My CEO boyfriend promised that if I gave the billion-dollar project to his first love, he would marry me immediately.

I agreed without hesitation. However, on the day we were supposed to register our marriage, he never showed up. I called him ninety-nine times, yet still could not reach him.

Just as I was about to give up, his first love posted a photograph of the two of them holding their marriage certificate.

[From school uniforms to wedding vows, our love's never changed.]

I silently liked the post.

Suddenly, the boyfriend who had been missing all day finally called me.

“Whitney got into a car accident trying to save me and lost her memory. The doctor said we need to keep stimulating her memories so she can recover.

“Don’t worry. Once she gets better, we’ll get married right away. You’re the one I truly love.”

What he did not know was that there was no future for us anymore. I was bound to a mission system, and the moment he failed to show up for our marriage registration, the system declared my mission a failure.

I would be completely erased in seven days.

“Jake, who are you talking to? The ceremony’s about to start.”

Just as I was about to hang up, a woman’s voice came through the phone.

My boyfriend, Jake, replied, “A client. I’ll be done in a minute.”

Then, he lowered his voice to comfort me.

“Baby, stop being upset, okay? I’m getting married today. I’ll call you back once I’m done.”

Beep, beep, beep…

The line went dead.

The staff glanced at me and asked, “Do you still want to process the paperwork?”

I shook my head and walked out.

A passerby handed me a can of soda when she saw how miserable I looked.

“Hey, it’s okay. There are plenty of good men out there. Don’t waste your life on just him.”

I looked at the cigarette dangling from her lips and boldly asked, “Can I have one too?”

I used to be heavily addicted to smoking, but Jake once said, “A girl should be graceful and ladylike. Smoking isn’t a good look.”

I quit smoking for him. I stopped for ten whole years.

I did not want to spend the last few days of my life trying to please him anymore.

The woman stared at me in surprise for a moment before handing me a slim cigarette.

“Thanks.”

Click!

The lighter flickered to life, and at that exact moment, the giant screen on the building across the street suddenly lit up with a live wedding broadcast.

The groom was unmistakably Jake.

How ridiculous.

On the very day the system had sentenced me to death, Jake was giving the woman he truly loved the wedding of the century.

Passersby stopped to admire the scene.

“Mr. Field really is loyal. He’s already rich, yet he still kept his promise and married his first love despite her being poor.”

The woman beside me nudged my arm.

“You seriously have terrible taste in men. If you’re getting married, find someone like him. He’s rich, faithful, and actually shows up for you.

“Take my advice and dump that boyfriend of yours who couldn’t even bother coming to register the marriage.”

Though I heard the laughter around me, I could not join in with them.

That man was my boyfriend, but he was marrying someone else.

As people nearby tuned in to the livestream, the reporter’s voice rang out.

“Mr. Field, you once said you’d never make your marriage public. Why did you end up deciding to livestream your wedding?”

Jake smiled happily and answered, “That was before. When you meet the woman you truly love, you just want to give her the whole world. What’s one wedding compared to that?”

I exhaled a cloud of smoke, and my eyes started to sting.

This whole time, the reason he kept our relationship secret for ten years was not work.

It was because he never loved me.

When a man truly loved someone, he would give her what Jake had given Whitney: a place by his side and the blessing of the entire world.

I pushed myself up suddenly.

The woman looked at me in surprise.

“Where are you going? Stay and watch the livestream with us. It’s entertaining!”

I watched the couple on the giant screen exchange rings, then shook my head and crushed the cigarette beneath my heel.

“I’m going to offer the newlyweds my congratulations.”

…

I carried the gift box into the wedding venue.

I had not wandered around for long before Jake caught wind of my arrival and hurried over, grabbing my wrist to drag me into a secluded corner.

Jake was wearing the suit I designed for him and the diamond ring I picked out for him, but he was not marrying me.

He pressed a hand to his temple irritably.

“I already told you, I’m just helping her recover. Can you be a little more understanding?”

My heart clenched.

I still remembered the moment the system’s deadline notification appeared. I begged him desperately, “Jake, if I don’t marry you this time, I’ll die. Can you please come register the marriage with me?”

Back then, he just gave me a cold stare.

“I told you, Whitney is just someone from my past. Can you stop making a scene?”

When I refused to give up, he finally gave in reluctantly.

“As long as you give the project to Whitney, I’ll marry you.”

I thought that if I pleased him, if I let him stay with his first love and even handed over a billion-dollar project, I would be able to survive.

However, I was wrong.

He agreed to marry me, only to stand me up on the day of our registration and instead marry Whitney.

He let her take everything from me. Now that I had nothing left, including my own life, he was still telling me to be understanding.

How ridiculous.

I calmly handed him the gift.

“Congratulations on your marriage.”

Inside was a women’s watch he bought for me ten years ago, when he confessed his love and spent everything he had on me.

It cost over a thousand dollars, an unimaginable sum for us back when we could barely afford food.

I once believed it was the symbol of our love and had kept it carefully all this time.

It was over between us now, so this symbol should be returned to him.

Jake held the gift in his hand, realizing he had misunderstood me. He opened his mouth awkwardly, as though he was about to say something.

At that moment, Whitney arrived.

“Jake, everyone’s waiting for you.”

She only then seemed to notice me and asked, confused, “Who is she?”

She pretended not to recognize me, but the sharpness in her eyes betrayed her.

