In the third year of Lyra Hawthorne's engagement to Ryder Calloway, he found himself a beautiful grid girl named Nova Voss abroad.

The day before Valentine's Day, he deliberately brought Nova to see Lyra and demanded to break off the engagement.

"Nova and I share the same interests. A simp like you will never understand the thrill of racing."

Lyra refused to accept it and asked, "Does it have to be today?"

He laughed. "Do you need to check the calendar to call off an engagement?"

She nodded and didn't argue any further.

A month later, she entered the same race he did. What he didn't know was that she had understood the thrill of racing long before he ever did.

Later, she got married on his birthday.

With reddened eyes, he asked, "Does it have to be today?"

She smiled as well.

"Of course. You do need to pick an auspicious day for a wedding."

When Ryder Calloway came to see me, I had not seen him for nearly half a year.

He had studied abroad for three years, yet after returning home, he had not sent me a single message.

A few days earlier, I received a voice recorder mailed from overseas. The moment I turned it on, the first thing I heard was a burst of laughter.

"Hahaha, Ryder, you're unbelievable! Not only did you get your racing license, but you even hooked up with the hottest grid girl in the paddock! Nova, hurry and tell us, how does Ryder drive in bed?"

A flirtatious female voice answered, "Do I even need to say it? Straight to the fast lane, obviously!"

A piercing shriek followed instantly, so loud it almost tore through my eardrums.

I lowered the volume of the recorder and kept listening.

"Ryder, what about your fiance back home? Haven't you two been engaged for three years? Aren't your families pushing you to marry her?"

My fingers clenched unconsciously as I turned the volume all the way up.

"Fiance? What do kids know about love? Lyra Hawthorne and I haven't even seen each other for more than half a year. At best, she's just my parents' free live-in caretaker. She's obedient and easy to deal with."

Someone teased him, "Damn, Ryder, you really are something. You even got the Hawthorne heiress to willingly play nanny."

The voices paused for a few seconds. Then I heard Ryder give a mocking laugh. "Well, what can I say? She likes me that much."

After I finished listening to that recording, my mind went completely blank. All I did was wait for Ryder to come back and give me an explanation.

Now, his red Porsche was parked right outside my house. The car window was open, and he was sitting in the driver's seat.

One hand pinched the girl's chin beside him. The other cradled the back of her head as he kissed her deeply, lingering, completely without restraint.

Suddenly, I remembered the day three years ago when Ryder first left to study abroad. In the airport waiting lounge, he had gently kissed my cheek, his eyes bright.

"Lyra, be good and wait for me at home. When I graduate, I'll come back and marry you."

Apparently, he had forgotten every word.

I took a deep breath and shifted a few steps away, turning my gaze elsewhere. It seemed there was no need for an explanation anymore.

A full ten minutes passed before I finally heard the car door open. Ryder walked toward me unhurriedly, wiping the corner of his lips.

"You saw that, right?" he said casually. "Let's just forget about the engagement. You're a good person. You just don't have much personality. The kind of girl I like needs to be confident, bold, and full of energy. You don't have any of that."

The Porsche window lowered a few inches. The girl in the passenger seat whistled toward us and even blew a kiss.

Ryder clearly loved that kind of thing. He smiled at her with open indulgence.

"Her name is Nova. We share the same interests. A simp like you will never understand the thrill of racing."

Moonlight fell across his face. Yet the way he looked at Nova was even softer than the moonlight.

I tried my best to suppress the turbulence in my chest. My voice carried a trace of bitterness. "You've decided? It has to be today?"

Ryder paused for a few seconds before laughing. "Do you need to check the calendar to break off an engagement?"

That was true.

I nodded. "Alright. I understand."

Perhaps my reaction was calmer than he expected. Ryder seemed slightly uncomfortable instead.

"If there's anything you need help with, just tell me," he said. "For example, do you need me to explain it to your family?"

"No need."

Through that voice recorder, I already knew everything.

My family and Ryder's family had known each other for generations.

When I was eighteen, my mother, Eleanor Hawthorne, fell critically ill. Ryder's mother, Portia Calloway, donated a kidney that saved Mum's life.

Before the surgery, Mum lay in the hospital bed crying. "How are we ever supposed to repay something like this?"

Mrs. Calloway half-joked, "If you really want to repay me, then let Lyra marry my son someday."

I stood there at a loss, unsure what to say.

Ryder answered first, "Then it's settled, Mrs. Hawthorne. I like Lyra. I'll definitely marry her in the future." He spoke with such certainty as if he would never go back on his word.

So, three years ago, Ryder and I got engaged. I stayed in the country, while he went abroad.

Perhaps out of gratitude, I deliberately picked up cooking and basic nursing care. Whenever I had time, I would go to Ryder's house to take care of his parents.

The rumors outside grew harsher and harsher.

People said I was Ryder's shameless little follower, that before even marrying him, I had already degraded myself into being his family's servant.

However, whenever I thought about Mum, I endured it all.

To vent my frustration, I secretly started practicing racing. I even achieved quite a few good results.

Later, Mum's illness returned, and she passed away. My father, Victor Hawthorne, remarried and started a new family, and my position in that household became more and more insignificant.

It felt as though, aside from Ryder, there was no one left I could rely on.

Now he was telling me that he liked someone else.

So to him, I had only ever been a naive affection from his youth, far less meaningful than the feelings he developed in just a dozen days with someone new.

I thought I would cry, yet not a single tear fell.

Silently, I opened the safe and took out the tokens we had exchanged during our engagement.

His was an exquisite antique hairpin, symbolizing the rightful wife binding one's hair together for life.

