While Nolan and I were lost in a passionate kiss, his brother’s widow suddenly interrupted, claiming her kitten had diarrhea. I could not help but laugh at her petty and absurd antics.  

But Nolan? He did not even hesitate. He shoved me aside and rushed out without caring about my hand being pierced by the glass.

In that moment, his actions spoke louder than words, he had shown me I meant less to him than a cat.  

As I wrapped my bleeding hand, the realization hit me hard. Nolan was not worthy of me. 

With a resolute heart, I began packing my belongings, piece by piece.  

Not long after, I spotted his uncle at the beach, shirtless and casually carrying a backpack, his carefree demeanor a stark contrast to the chaos in my life.

And as if on cue, almost laughably late, Nolan decided to remember our engagement.

“The venue is set up just the way you like,” he said, feigning warmth. “Don’t forget to show up tomorrow.”  

***

“Nolan, Kitty has diarrhea.”

When I heard these words over the phone, Nolan's hand, which was inserted into my clothes, stopped.

At the crucial moments, I always noticed if Nolan would always ignore the phone call/

But that moment, after he glanced at the phone, he directly answered it.

The caller was his brother's widow, a woman named Kate Stone.

Nolan suppressed his previous panting and said softly, “I'll be there soon, don't be afraid, okay?”

When Nolan pulled his hand out, it was trembling slightly.

One moment, he was holding my hand firmly, but in the next, he let go as if it meant nothing at all.  

Without his support, I stumbled and fell, crashing into a glass that shattered into countless shards. 

Pain shot through me as jagged pieces pierced my hand, leaving it bleeding.

The pain came over me and I looked up at Nolan.

But he acted as if I was not in the room, hurriedly grabbed his shorts and vest to put them on.

Nolan was so anxious that he rushed out without even putting on his shoes.

As a result, I stood there in a daze, looking at the man I have loved for three years.

For the sake of a cat, he ran out of the door without caring about me being injured.

I suddenly felt ridiculous.

At yesterday's party, Kate cornered me behind Nolan's back, smirking as she said, “Caroline, do you believe that whenever I call Nolan, he’ll come running to me?”

I held my head high, refusing to let her words sting. Nolan was mine, there was no way her claims held any truth.  

But Kate did not stop. Tipsy and emboldened, she leaned on Nolan’s shoulder, her voice laced with mock vulnerability. 

“Nolan, will you ever get tired of me? I’m so afraid you’ll leave me one day. Can you promise to always be there for me whenever I need you?”

The crowd began to murmur and I could feel curious eyes darting in my direction, eager for drama.  

Nolan glanced at me briefly, clearly noticing my discomfort, then casually brushed Kate’s hair as though nothing was amiss. 

“I will, don’t worry,” he said softly, as if sealing a pact.  

Turning to me with a disarming smile, he added, “Kate’s like a sister to me. You shouldn’t let this bother you.”

I stood there frozen, trying to mask my embarrassment and growing unease while Kate's triumphant smirk lingered in my mind. 

So, at that moment, I could not be sensible anymore.

“What if it’s bothering me?” I asked in disgust.

But my question just made Nolan chuckle and he said calmly, “Well, just be bothered by it, since I won't change my care to Kate anyway.”

At that moment, Kate's provocative and complacent eyes swept over me again.

Anyone clearly could see what she was thinking, but only Nolan could not understand.

He was afraid that Kate would get so drunk, that was why he snatched the wine from her hand one glass after another.

The two of them interacted with each other, until Kate soon fell into his arms due to being drunk.

It was also at that moment that Nolan finally looked up at me seriously.

He waved his hand and asked the driver to take Kate back.

When my heart felt like it was being squeezed tightly and was aching and swollen, Nolan brought me to the corner of the stairs.

He did not say anything, just used his usual trick of holding me in his arms, stroking my hair back and forth and sniffing hard.

Nolan’s voice was calm but carried an edge that cut deep.  

"Caroline," he began, his words deliberate, "you must remember, my brother lost his life because of a WhatsApp message from you, right? In other words, you owe Kate. So, I’m paying off your debt, do you understand?"

I stared at him, stunned, as he continued without hesitation.  

"What’s more, I promised my brother I’d take care of her. A promise is a promise and I want everyone to see that I, Nolan, honor my word."

He looked at me then, his expression devoid of warmth.  

"In this world, the person with the least right to question me or Kate is you, okay?" 

I had heard those accusations countless times before and I had explained myself just as many times.  

I told Nolan over and over again that I was not the one who sent that WhatsApp.  

That day, Kate had asked me to go shopping with her. 

Halfway through, her phone ran out of battery, so she borrowed mine to send a WhatsApp message to her husband. 

I did not think much of it at the time. But it turned out to be a setup.  

Using my phone, she recorded a voice note, imitating my tone perfectly, "Help, Kate is in trouble!"

Her husband, who was with Nolan at the time, panicked. The two men sped off to reach her, only to meet tragedy on the road.  

When Nolan woke up after the crash, the first words he uttered were, "Is Kate okay?"

I had been by his side, hugging him tightly, my tears unstoppable, thinking I had almost lost him, too.  