I was certain that Whitney had never lost her memory.

However, Jake, who had always been so perceptive, could not see through her act. Instead, he quickly explained, “Just a friend. She’s here to deliver a gift.”

Whitney immediately smiled and thanked me, then opened the gift in front of everyone. She said in surprise, loudly enough for everyone to hear, “A watch?”

Whispers spread through the crowd.

“Giving a watch at a wedding? Is she here to cause trouble?”

Tears welled up in Whitney’s eyes.

“I believe you, Jake. Your friend must be here to bless us. I’ll wear it so she won’t feel embarrassed.”

She put it on while crying.

Jake shot me a reproachful glance and soothed her, “If you don’t like it, don’t force yourself.”

However, she shook her head stubbornly.

“No, I have to wear it. It’s from your friend.”

During their struggle, the watch slipped and shattered on the ground.

Whitney acted like a naive child, pressing her hand directly onto the shattered glass.

She cried out in pain, holding up a fingertip with a bead of blood on it.

Jake’s expression darkened when he saw this. He grabbed the watch strap and hurled it at me.

“I knew you came here with bad intentions. Guards, kick her out!”

He called in an entire medical team to tend to her tiny wound, holding her finger like it was something precious.

He pretended not to see how the watch cut my face when he threw it at me.

Blood slid down my cheek, yet I felt no pain.

“Miss Hoyles, please get out!”

The same bodyguards who once protected me now lifted me to please their new master and threw me out.

I collapsed onto the gravel path. My body ached as though every bone had shattered. I did not even try to get up. I just lay there staring at the sky.

After a long while, my phone buzzed. Jake had wired me $100,000.

[Head to the hospital. If your face gets disfigured, I really won’t want you anymore.]

I did not accept the money. I just forced myself up and threw the blood-stained, broken watch into the trash.

It did not matter anymore.

I just want to live for myself for the last seven days of my life.

…

I stopped sending Jake good-morning and good-night texts, and I no longer replied to his messages.

On the second day after my death sentence, I went to the bar he hated most. I smoked, drank, and danced until dawn.

On the third day, I sold all the gifts he had given me and donated the money to charity.

On the fourth day, I burned all thirty thousand photos we had taken together.

The butler tried to persuade me.

“Mr. Field is just confused for a moment. He still loves you.

“You two built everything together, and it wasn’t easy. You should try to win him back before Whitney really takes your place.”

Jake started out as an ordinary man. The system tasked me with winning him over, so I stayed by his side while he built his business.

I handled the hardest work and took on the most difficult projects. There were countless times when I drank so much with clients that I was hospitalized, just to secure a deal.

Jake wanted a reputation and the position of CEO.

I gave him everything he wanted.

When we finally made enough money to buy this villa, he cried and promised he would treat me well for the rest of his life.

However, in the end, he was the one who ended my life.

I shook my head and flicked my cigarette butt into the fire.

Whitney was the one he truly loved. No matter how hard I tried to win him back, I would only humiliate myself.

The butler heaved a sigh, but he still wanted to call Jake.

That night, when I came downstairs, Jake returned with a row of luxury watches for me to choose from.

“I misunderstood you that day, but if you hadn’t shown up, Whitney wouldn’t have been injured.

“Anyway, forget it. I broke your gift, and I’m sorry.

“That watch was too cheap anyway. I’ll buy you a better one. You actually benefited from all this.”

He joked like he always did and reached out to touch the injury on my face.

I dodged him.

It was a gift that had once cost everything he had, but he no longer remembered its significance, calling it cheap.

Yes, he was right.

The love he gave me had always been cheap. I was the fool who treasured it for so many years.

I lay on the sofa and replied calmly, “No need. Give the watches to Whitney instead. She’s your wife, after all.”

Jake hesitated for a moment, as though he wanted to say something.

At that moment, Whitney walked out of a room in her nightgown, deliberately showing off the watch on her wrist.

“No need. The watches Jake buys me are all worth hundreds of millions and are one-of-a-kind. I don’t care for something so tacky.”

Jake raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

Whitney let out an ‘oops’, lightly smacking herself on the mouth.

“Sorry. I’m too straightforward. I don’t think before I speak. If I’ve offended you in any way, please forgive me.

“Jake said you’re his senior who helped him a lot, so I should toast to you.”

I turned to look at Jake sharply.

He once said this was our forever home, but now, he had brought another woman into it.

Sensing my reaction, he looked at me pleadingly, hands pressed together, silently asking me to play along.

However, I was no longer the obedient woman I used to be.

I refused to endure this anger anymore.

I raised my glass and clinked it into empty air.

“What a joke! You don’t even have a brain.”

Silence.

Whitney’s face turned deathly pale instantly.

Jake’s expression also darkened.

“Apologize!”

She came into my home to stir trouble, yet I was the one who had to apologize? What kind of logic was that?

I ignored him and made my way up the stairs.

I could hear Jake’s gentle voice comforting Whitney from downstairs, treating her like a child.

It was a treatment I had never once received.

After a long while, the villa finally fell silent.

I went downstairs to get something to eat.

Unexpectedly, Whitney had not left yet.

She walked up to me with a smile.

“How does it feel to have your husband taken away?

“Let me tell you the truth. I didn’t lose my memory. I did it on purpose.”

I poured myself a glass of water.

“Oh.”

I knew she wanted to provoke me, but a dying person no longer had anything left to care about.