talia, you’re getting it every night till you're half-crazy and you still pretend to be all serene and pure.”

“And the key is that idiot Everett believed you.”

Talia’s voice was cold. “Back then, he tricked me into getting pregnant and chased away the man I really loved. I’ll make sure he lives like a celibate priest for the rest of his life and knows the sting of betrayal every single day.”

——

My fingers curled into fists.

So she had been lying to me all those years. Every so-called night of chanting scriptures had, in fact, been a night tangled in flesh with countless men.

And I, naïvely, had believed she was truly devoted to God.

I had even built her a private prayer sanctuary.

What a colossal joke, it had just been a pleasure house that I hadn’t even been allowed to enter.

Had I not broken her “no entry” rule a week ago, out of excitement to share some great news, I would have remained in the dark forever.

They had continued to mock me without restraint.

“Talia, if you don’t want Everett, let me have him for a few days. That face and body, he’s prime quality.”

“Right? Broad shoulders, narrow waist, long legs, I’d been drooling for a while.”

“And the way he threw himself into work, I bet he was just as wild in bed.”

Talia grabbed the man's abs.

“What’s so special? Open your eyes and look, every man in this sanctuary had a top-tier body and top-tier skills.”

“Pick whoever you like. Just Everett, you’re not allowed to touch him.”

She paused, her gaze freezing over.

“I wanted him to live like a priest for the rest of his life, never tasting the pleasures of a woman.”

“That was his punishment for ruining my life years ago.”

Those women whined, “Talia, you’re such a bad friend. You won’t use him yourself and won’t let us try him either, how inhumane!”

Talia lazily draped herself over the man next to her.

“I’ve gone soft. Let’s see if you still like him after he’s lost his manhood.”

Those women kept begging her. “Even without that, looking at him is already a treat.”

Her gaze grew colder still.

My emotions were in turmoil. I stared at the glowing lights of the sanctuary, sleepless.

Gideon Westbrook was still trying to advise me.

“Back then, Malcolm shamelessly drugged Talia and nearly cost her life. Thankfully, you saved her just in time, but why haven’t you ever told her the mastermind was Malcolm?”

“She’s misunderstood you all these years and won’t even let you near her.”

“Everett, I know I owe you a lot. But she’s my only granddaughter. Please, I’m begging you, give her a few more years. She chants scriptures every day; she’ll come around.”

“She’s agreed that your wedding will proceed in half a month.”

Chanting scriptures.

Gideon had been fooled by her. Everyone had been fooled.

I looked at the faint outline of seven black moles on my palm.

Talia, since you didn’t want me, Everett Quinn, then you didn’t deserve my lifetime of good fortune either.

Without my luck, let’s see how you would support that crowd of men in your sanctuary.

My teeth ground audibly and I immediately made a phone call.

“Tell Miss Moreau that I agree to marry her. The wedding is set for half a month from now!”

“By the way, I’ll also bring the hundred-billion-dollar deal to the Moreau Family as a betrothal gift.”

Talia rarely left the prayer hall, but today she came to my study.

I saw the obvious flush at the corners of her eyes after passion and felt a sharp pain in my heart.

She wore a plain linen dress, her hair tied up high and she was holding a string of prayer beads. She was bare-faced, stopping a few steps away from me.

At a glance, she looked like such a serene and ascetic woman, but who would have known that in the prayer hall, she was so vicious?

“Everett, didn’t you say I was the one you loved most in your life?”

“Didn’t you say you’d listen to me for the rest of your life?”

I had said that, but that was when I had been deceived by her.

She continued, “Then go get a vasectomy. I never want children in this life.”

Her words were so cold and heartless, they instantly pulled my memory back to three years ago.

Her first love, Malcolm Pierce, had been on the verge of bankruptcy. Gideon knew he was always fooling around and had even contracted a disease, so he was absolutely against letting Talia marry him.

But Malcolm shamelessly drugged Talia, trying to take advantage of the moment, to seize her and use the Westbrook Family’s power to revive the declining Pierce Family.

At the most critical moment, Gideon slipped something into my drink when I wasn’t paying attention, then pushed me straight into Talia’s room.

Talia ended up pregnant, while Malcolm went bankrupt.

He fled abroad to escape his debts. But Talia shifted all the blame onto me, claiming I was the one who drove Malcolm away, that I had shamelessly taken her body.

She secretly took abortion pills and coldly told me she never wanted children, that she planned to be childfree for life.

I loved her. I had loved her since we were young. So I gave in to everything she wanted.

She wanted to pursue God, so I built her a prayer hall.

She didn’t want children, so I agreed to a child-free life.

She didn’t want to touch the family business, so I took on everything alone, using my talent to build wealth, just to make sure she lived a life of peace and prosperity.