But his second sentence shattered me, "Because of your childishness and playfulness, you killed my brother. Are you satisfied?"

No matter how much I pleaded or how many times I tried to explain, Nolan would not listen.  

He insisted it was me.  

He believed Kate, the so-called sensible and well-behaved one, could not possibly make such a joke.  

He believed that only someone as impulsive and playful as me would send such a message.  

A few deceitful words from Kate were all it took to convict me in his heart.

When I came back to my senses, Nolan, with a smell of alcohol, bent down and kissed me like he did before.

He rubbed my lips and changed his tone, “Caroline, can you help me take care of Kate?

“As long as you are willing, as long as you are generous, you will always be number one in my heart, okay?”

Tears welled up in his eyes, his nose was red and he looked at me almost pleadingly, which made my heart skip a beat.

Before Kate got involved, Nolan really treated me like a treasure.

Thinking of that, all the anger I had just felt seemed to be sucked away by him and my heart softened again.

I thought to give him another chance. After all, we would be getting engaged tomorrow.

But Kate lured him away with a cat. 

Even when my hand was cut, a glaring red, he did not even look back.

So, I thought directly, no matter how much I loved him, I could not allow him to humiliate me like that.

I admitted that in the relationship, my biggest weakness was my soft heart.

So, when Kate used that method to let me know that in Nolan’s heart, she was everything, I directly slapped my face quickly and hard to make me realize.

After all, I was not even as good as one of her cats.

I gritted my teeth, endured the pain, got up and found the disinfectant.

But at that time, Kate sent me a photo.

In the photo, Nolan was holding Kitty with his back to Kate.

Under the warm yellow light, Nolan was wearing the shorts and vest he had just picked up. The loose sports shorts hung lazily at his waist and his beautiful tendon muscles were sexy and tight.

Kate sent me a message that read, [Caroline, how is it? I won. No matter when I say a word, Nolan will leave you and come to me.

Guess what it feels like to hug a man like this from behind? It must be very pleasant to be held in his arms and tortured severely, right?

Caroline, why don't I try for you?]

When I saw those words along with the smell of disinfectant, I suddenly felt like vomiting.

After retching a few times while holding the trash can, I held the phone and yelled at the other end, “You bitch!”

I threw away my phone and bandaged the wound.

Suddenly I remembered that Kate had been provoking me for three years.

It was not that Nolan did not know that. 

But every time, he would repeat the same trick.

He was sure that I was soft-hearted and that I loved him.

I was also determined that he was the only one in my life and I was also determined that I would forgive him no matter how he crossed the line.

However, he kept trying to make me feel guilty and tolerate Kate without any limits.

Nolan never saw Kate deliberately finding fault once.

Every time he ignored me, talked about me and even scolded me for Kate.

Then, he would lower his posture slightly to coax me and promise me that he would never do it again.

That cycle repeated countless times.

But that time, I did not want to tolerate it anymore.

I opened my computer and replied to the email asking me to go to Texas to teach.

In ten days, I would have completely moved on from Nolan.

But for those days, I just wanted to have a good sleep since I was so tired.

Just as I laid down not long ago, Nolan came back with Kate.

He turned on all the lights in the house and pulled me out of bed.

Nolan's expression was the ugliest I had ever seen when he asked me through gritted teeth, “Why did you call Kate a bitch, Caroline?

“Don’t you know that Kate only has a little cat left in her life?

“Do you know that Kitty is a cat that she and my brother raised together? Do you know how afraid she was of losing Kitty when he got sick?

“You don't know anything yet you send her a WhatsApp in the middle of the night calling her a bitch?

“Caroline, when did you become like this? You've gone too far!”

Kate was holding Kitty behind him, with her head slightly lowered and her eyes red.

Kate lost all the arrogance she had when she sent me a WhatsApp a while ago and said with an expression that she had been badly bullied by me.

“Caroline, I sent you the photo just to stop you from thinking too much. Nothing really happened between me and Nolan.”

She cried before continuing, “How can you scold me right away?

“I promise you, even if I'm dying, I won't ask Nolan to come to me anymore, okay?”

She burst into tears after that.

As a result, Nolan raised his hand and rubbed her cheek with care. Then, he put his arm around her shoulders and said, “Silly, what are you talking about? I'll be there whenever you need me.”

When I heard those words, I suddenly realized something.

Whenever I was wronged in the past, Nolan would hug me and say, just like he did.

But at that moment, he did it for another woman. He hugged someone else tightly in front of me.

With unconcealed disgust in his eyes, he said to me, “Caroline, don't try to explain. Explanation is just covering up. You disappoint me so much.

“I've told you countless times not to bother with Kate, don't you understand?

“I just treat her as my sister. Do you have to have such dirty thoughts about her?

“No matter how good I am to her, it's all to help you atone for your sins, do you understand?”

Since he said all the worst things to me, I took out my cell phone to prove myself and show him what Kate said.

But on the phone, the messages Kate sent had already been withdrawn by her.

What was left in my phone was the voice note I sent, “You bitch.”

In a rage, I raised my hand and wanted to slap Kate. But before the slap could land, Nolan protected Kate.