After hitting rock bottom and ending up homeless, he watched with envy as others from his social circle thrived. Once again, he drank heavily at the bar, breaking down and confiding in me.

During his darkest times, with my companionship, he gradually pulled himself back up. Finally, he agreed to let me be his girlfriend.

I knew he dreamed of joining Prospera Holdings, one of the top 500 companies in the country and had even submitted his resume, only to be swiftly rejected. But that company was a part of my family’s conglomerate. So I secretly asked my influential grandfather, Grandpa Duke, to pull some strings and pave the way for him.

Three years passed and he rose from an entry-level employee to general manager with rocket-like speed.

On the day he received the promotion notice, I proposed to him in the office.

He agreed. I knew he was in high spirits.

I thought that finally, we had reached our happy ending.

Who would have thought that all of this was nothing more than a fleeting illusion? I was merely his toy to pass the time in his lonely, empty hours—love had nothing to do with it.

Rufus was so focused on simmering chicken soup that he didn’t even notice when I turned and left.

Not long after, I saw a post from Aileen on her social media. [Someone was so busy making chicken soup for me that he missed our appointment to pick up the marriage license—so spoiled!]

Attached was a selfie of Rufus and Aileen on a giant swing ride.

I couldn’t help but laugh bitterly. Who goes on intense amusement park rides when they’re supposedly bedridden with a fever?

That night, Rufus came home very late. He didn’t care about leaving me behind halfway through our day, nor did he show any concern for our plans to register our marriage.

After he fell asleep, I used his fingerprint to unlock his phone. I had never looked through his phone before, but I noticed he’d never posted a single picture of us together.

In that moment, I realized he did post frequently on social media and he did share photos—but he’d just hidden them from me.

Soon enough, I came across a photo he’d posted with Aileen. Around her neck was the “Starlight” necklace—a piercing sight.

Just a few days earlier, I had seen that necklace in his desk drawer.

I thought it was a surprise he’d meant for me, to gift me personally after we registered our marriage.

But he’d given it to someone else.

It turned out he wasn’t lacking in romantic gestures; it just depended on the person.

Exhausted and emotionally drained, my cold worsened.

Rufus hadn’t noticed, nor did he seem to care. I was about to head to the hospital when my phone suddenly rang.

“Emilia, get over here quickly—Rufus is in serious trouble; he’s at the police station.”

On the other end, I could faintly hear Rufus’s furious voice in the background.

“You old fools, you owe my girlfriend an apology!”

My heart jolted hard.

I wasn’t there, so the girlfriend he was defending so fiercely… definitely wasn’t me.

I skipped going to the hospital, driven by a need to understand what could make him lose his composure like this.

As I tossed the painkiller box aside, I noticed the brown prayer beads I had once begged for at the temple a year ago, praying for his safety. They lay broken and discarded under the edge of the coffee table.

I gave a bitter smile—those beads had taken nearly everything from me, a prayer I had nearly sacrificed myself for.

Yet he didn’t care for them in the slightest.

I stooped down, picked up the worn-out prayer beads and without a word, threw them into the trash.

Then I stepped outside and hailed a cab to the police station.

The moment I stepped into the police station, I spotted a woman softly coaxing him, her eyes full of tenderness.

Around her neck was that extravagant "Starlight" necklace.

Part 2

“It started when someone from our company’s HR team, under the guise of a work discussion, started harassing Rufus’s friend—and even threw dishes at them. Furious, Rufus couldn’t hold back and got into a fight with them.”

“To make things worse, everyone had been drinking a bit and after Rufus ate that exotic wild mushroom, he started acting strange. No one could restrain him—I was afraid something serious might happen.”

A colleague of his, also a close friend, hurried over to me, offering a rushed explanation.

So this was why he’d lost control. I couldn’t help but let out a bitter laugh.

I remembered the times I had dined with other company leaders; once, when we disagreed, they deliberately dumped food on my head.

He hadn’t shown a shred of anger then. Instead, he’d turned the blame on me, accusing me of failing to read the room and saying I was ruining his chances of advancing in the company.

Maybe he really had eaten a bad mushroom, because now he was hallucinating, grabbing the nearest officer as if to start a fight. His colleague quickly held him back, saying, “Rufus! Enough already. Your career’s taking off, you’re about to get married—if you keep causing a scene, you’ll ruin everything!”

Rufus shook off his friend, gritting his teeth, "Who said I'm getting married?!"

"This bunch of old fools actually had the nerve to hit on my girlfriend in front of me, thinking they're so important! Next Monday, when I officially take over, I’ll fire every last one of you!"

"I don’t care how many of you there are—no one leaves here until you all kneel down and apologize!"

His righteous, yet completely out-of-place words left my colleagues who knew me feeling uncomfortable.

Feeling the weight of everyone's gaze on me, I coldly curled my lips into a faint smirk.

"Long time no see, Emilia." Aileen’s voice was full of familiarity. She looked at me with an air of superiority, her eyes filled with disdain and provocation.

My expression turned cold and I pressed my lips together in silence.

"You two know each other?" a colleague asked, surprised, then added excitedly, "What a coincidence! Emilia Shen is Rufus’s fiancée, they..."

"We’re just colleagues! Fiancée?!" Rufus snapped, his voice rising in anger, cutting off my colleague’s words.

His sudden denial made my whole body freeze.