But now I knew, everything I had done was nothing but a joke to her.

A huge, cruel joke.

Her eyes, still glazed with the warmth of recent passion, stared at me without an ounce of shame. “What? You don’t agree? Didn’t you say you’d do anything for me? If you don’t get the vasectomy, I won’t attend the wedding in half a month. Everett, think carefully.”

“I…”

Before I could say anything, her phone rang. I saw her body tremble, struggling to stay composed.

“Really? You found him? Okay, send him to me immediately. I said, immediately!”

Clutching her phone, she turned sharply and didn’t glance back at me even once.

Outside the prayer hall stood a car I didn’t recognize. The main door was left ajar. She knew I would never set foot inside her sacred space, so she left it unguarded, wide open.

One glance and I nearly choked.

Beneath the kind gaze of the God statue, she was kissing someone with wild abandon and that someone was Malcolm. That phone call just now had been to say they’d found him.

All these years, she had never stopped searching for Malcolm.

Their kiss was breathless, desperate, as if they couldn’t bear to separate, entwined like they’d never let go.

At last, she reached for his waistband and he cupped her face with both hands.

“Aren’t you curious where I’ve been all these years? How did I survive? I missed you so much.”

She tugged at his belt, pulling him down on top of her.

“Malcolm, don’t rush. We have all the time and chances in the world to talk slowly. Right now, I just want you, I want you!”

“My first time wasn’t with you and that’s the pain of my life.”

At the feet of the God statue, candle smoke curled gently through the air.

Entangled in ambiguous intimacy.

Talia, couldn’t even wait for her period?

I began preparing to leave. I organized and archived all the company’s affairs, ready to hand them over to Talia.

But she kept pressing me to get a vasectomy.

I told her, “There are still some things at the company. Wait until I finish dealing with them.”

She stared at me for a long time. “You’re agreeing to the vasectomy?”

I didn’t answer. Instead, I handed her the organized files. “Take a good look at these. They’re the company’s core operations.”

She tossed them aside. “What’s there to look at? Grandpa already gave you everything. Everett, don’t forget, you’ll always be a servant of our family.”

“If it weren’t for the Westbrook Family, you’d never have become chairman of the group.”

That’s what she believed. That’s what everyone around her believed.

But only I knew, I was the God of Wealth, reborn through eight lifetimes. Wherever I, Everett, went, fortune followed.

It was I who chose her. I, who made their family great. Not the Westbrook Family who made me.

Gideon also heard the news that Malcolm had returned. He threw his coffee cup to the floor by Talia’s feet.

“You’re crazy. Do you even know what kind of person he is? Back then, he—”

“What about back then?”

Talia interrupted the old man, turning to look at me with disgust.

“If Everett hadn’t set me up back then, I would’ve been Malcolm’s wife by now.”

“He saw Everett humiliate me with his own eyes and couldn’t bear it, so he went abroad. Grandpa, why do you always defend Everett? Why did you force me to marry him?”

“He’s clearly just a disgusting rapist!”

Rapist.

She finally said these words that had been in her heart for years.

That’s right. Back then, I had been taking her to the hospital, but who would’ve thought the old man would trick me, too?

She had been forced and so had I.

But she never believed that. She had been dead set on believing I loved her and orchestrated everything to force her into marriage.

She kept crying, “Everett, you promised me three years. If I found Malcolm within three years, you’d let me go, right?”

“I found him. Malcolm is back. Our wedding doesn’t count. I want to marry Malcolm. I will never marry you!”

“Fine!”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “I promise you!”

Her body trembled slightly. “You really promise?”

Yes, I really promised, but the wedding in half a month would still go on, just not with her as the bride.

She chased after me, still unbelieving.

“If you really agree, then I’ll replace the groom at the wedding with Malcolm.”

I nodded again.

“But the vasectomy you promised is still mandatory.”

I found it ridiculous. “Talia, you’re not even my wife. What right do you have to demand I get a vasectomy?”

She spoke with righteous indignation. “Because you ruined my first time, Everett! Do you know how important a girl’s first time is?”

“Do you know how much pain that incident caused Malcolm? He’ll never experience the pleasure of a first time in his whole life. Everett, I hate you!”

She truly did hate me, but I still had to tell her. “It was Malcolm who drugged you back then. I won’t take the blame for him.”

As always, she didn’t believe me.

“No matter what, you must get a vasectomy before our wedding. Otherwise, Malcolm won’t feel secure.”

In the prayer hall, Talia sat on Malcolm’s lap.

“Don’t worry, baby. Before our wedding, I’ll definitely make Everett into a castrated man. I want to make sure he’s never a man again, as revenge for you.”