Leo did not care about all these things when it came to Evelyn. Not only did he often give her luxury gifts in front of the entire staff, he even made special arrangements for her. He set up a desk in the CEO's office for her and justified his decision by saying that it would make Evelyn's work easier to do.

I glanced at Leo, my expression cold as I said, “Since you care so much about Evelyn’s reputation, why don’t you marry her and take responsibility for her?”

Leo stunned. His brows were furrowing deeper as he replied in a low voice, "Julie, the reason me and Evelyn went to Lockwood City this time was to discuss about business partnership. I don't have time to deal with your bad temper …."

Before he could finish his word, Evelyn cut in, "Leo, stop arguing. Miss Andrew was the one who wrote the project proposal. I don’t want to upset her over this and jeopardize the partnership. It’d be such a waste if things went wrong because of me.”

Her words sounded considerate as if she were genuinely concerned about my feelings and the company’s welfare. However, I knew exactly what she meant. She was just subtly mocking me, implying that I was too proud of my achievement.

Her provocation succeeded in making Leo's face darken even further. He then cast a sidelong glance at me and said, "Your gut has some gut now. How dare you use the company; cooperation to threaten me?"

"Do you really think there are no other people than you who can handle this project?” he sneered. “Well, since the proposal you made is in my hand, Evelyn can handle the presentation. You don't need to come."

I had seen the real Leo, but still, his harsh words made my heart bleed.

Just a month ago, to help his company secure this opportunity, I drank with the client representative. As a result, I ended up in the hospital for gastrointestinal bleeding.

As soon as I was discharged, I went back to work on the proposal right away. Now, Leo wanted to throw me aside and put Evelyn in my position to eat the fruit of my labor.

I sighed silently. I should have seen this coming. In the past, he always trusted my capabilities and sent me alone on business trips. However, this time, he had insisted on bringing Evelyn along with him. He claimed he did it because the other party was in a remote location, so he became concerned for my safety. In reality, he wanted to build a connection for Evelyn in the business circle.

A hint of smugness flashed on Evelyn's face as she explained with pretend concern, "Miss Andrew, Leo did this for the company's benefit. You’re too emotional right now and it’s not the best state of mind for an important meeting. I'm more than willing to help you with the workload. I won't steal your credit ...."

Before she could finish speaking, I waved my hand dismissively and said calmly, "You don’t need to say anything else. You can take not only this one project, but you're welcome to take all the future projects."

Leo's eyes narrowed with suspicion. "What are you talking about, Julie?"

I gave him a mocking smile and said slowly, “I quit.”

Then, I pulled out my phone and started to type. "Leo, I just sent you my resignation letter. I'll have Human Resources process my resignation letter over the next couple of days."

Leo gritted his teeth, his gaze fixed on me as he said, “Julie, are you sure about this?”

I had no desire to waste any more words on him. I turned to leave, but I only walked a few steps, when Evelyn grabbed my sleeve.

Just a few minutes ago, a blogger just posted another update. "My husband’s ex actually tried to seduce him by putting on my wedding dress. He was so disgusted he told her to take it off!"

"That shameless woman messed up my favorite dress, but luckily, my husband promised to take me shopping for a new one. Since he bought me a custom made bracelet worth of fifteen hundred dollars today, I’ll graciously forgive him."

When I looked at the picture of the bracelet and noticed it was exactly the same as the one Jimmy gave me, a chilling suspicion crept over me.

It was becoming impossible to ignore the signs. The person she said was her "husband” was none other than Jimmy, the man I had risked everything to save, the man I was supposed to marry.

That night, Jimmy did not return to our bedroom.

Soft laughter from the guest room next door that penetrated through the walls, drove me into a restless, sleepless state. I did fall asleep until just before dawn, and even then, it was a fitful sleep.

It was not until dawn, that Jimmy walked in and kicked me to wake me up without hesitation.

"Are you planning to sleep all day? Don’t forget you’re a housewife. Or are you waiting for me to serve you breakfast?"

The blow landed right on my injured leg, and I couldn’t stifle a gasp of pain.

Only when he saw me grimace, did he seem to notice something went wrong. Frowning, he pulled back the blanket, his eyes were met with a swollen and red stump.

"Debbie! How did you hurt your leg like this?” he exclaimed.

Before I could respond to his question, he bent down and lifted me into his arms. "Never mind, I'll take you to the hospital now to have it checked out.”

As I curled up in his arms, I caught a glimpse of his worried expression. For a fleeting moment, guilt tugged at my heart.