The situation felt strange and the atmosphere grew painfully awkward.

After a moment of silence, one of my colleagues noticed my change in expression and quickly poured me a glass of water.

"Here, sister. Drink this, you’ll feel better."

I reached out to take the cup, but Rufus forcefully knocked it out of my hand, splashing water everywhere.

He was seething, shaking his head in frustration as he snapped, “What’s the point of giving her a drink? Don’t you know your sister-in-law took antibiotics with cephalosporins this morning? And now you’re trying to give her alcohol—what’s your game here?”

It seemed the mushrooms' effects weren’t too strong; Rufus’s rationality and memory hadn’t been clouded yet. A small part of me still felt a sense of relief.

But what happened next completely caught me off guard.

"Rufus, you misunderstood," Aileen said, trying to explain. "Luca was handing the water to Emilia, not me. And it’s just warm water, you fool. Why are you worrying about me when she’s the one poisoned?"

Once Rufus heard the first part, his expression softened.

"Alright, fine. If it’s water, then she can drink it. She could drink a thousand cups and still be fine!"

"At the company, no one can outdrink her—she’s the best at it!"

Without realizing it, I clenched my fists, the pain in my chest so intense that it left me struggling to breathe.

I remember two years ago, on the birthday of the company’s vice president. That day, I had accidentally injured my leg and went to the hospital for a bandage and some cephalosporin painkillers, planning to sleep it off. But he dragged me out to join the festivities.

It was a massive pool party and he knew the vice president was interested in me, so he used me to set up a connection.

Dizzy and out of it, he pushed me toward that old man, making me toast him, even forcefully pouring alcohol down my throat.

That day, I ended up in the emergency room. He blamed me for embarrassing him, saying the vice president would surely make things difficult for him and that his promotion was now out of reach.

He didn’t care that I’d nearly been through death’s door. He just left in a bad mood, slamming the door behind him.

It’s clear now—his heart was never with me.

And this time, I had come here still holding onto that last shred of hope.

But now, my heart was shattered and the dream was over.

Aileen handed the groggy Rufus over to me, still worried as she said, "Since you’re here, when the ambulance comes to pick him up, you should go with him to the hospital. He didn’t eat much of the mushrooms, so it’s only mild poisoning—he’ll be fine. I’ll stay here to handle things, so I might not be able to take care of him later."

"Also, make sure to prepare a bowl of celery and minced meat porridge for him tomorrow morning. It’ll warm his stomach and help with the hangover. He really likes it. If you don’t, his stomach pain will get worse."

"Keep a close eye on him tonight, too. He might catch a chill. Every time he drinks too much, his sleep is terrible."

Aileen’s words subtly told me that she understood Rufus better than I did.

I stared at her. This was all because of her and I desperately wanted to slap her.

But I held myself back.

I wanted to see just how far they were willing to go.

Part 3

On the way to the hospital with Rufus, I dragged my exhausted body, struggling to breathe, my throat feeling as though it were blocked.

I knew that crying was a sign of weakness in a relationship.

But I couldn’t stop myself.

This was the man I had chased for three years, the one I had loved for six.

And this was the outcome I got.

It also reminded me of the day we were supposed to register our marriage. He abandoned me in the middle of nowhere and a group of shady thugs chased me, nearly killing me.

I returned home, bruised and battered, only to find him making chicken soup for his white moonlight, saying cruel words to me.

I realized that if Aileen sneezed, Rufus would probably run to comfort her.

The woman he’s always loved is Aileen and no matter how much I gave, I would always be a woman he can’t even bring himself to settle for.

Looking at Rufus, who was dozing off after having his stomach pumped, my emotions were complicated.

At that moment, his phone, tucked in the pocket of his suit, vibrated. It was a message from Aileen.

But my eyes lingered on the nickname she had used for him.

No wonder his profile picture had changed today. A bitter smile curved on my lips. I hadn’t just looked at the nickname, I must have noticed the profile picture too.

I remembered that a year ago, I had asked my cousin, who owns an art gallery, to design two cute and romantic profile pictures for us. I spent a lot of time searching for the perfect matching nickname, even consulting a fortune teller before finally settling on a pair of couple names.

I had acted cute and asked him to change his profile picture and update his nickname.

He had scolded me for being childish and meddlesome, telling me not to waste time on stupid dramas and that I should focus more on household chores and work.

Because he didn’t like having servants, I took care of all the housework in the villa myself.

But now, he had changed his profile picture to something boring with his mistress.

I trembled as I used his fingerprint to unlock his phone. But when I saw the message from Aileen, my whole body shook, my breath caught for a moment and my eyes burned with tears.

[Darling, should we cancel the wedding dress fitting tomorrow? Remember to contact me once you wake up.]

Since Rufus agreed to marry me, I had been the one planning everything, with the wedding dress being the main priority.

I had brought it up to him multiple times, but each time, he made excuses about being too busy with work and told me to just make the decisions. He even said it was just a simple ceremony and there was no need to waste time on these meaningless details.

In reality, he never expected a future with me.

He never thought about me walking down the aisle in a beautiful wedding dress, heading toward him on our wedding day.

I pressed my hands to my head, which felt like it was about to crack open, my hand trembling uncontrollably as I held the phone.

As I put the phone back, my fingers brushed against a small box in his pocket.

I closed my eyes and the emotions I had just managed to calm down flared up again.