To cheer up his pretty assistant, my boyfriend brought her to attend a party.

I had to bail him out after he was arrested by the police. The charge? Public indecency after consuming illegal substances.

When I arrived at the police station to pick him up, he was still trying to comfort his assistant, paying no heed to the possibility that I might have seen the lipstick marks on his neck.

After seeing that I wasn’t saying anything, my boyfriend assumed I was upset and explained impatiently, “Winnie was in a terrible mood that day, and I was just there to keep her company. We didn’t take part in any public indecency! It was the other guests who were messing about!”

What a terrible excuse.

If it was any other day, I wouldn’t be this calm.

This time was different. I will no longer press him for answers like a mad woman.

As I walked past the police station entrance, an officer looked at my boyfriend and his assistant, who were still all over each other.

With eyes full of sympathy, he asked me, “Your partner?”

I glanced at my boyfriend, whose focus was entirely fixated on Winnie, and shook my head.

“No, just an acquaintance.”

At that moment, Winnie was leaning against him, seeking his comfort. I pulled out my phone and texted my dad silently.

“I agree to marry President Lee. I’ll leave the wedding preparation to you guys.”

“I’ll be back in five days.”

After leaving the police station, Luca Young brought Winnie Lee out to the lake to clear her mind.

I went along with them.

The reason I went was because Luca needed me to help steer the boat while he took care of Winnie.

At that moment, Winnie sat in the boat with reddened eyes.

I didn’t bother talking to them. After setting the course, I sat alone and enjoyed the night breeze.

And yet, Winnie came over and tugged on my hand.

“Are you mad at me, Hailey?”

“Why haven’t you been talking to me?”

Winnie’s nose was red and there were tears in the corner of her eyes. At that moment, she looked fragile and pitiful.

I replied coldly, “What is there to talk about? How you two ended up in bed together?”

Winnie was stunned. Then, a river of tears started flowing from her eyes.

Luca’s expression turned stone-cold when he heard my reply.

“What are you implying, Hailey? I told you, Winnie’s my sister! How dare you insult her like this!”

“Get off my seat!”

I was forcefully pulled out of my seat.

I looked up and stared at the side of his face. His expression was grim when he kicked me onto the deck and pushed me into the lake.

As I was choking on water, I watched the man sitting in the captain’s seat rub Winnie’s nose.

“Poor little crybaby, stop crying now. I’ll send you home, okay?”

The coldness in his voice earlier was nowhere to be heard. Instead, he sounded warm and gentle.

Winnie grabbed his hand.

“Luca, you always know how to treat me well.”

“Silly girl.”

As the boat sailed away, Luca’s voice reverberated through the air.

“Since you know how to swim, get back to shore yourself!”

A cold wave smacked against my body.

The wind was freezing and my icy-cold clothes clung to my torso. At that moment, my heart was a frozen wasteland.

By the time I got to the shore, I was completely exhausted.

A kind passerby wanted to help me, but I just wanted to borrow a phone. The moment I got my hands on one, I dialed for my mom.

“Hailes? Did you switch your number? Your dad told me you’re coming back?”

Upon hearing my voice, Mom sounded extra nervous. She was so emotional that I could hear her choking up over the line.

I told her I was coming home.

“Hailes, you don’t sound well. Remember to take care of yourself out there.”

“Please don’t blame your father. It’s been so many years, he misses you an awful lot too.”

I received a photo from Mom. It was Jonah Lee.

Jonah was my arranged husband. He was also the heir to the Lee Conglomerate.

I tapped on the photo to find a tall and handsome man with a stern expression — a suitable marriage partner.

Five years ago, I turned down a political marriage arranged by my family as I was in love with Luca.

My family opposed my relationship with Luca, but I didn’t want to be controlled by them. For the sake of “love” and “freedom”, I chose to run away from home.

I always thought I was the luckiest girl in the world to have met Luca, a man I loved.

For the sake of his career, I was constantly moving to different places. I even suffered two miscarriages in the process.