Maybe I had misunderstood him. After all, a similar dress didn’t necessarily mean anything, and maybe all of this really was just a coincidence.

While I was thinking about it, Jimmy carried me downstairs and placed me in the car. All that time his phone kept vibrating again and again without stopping.

As soon as I arrived at the hospital, I was whisked into the emergency room. Jimmy did not follow me inside. Instead, he chose to stand in the hallway while tapping his cell phone with tender eyes.

While waiting for the examination, I could not stop myself from taking out my phone and opened the blogger's homepage.

The moment I saw her latest post, I was devastated.

In the latest update, she posted a screenshot of a chat history with captions that said, "That disgusting woman faked another excuse about her leg just to drag my husband to the hospital. However, he promised me he would ditch her and come straight to me."

Even though the WhatsApp profile picture had been deliberately censored, I recognized it immediately. That man had recently switched his avatar to a cartoon character.

When I teased him about it, calling it childish, he’d snapped at me, "You wouldn't understand. It's called staying young at heart. I'm not like you, who can only spend the rest of your life lying in bed."

So, in order to make him happy, I looked into the internet to find the same picture and changed my WhatsApp avatar to match his, only to be ordered to changed it back immediately.

He told me, "You are just a cripple girl who is stuck at home all the time, how can you have the nerve to act like a young girl? You're embarrassing me! Stop it, will you?

I had blamed myself at the time, but now I understood. He had made me change it because it was a couple’s avatar, and I didn’t deserve to have the same one with him.

I forced myself to finish the examination, but by the time I came out, Jimmy had already vanished.

After he rejected my calls multiple times, it finally sank in. The man I had loved for a decade had betrayed me completely, both in body and in heart.

Leo was like a beam of light that forced its way into my life. He lighted up my entire world.

After spending day and day with him by my side, I could not help but fall in love with him. This was not unusual because people who had been in the cold for a long time would always want to stay close to the warmth.

So, when Leo confessed his love for me, I could not help but cry tears of joy and agreed without any hesitation.

Unfortunately, the deep love between the two young people faded over time to the point we were barely able to stand the sight of each other.

I rubbed my temples and surfed on my phone. I wanted to look at the weather forecast to check when the rain would stop.

Unexpectedly, I stumbled upon Evelyn's Instagram post, which she had uploaded a minute ago.

In the photo, Leo was wearing a pink apron. It was vastly different than his usually cold demeanor. The man was holding a bow filled with steaming millet porridge.

Then Evelyn gave the photo a caption, "If you meet a caring man like this, marry him."

I laughed bitterly. After all these years, I did not know he could cook. Back when Leo had just started his business and we had to live in a cramped rental unit, Leo almost blew up the unit just because he tried to cook stir-fried pork with green pepper.

That night, with soot on his face, he sheepishly apologized while picking the barely edible pieces out for me. “I’m sorry. I wanted to cook something nice for you since you’ve been working so hard to help me find clients. I didn’t mean to make things worse.”

At that time, I was so touched with his sincerity, but afraid he would hurt himself if he tried to cook again, I banned him from the kitchen and took over the meal preparation.

Yet, without my knowledge, he practiced cooking just for Evelyn.

Within minutes, Evelyn's Instagram post became the top trending topic among our colleagues in the company. Many of the commenters offered their best wishes, "May you two be together forever."

I couldn’t help but chuckle at her childish games. She had tried provoking me like this more times than I could count and she always used the same cheap tricks.

Without a care in the world, I clicked on the comment section and typed my own comment, "It's time. I wish you two eternal happiness and many children."

In a second after I posted my comment, Leo blew up my phone with messages. He wrote, "Julie don't be so sarcastic. Evelyn was just joking when she posted it. Take down your comment! She is crying because of it."

Message after message popped up on my phone. I could almost picture him typing angrily the message with a gloomy expression.

Leo had always been a calm and composed man. He rarely revealed his emotions.

“Steady and reliable” was practically synonymous with him. That was what I thought about him until the day I watched him lose control. He beat up some thug who’d been stalking Evelyn.

No matter how much I tried to stop him, he wouldn’t relent until Evelyn called out his name, “Leo.” That single word pulled him back from the edge.

He hurriedly wiped the blood from his hands, then cradled Evelyn’s face as he gently comforted her and told her not to be afraid.

I had never seen that kind of tenderness from him. From the way they looked at each other, their love was loud and clear.

As the rain outside finally subsided, I realized that the young man who once looked at me with such devotion had gone.

I took a long sigh and resolutely blocked Leo on every platform.