Cassidy looked genuinely surprised to see me at home.

Stanley glanced at me, false remorse in his eyes.

"Nate, I'm truly sorry for stopping your car this morning," he said. "Cassidy came with me to take the baby to the doctor. I rushed back because I wanted to apologize for ruining your engagement party. I hope… you're not too upset."

My hand tightened around the handle of my suitcase. "Well, you really went out of your way. Sick child in your arms, and still made the time to come back and apologize to me."

Stanley just stood there, clearly unsure of how to respond. His eyes flicked nervously toward her.

Cassidy's expression shifted at once, her voice thin and high. "Nate, quit the sarcasm. If you're angry, take it out on me. I'm the one who didn't show up at the engagement. I'm the one who betrayed you. This has nothing to do with Stanley. He's been taking care of the baby on his own. He's already dealing with enough. So please, mind what you say."

So she could care for someone. The thought hit me like a blade to the chest, sharp and cold, carving a hollow space inside me.

She had no hesitation throwing me out of the car while she rushed Stanley and their child to the hospital in the middle of rush hour.

No rides would take me. My phone had died. Worried our guests were still waiting, I walked five kilometers to the venue to clean up the mess.

But she never once stopped to consider if I was exhausted or how humiliating it might be for me to face our guests alone and explain that my fiancée wouldn't be coming.

"Did it ever occur to you to ask how I got to the engagement venue? Or how I handled everything after?"

Cassidy didn't even blink. "You're not some fresh grad. You're experienced. I knew you'd manage just fine."

"Cassidy, don't be like this," Stanley said gently, stepping forward. His gaze turned back to me, soft with regret. "I'm sorry. You know Cassidy's always been gentle. It's only when it comes to me that she gets flustered and starts acting irrational."

But Cassidy had never been gentle with me. Not once.

Back in college, the only time she ever showed softness was the day someone tried to drag me away near the train station.

She shouted, "The police are coming!"

Hearing this, the kidnappers immediately let go of me and ran away.

That one moment was enough to set my heart in motion, completely and irreversibly. I chased her for years like a fool with no pride, thinking I could melt the coldest ice with sincerity alone.

Then one business trip changed everything. The branch's performance had exceeded all expectations. Our company was on the verge of going public.

She proposed to me. Said she'd never let me down after the six years we'd been through together.

Said she wanted to give me what I'd always dreamed of.

And I believed her. I thought the clouds had finally cleared, and I could see the sunshine.

But she was never ice. She'd just never been mine to begin with. She had always belonged to someone else.

I let out a bitter laugh. Six years of persistence… for what?

That's when Stanley stepped forward. He looked me in the eye.

"Cassidy and I have a child now. Love… love doesn't care who came first. It only lasts when it's real. So I'm asking you now—step aside. Let her go. Please. My baby needs his mother."

In that moment, I realized I had become the one standing in the way. The villain in their story.

Cassidy clutched the baby tighter to her chest. "You don't have to apologize," she said to Stanley. "This is all on me."

Then she turned to me. There was guilt in her eyes. But more than that, there was finality.

"Nate, proposing to you was a mistake. I was being impulsive. I owed you too much, and I thought marriage would be a way to make up for it. I thought I could compromise. I told myself: the child goes to Stanley, the marriage goes to you—that would be fair. But the moment Stanley showed up again, I knew. Aside from Stanley, there's no one else I'd rather spend my life with."

Stanley looked at her, full of emotion.

And in that moment, my heart shattered. There was no shape left to it, just blood and bone and the silence between beats.

I let out a laugh. "You're acting like you've just met me. We've known each other for ten years, dated for six. And only now you realize you could never be with me?"

Right as her company was about to go public, she was suddenly ready to walk away.

But what she didn't know was that her company only got this far because I quietly backed it, using my family's resources. Every deal she landed, every contract she signed—it was me, behind the scenes, pushing it through.

I wanted to see how far her company would go without me.

I loosened the fist I hadn't realized I was clenching and looked at her.

"Fine. If that's what you want, let's call off the engagement."

Cassidy let out a cold laugh, not even a flicker of regret on her beautiful face.

"You said it yourself—don't try to pin it on me. Now pack your things and get out of my house."

Stanley glanced at me, putting on an air of concern. "Cassidy, it's raining outside. Where's he supposed to go if you kick him out now?"

Cradling the child, Cassidy looked at him with a softness that had never once been directed at me.

"Sure, he's an orphan. If someone hadn't taken pity and sponsored him, who knows where he'd be—probably begging on the street. But that doesn't give him the right to raise his voice at me."

She adjusted the baby in her arms and continued casually, "We were never right for each other anyway. All these years, I was slumming it with him. If I hadn't lowered my standards, he never would've gotten within ten feet of me."

She wasn't wrong. Before my family found me, I'd bounced around from one foster home to another.

But ten years—ten years of knowing her. Even if we weren't lovers, I'd thought we'd at least become something like family.

Turns out, in her eyes, I was nothing.

Stanley gave me an apologetic look, but his words didn't let up. "You should find a decent hotel, rest a bit. No matter how much Cassidy resents you, I do think we owe you something. One month from now, we're getting married. Will you come? I... I'd really appreciate your blessing."

It was humiliation, laid bare.

"Is that so? Then congratulations—finally made it official."

"He doesn't need to come, Stanley. Don't bother with him," Cassidy snapped, glaring at me. "Nate, you're too poor. You don't belong in my world. Don't waste your time chasing something that was never yours."

She looked afraid—afraid I'd cling to her.

But the moment I answered her call earlier, something inside me had already died.

And now she stared at me from above, lofty and condescending.

"You hung around for six years. Let's not make this messier than necessary. Here's a thousand dollars. Call it a severance package. You'll never do better than me. Pack your bags and get out. And don't you dare show your face again. Don't interfere with Stanley and me. People of our class don't associate with poverty-stricken strays. If I hear you telling anyone we dated, I'll ruin you."

I found myself on the street, suitcase wheels catching on uneven pavement as torrential rain lashed my face - each drop a cruel reminder of everything I'd lost.

Then tires hissed through the downpour as a black Mercedes glided to the curb.

A beautiful woman stepped out, her frame slim, her movements purposeful.

She walked toward me, a black umbrella held overhead. And the second I saw her face, my eyes went red.

"Willow," I choked out.

Willow Wright was my sister, the one who had lived my life in my place—the one who had taken my identity for years. Now, the adopted daughter of the Wright family.

Her expression was cold, but she slipped a black trench coat over my shoulders without a word. Then she reached up and patted me on the shoulder.

When she spoke, her voice was velvet-wrapped steel.

"Save your grief for someone who matters. That gold-digging woman isn't worth your sadness. Time to claim your birthright. I'll make sure she gets down on her knees, begging for your forgiveness."