But I didn’t care.

I naively thought that our love was more than I ever needed.

However, I’ve grown tired of that. I have suffered enough.

He had no idea that I was about to get married.

I took a cab home. By the time I reached, Luca was already there.

Upon seeing me, he asked nonchalantly, “What took you so long?”

I was still soaked from head to toe. There were even a few cuts on my face from the fall.

And yet, he didn’t care.

A few more lipstick stains had been added to his neck.

Luca walked up to me and pretended as if nothing happened.

“Winnie wanted to thank you for picking her up today. She said she’d like to pick your wedding ring together someday…”

He subtly observed my reaction, thinking he could cheer me up by mentioning the wedding ring.

However, I would no longer buy his words. I would no longer shed tears for this man either.

Seeing that I didn’t react, Luca stopped talking.

He knew I was angry over what had happened. However, he wasn’t willing to even apologize or comfort me.

Perhaps he thought a vain promise or two was enough to appease me.

I returned to my room and got changed before wrapping myself in a thick blanket.

His phone which was placed nearby kept buzzing with new text messages.

Feeling slightly annoyed, I picked up his phone and sure enough, it was a text message from Winnie.

She had sent him a photo. Like shards of razor-sharp glass, the diamond ring in the photo was incredibly hard to look at.

It was a photo of two hands clasped together.

I instantly recognized one of those hands. After all, it belonged to Luca.

Before this, I asked him if we could go out and pick a wedding ring together. However, he would use work as an excuse to turn me down again and again.

“I’m too busy today, don’t you understand?”

His brows furrowed and in his eyes, there was a look of tiredness and annoyance.

Initially, I assumed he was just uninterested in lovey-dovey acts. Looks like I was wrong. He just couldn’t bother doing it for me.

There were dozens of photos, each with a different ring. It was clear that these were chosen with care and attention.

Despite having experienced so much disappointment, my heart still ached.

“What are you doing?!”

Suddenly, I was overcome by brute force. My wrist hurt from being grabbed so tightly. The phone was forcefully yanked from my hands.

Luca glared at me angrily. “Why are you spying on my phone?!”

The moment he saw the screen, his expression turned stone-cold.

“How many times have I told you, she’s just a little sister to me.”

I grabbed the item that fell next to me. My knee hurt slightly from the fall.

To be honest, he didn’t have to grab his phone. I didn’t plan to continue reading.

I had read similar chats countless times.

The first time I had seen something like this, I was shaking uncontrollably through the night until dawn.

But now I only felt sick to the core.

How could I ever imagine that the five years I spent loving and pursuing him would turn out to be a joke?

On this stage called ‘love’, I was always performing alone. It seemed that Luca’s love and warmth were merely a pitiful act of charity.

“I’m sorry, there won’t be a next time,” I lowered my gaze and apologized.

Luca was stunned by my reaction. He was obviously surprised by how calm I was.

“Hailey, you know how much Mr. Lee has helped me out previously. Ever since he died in a car accident, no one's been around to look after Winnie.

“Besides, Winnie’s a good girl. Picking a suitable ring for you is hard. She’s got a good eye for pretty rings, so we were choosing one for you.”

I listened to him silently.

Michael Lee was Luca’s first financier and was Winnie’s father.

That year, Luca encountered a few problems in the company. While helping him out, Michael was delivering core materials for inspection when he got into a car accident.

The man died on the spot.

After his passing, Luca began looking after Winnie. He did a good job taking care of her.

In the beginning, their interaction was awkward and overly formal. Today, they couldn’t have been closer.

At some point, Luca hired Winnie as his assistant.

I blinked a few times and forced myself to hold my tears back.

Now that things had come to this, there was no need to hold back my words.

I was about to leave, after all.

“To be honest, you don’t have to explain that much. I’m sure you and Winnie are a good fit for each other…”

Angrily, Luca interrupted me before I could finish speaking.

“What are you on today? Winnie’s not the type of person you think she is! She might treat me well, but she’s not a loose girl like you!”