The one I had given him was a double-carved ruby pendant Mum had passed down to me. It symbolized the virtue of a gentleman. That pendant was the only thing Mum had left for me.

I made an appointment with Ryder to meet again. Since the engagement was already broken, the tokens naturally had to be exchanged back.

Just after midnight, Ryder updated his social media. In the photo, he and Nova were tightly embracing, their hands forming a heart together.

Ryder wrote: "No special skills. Just managed to win over the person I wanted on Valentine's Day."

So that was why he had been in such a hurry to break off the engagement. He wanted to announce their relationship on Valentine's Day.

I tapped the like button. If he liked her that much, then they might as well stay locked together forever.

A few minutes later, a message suddenly popped up on my phone.

Orion Vance: "Happy Valentine's Day."

I stared at the name for several seconds, my mind freezing. I never expected he would be the first person to say that to me.

In our circle, everyone said Orion was someone of extraordinary status, someone far beyond reach. As for me, I had only met him a few times through racing.

Maybe he had sent the message to the wrong person, but the next second, another message appeared.

"You deserve someone better."

…

Before I even had time to think about Orion's words, I was already drowning in a flood of rumors.

Almost everyone around me was saying that Ryder had dumped me.

Early that morning, Dad scolded me harshly. Even my stepmother, Vanessa Hawthorne, mocked me with cold sarcasm, saying I was useless.

I found it almost laughable. At some point, despite being the one betrayed, I had somehow become the embarrassing one.

Soon after, a number of people began sending me private messages.

"So I heard Ryder got himself a new girlfriend? Hahaha. And on Valentine's Day too. I honestly don't even know how to comfort you."

"These past few years weren't a loss, though. At least you learned how to serve people well, right, Lyra?"

"He's just stubborn but softhearted. If you beg him nicely, maybe he'll change his mind. If that doesn't work, you could always cry, make a scene, or threaten suicide."

I ignored all of their mockery.

One by one, I blocked and deleted them.

Right now, all I wanted was Mum's keepsake back. I placed the hairpin and the voice recorder together into a box.

At the appointed time, I arrived at the meeting place, but when I got there, I realized I had been tricked.

An entire table of people was already sitting there. Every single one of them was part of Ryder's usual group of friends back home.

He and Nova sat in the middle of the table, laughing and chatting with everyone around them.

The moment the door opened, every pair of eyes in the room turned toward me.

Ryder spoke first, "Nova wanted to meet some of my friends, so I invited everyone over while we were here. You don't mind, do you?"

Someone who clearly couldn't wait to watch the drama quickly pulled out a chair.

"Oh, Lyra's here! Come on, we've been waiting for you."

I didn't sit. Instead, I placed the box with the hairpin on the table. "This is yours. Where's mine?"

Ryder froze for a moment before clicking his tongue. "Ah, damn. I forgot."

"Then please mail it to me as soon as possible. I have somewhere else to be."

I had just turned to leave when Nova stepped in front of me.

"Lyra, don't go yet. If you leave now, everyone will think I'm the other woman." She frowned slightly, putting on an innocent expression.

I smiled. "Aren't you?"

The private room fell silent.

Nova's face stiffened, her expression turning sour.

Ryder shot me an irritated look. "Sit down, Lyra. I'll call the driver and have him bring it over."

While we waited for the driver, the atmosphere gradually warmed up again.

Ryder had been right. Nova was bold and flamboyant, speaking with effortless confidence. Before long, she had become the center of attention.

Someone asked eagerly, "Nova, I heard you worked as a grid girl abroad. Tell us what that was like."

Her excitement immediately grew.

By the time I lowered my head to sip my tea, she had already moved from explaining race rules to talking about driving techniques, sounding completely at ease with the entire racing world.

"You know what I love most about racetracks?" she said. "The adrenaline rush. And you get to meet so many incredible drivers."

Her gaze drifted meaningfully toward Ryder, who had already turned his head toward her, his eyes full of warmth.

She sighed in mock regret. "The only downside is how hard it is to get a racing license. I've tried several times and still haven't passed."

Most of the people at the table had never had any connection to racing before, so the more she spoke, the more impressed they became.

"Wow, Nova, that's already amazing. None of the girls we know have anything to do with racing."

"Yeah, Ryder really does have good taste. Finding someone who's both gorgeous and that cool."

Ryder instinctively glanced at me.

I kept my head down, quietly drinking my tea without saying a word.

Nova followed his gaze and looked at me. "Lyra, do you know anything about racing?"

The moment she asked, someone burst out laughing.

"Her? No way she'd understand something that exciting. Miss Hawthorne barely even leaves the house. If she stepped onto a racetrack, she'd probably faint on the spot."

"That's not entirely fair. I see her going to Ryder's house all the time. Taking care of people takes skill too, right?"

Nova widened her eyes in mock surprise and covered her mouth. "Oh? Really? Then I guess my question was rude. But that's okay. Everyone has their own value."

She turned toward Ryder again, her tone suddenly soft and playful. "When we get married someday, you'll have to hire someone like Lyra to take care of your parents. I definitely can't do that."

Laughter exploded around the table.

I clenched my fists before slowly loosening them again. As long as I got my item back, I wouldn't stay here a second longer.

Nova pulled a ticket from her bag and asked someone beside her to pass it to me.

"Lyra, this is a ticket for next month's race. I happened to have an extra. Ryder and I will both be competing. If you have time, you should come watch."

I looked at the ticket and smiled. Wasn't this the exact race I had signed up for not long ago?

I didn't bother wasting words on them. I drained the tea in my cup and looked up at Ryder. "Call your driver again. Ask where the item is."

Ryder made the call.

A moment later, his brows drew together.

"Lyra… you might not be able to get it back right now."