I was the eldest daughter of the Carter family, yet the man I was forced to marry was a crippled security guard.

It was all because my childhood fiancé, Daniel Brooks, threatened my father with thirty years of future business cooperation, coercing him into agreeing to this ridiculous marriage.

When my father went to confront him, Daniel only gave a careless smile.

“I’ve been in love with Emma Carter for ten years, of course I’ll marry only her. But before marriage she publicly humiliated Chloe Miller, mocking her background—that was truly thoughtless.”

“It’s just a fake wedding anyway, considered compensation for Chloe. Her health isn’t good, and we can’t let her stay upset.”

Chloe Miller was the daughter of a maid in the Brooks family. At our engagement banquet, she clung to Daniel, hugging him. When I reminded her to mind the occasion and her identity, Daniel retaliated by humiliating me with this marriage.

But the Carters were truly in crisis, and the Brooks family’s actions nearly destroyed three generations of my family’s efforts. My grandfather was so enraged he collapsed and was rushed to the hospital.

Later, I quietly held a wedding.

Yet when I became the laughingstock of New York high society just as Daniel wished, he suddenly went mad seeing the brightly colored U.S. marriage certificate in my hand.

“Dad, Mom, I’m marrying him.”

I pressed my palm against the glass of the emergency room, staring at my grandfather’s lifeless figure on the bed, despair tightening around my chest.

“Emma, don’t say such nonsense. Even if it ruins Carter Group, I will never let you marry a security guard Daniel pointed at on a whim!”

My father stood beside me, eyes bloodshot. The constant blows seemed to have aged him ten years overnight, strands of white appearing at his temples.

Everyone in our circle knew the Brooks and Carter families had been close for generations. Daniel and I had grown up together, and people had long awaited the day we wed.

But Daniel would rather gamble thirty years of cooperation between our families than allow me to marry anyone else—he insisted I wed a crippled guard.

The gossip in the social circle swirled like a storm:

“It must be Emma who wronged Daniel. That girl’s notorious, I heard she’s had several abortions. Maybe she even made him raise another man’s child.”

“Exactly, otherwise why would the Brooks family disregard decades of ties and leverage thirty years of deals? Clearly, Daniel must have his own grievances.”

“I heard the Carter patriarch’s in the hospital—driven there by that shameless daughter.”

In a single day, my reputation was ruined. I became branded as nothing more than a call girl.

My phone filled with lewd messages from men inviting me out, and all who had once befriended me avoided me like the plague. Even when my parents went out to secure investments and partnerships, they were ridiculed and pointed at.

At last, I gave in and asked Daniel for a meeting. Instead, he invited me to an amusement park he’d spent a billion dollars building.

“This is for Chloe,” he said, lifting the pouting girl from the carousel. “She’s always been like a child. After we’re married, if you want to come, you’ll need Chloe’s permission.”

After ten years of dating, Daniel had spoken to me mostly of business. I once thought all men were simply that dull. But now, seeing him spend a fortune to build an amusement park just to please another girl, a bitter ache spread through my chest.

He gently comforted Chloe, who shrank back whenever she saw me, his expression tender and indulgent—yet his tone toward me turned colder.

“Emma, Chloe was kidnapped as a child saving me. Since then, she’s never been able to leave my side. Yes, we’re close, but that doesn’t justify you lashing out at her.”

“She’s innocent, childlike. It’s only your filthy heart that twists everything.”

He spoke with righteous indignation, but I found his words absurd and laughable.

They were supposed to be adopted siblings in name only, yet they kissed and embraced before my eyes, their actions shameless. And when I dared say, “Mind your identity,” it became “verbal abuse.”

“You could have spoken to me beforehand. Why did you have to threaten the Carter family with thirty years of cooperation? Don’t you understand what state my family is in right now…”

I opened my mouth bitterly to explain, but Daniel Brooks cut me off, his face full of disapproval toward me.

“Emma! If I hadn’t brought up cooperation, would anyone in the Carter family tolerate Chloe Miller? Even you speak to her however you please. If that’s the case, wouldn’t the rest of your family bully her to death?”

“I’m telling you, even after we’re married, Chloe will live with us. And after marriage, our assets will be divided with her—half.”

Seeing me freeze, Daniel softened his tone as if to comfort me.

“Emma, that wedding was nothing but a charade. I’d never let you marry anyone else. But you hurt Chloe, so this was just a lesson for you.”

“Now go prepare. Make the real wedding lively enough so Chloe won’t get bored.”

I looked at the man who once swore he’d love only me for life, and it felt like a thunderbolt splitting through me. My head rang hollow.

I had thought love was a story between two people. Turns out, not all love is.

I wanted to turn away with dignity, but my tears betrayed me, exposing my humiliation.

“Daniel, let’s call off the engagement.”

The man who was coaxing Chloe with cotton candy suddenly snapped his head up, staring at me in disbelief.

“What did you say?”

“Let’s end it.”

As those words left my lips, the suffocating pressure in my chest eased, and my expression steadied.

Daniel’s hand holding the candy stiffened for a moment, then relaxed. A mocking smile spread across his face.

“End the engagement? And what right do you have to say that? Does the Carter Group no longer want to survive?”