The pain in my knee flared up at that moment.

Of course, she was not like me. I had been chasing after a man for five whole years.

I did anything to please him.

I even severed ties with my family for him.

When he noticed the change in my expression, Luca started to panic.

He explained awkwardly, “Wait, I don’t mean it that way. What I meant to say was…”

“Luca, I’m getting mar-”

All of a sudden, I wanted to tell him that I was getting married.

Unfortunately, before I could finish my sentence, Luca’s phone started ringing.

After glancing down at his phone, he answered the call with a noticeable change in his tone.

“What’s the matter, Winnie?” he asked softly.

“Luca, the room is really dark, I’m so scared.

“Can you come over? You’re the only one I have. It’s only when you’re around that I feel safe…”

Luca was restless when he heard that. He put on his coat and left the room.

“Alright, don’t be afraid.

“I’ll be there in a bit.”

Before he left, he seemed to have remembered something, so he turned to look at me.

“What were you saying just now?”

By this point, I had already calmed down.

“It’s nothing. You can go ahead.”

When I woke up again, there were no signs that Luca had returned to the room.

Yesterday, I resigned from my job.

Now that I had free time, I decided to sort out the things I wanted to bring with me.

I saw the wedding dress sample designs in the safe. I picked it up and threw it in the corner.

All of a sudden, I heard some noise outside the room. I opened the door and immediately saw people entering and leaving the room across the hallway.

They were moving furniture into the room.

Among these people, I recognized Luca standing in the living room. He was attentively instructing the workers where to place every piece of furniture.

Winnie stood next to him, clinging to his arm lovingly.

I was reminded of the scene when I had first moved into this house.

Luca was the same. He was always obsessive with the placement of furniture around the house.

He explained this was necessary, or it wasn’t a home.

It was a shame I rarely ever saw him at home.

“Excuse me miss, do you have a ladder that I can borrow?”

My thoughts were interrupted by a worker who had noticed I was staring into empty space. I came back to my senses and unintentionally met Winnie’s gaze.

I pointed the worker to where we kept the ladder and before I knew it, Winnie emerged from the room and walked up to me.

With a beaming smile, she said, “Hailey! We’re gonna be neighbors now! Are you excited?”

As she spoke, she turned back to face Luca.

“It was Luca’s idea. He was worried about me living alone and said it was easier to look after me this way.”

She was smiling brightly at me, but for some reason, my heart froze over.

All this while, she would make me feel disgusted.

Not wanting to say a word more, I turned around and walked away.

And yet, I heard a yell behind me.

“Ah!”

I turned back to find Winnie sprawled across the floor, looking up at Luca with tears running down her cheeks.

Luca rushed over to pull her up before carefully checking if she was injured.

Winnie grabbed his hand and spoke sobbingly, “Luca, I knew this was a bad idea. I’m bothering you, aren’t I? You and Hailey are a couple, I-I think I should leave now…

“Hailey, please don’t be mad at me, I’m sorry, I really am…”

Luca turned around and glared at me hatefully.

“Hailey Jones, how many times do I have to repeat myself? Winnie’s like a little sister to me! Do you have to be this cruel?”

I almost gagged.

What a loving brother.

I used to believe him until I saw them in bed together.

Luca kicked me on the knee. “Apologize!” he yelled.

I collapsed onto the floor from the pain. It was the same spot where I had injured my knee a few days ago. It hurt even more after he kicked it.

On the other side, he pulled Winnie into his arms.

“I did not push her,” I said while staring at Winnie.

And yet, she shrunk away into his embrace.

“Luca, stop fighting with Hailey. I just lost my balance just now…”

Luca carried her in his arms while gazing at me with eyes filled with cold indifference.

“Hailey Jones, I’m starting to think I made a mistake judging your character.

“You’re bullying her because you’re envious that I treat her so well, aren’t you?!

“How could you possibly compare to a girl like Winnie?

“Apologize to her now!”

When my eyes met his cold gaze, it felt like knives were plunging into my heart.