“And besides me, who else in the circle would dare marry you now? Emma, your reputation is already rotten beyond repair.”

“Or do you, the grand heiress of the Carter family, really intend to marry that crippled security guard?”

The calm I had found cracked into a stab of pain. So he knew—he knew everything his fiancée had suffered. Yet for the sake of venting Chloe’s anger, for the sake of forcing me and my family to accept his twisted bond with her, he had condoned it all.

Whatever affection we once shared evaporated into nothing.

The engagement ring on my finger suddenly felt unbearably heavy. In silence, I slid it off and held it out to him.

That diamond was one we had traveled to the source to choose together. Its design had come after a hundred failed sketches. We had even learned from a master jeweler for a year to set the stone ourselves.

He said a ring filled with such love would surely bind us until death, and he made me promise never to take it off.

But now, I no longer wanted it.

Daniel frowned, hesitating to accept it. When I didn’t withdraw my hand, irritation flashed in his eyes. He slapped the ring away.

I stared at him in shock, but he only sneered.

“If you don’t want it, then just throw it away.”

I let out a faint laugh of release, turned, and walked away.

“Yes, that’s better. It should have been this way all along.”

For a moment, Daniel’s expression froze. A trace of panic flickered across his face, and he reached out as if to stop me—but Chloe quickly clutched his arm, her voice soft and innocent.

“Daniel, Emma really seems upset. Did Chloe do something wrong?”

Daniel immediately turned to reassure her.

“It’s not your fault, Chloe. You’ve done nothing wrong. It’s the Carters who can’t accept you. In seven days, when their crisis deepens, she’ll come around on her own.”

Chloe’s eyes flickered with worry. “But isn’t that bad? What if it really breaks Emma’s heart?”

Daniel’s confidence was unshaken.

“No, never. Emma and I have loved each other for ten years. Something this small, I can smooth over after marriage. The real question is—don’t you want to live with me, Chloe?”

Chloe Miller shyly nestled into Daniel Brooks’s arms, the two of them laughing happily behind me.

The sound of their voices made my steps quicken—I only wanted to escape. In front of Daniel, the emotions I had tried so hard to suppress broke apart, and tears streamed uncontrollably down my face.

Ten years of love crumbled into nothing in an instant.

When I returned home, my mother immediately noticed my expression and pressed me until I confessed everything. She burst into tears on the spot and clutched me tightly.

“It’s better to see their true faces early. If you don’t want to marry Daniel, then you won’t. Your father and I will support you.”

I wiped away my tears, looking at my once-beautiful mother now worn down by the struggles of the Carter family, and said firmly,

“Mom, I’m willing to marry that security guard.”

She broke down, sobbing as she whispered, “It’s our fault as parents, letting you suffer like this…”

Daniel was determined to destroy the Carters, and no one dared to help us. My parents worked themselves to exhaustion for days, nearly collapsing, yet still found no solution.

My father’s eyes reddened as he looked at me with guilt.

“Emma, you must think carefully. The Carter family values loyalty and honor. If you marry him…”

“If I marry, it will be real. I’ll get a legal certificate with him and build a home together.”

My voice was firm, leaving no room for doubt. My parents held me and wept for a long time. Remembering my grandfather lying unconscious in the emergency room, they finally agreed.

Once the decision was made, my parents threw themselves into preparing the best wedding they could within their means. I busied myself choosing a new gown and arranging the venue.

For a time, I almost managed to forget those two. But then Daniel called, inviting me to Chloe’s birthday banquet. If I attended, he said, part of the cooperation with Carter Group would begin.

I hesitated, then answered coldly, “Fine.”

On the night of the party, I walked into the grand hall under the weight of countless stares.

Ignoring the whispers around me, I stood quietly in a corner, dressed in a simple black gown, watching Chloe and Daniel at the center of the crowd.

They wore the latest matching outfits from a luxury brand—less like foster siblings celebrating a birthday, more like a pair of newlyweds basking in the spotlight.

“Daniel, look, Emma’s here. Go and smooth things over,” Chloe cooed, holding his arm as they walked toward me.

But as soon as she got close, Chloe’s eyes went wide with horror. She trembled violently until Daniel pulled her into his arms and snapped at me:

“Chloe has a trauma response to black. Did you wear this deliberately to hurt her?”

“I didn’t know—no one told me…”

I tried to explain, but Daniel cut me off. His furious eyes reflected my helplessness, his tone ice-cold.

“Guards, take her upstairs and change her clothes.”

Dozens of eyes turned toward me. The whispers in the room grew sharper, filled now with venom and malice.

Before the crowd, though I was still fully clothed, it felt as if I had been stripped bare.

The guards dragged me upstairs, shoving a maid’s uniform at me and demanding I change. Thinking of the Carter family’s survival tied to Daniel’s so-called cooperation, I swallowed my pride and obeyed.

As soon as I stepped out, I heard Chloe’s sweet voice:

“Daniel, I’m sure Emma didn’t mean it. If you’re still angry, why not punish her by making her play a song for us when we dance later?”

“Make her play Summer Love Song—the one she wrote and composed herself.”

Daniel froze.

I looked at the two of them still clinging to each other and said coldly,

“I came here to attend a banquet, not to provide entertainment. I won’t play anything—least of all Summer Love Song.”