"Yuliana, are you really moving abroad? You're not even going to talk it over with Charlie?" Madelyn Gardner asks.

Yuliana Beckett lets out a self-mocking laugh. "We're already divorced."

"You got a divorce?" Madelyn gasps, staring at Yuliana in disbelief. "Charlie actually agreed to that? After everything you've done for him these past three years, even a heart of stone would've softened by now."

Madelyn speaks up for Yuliana, indignant on her behalf.

But it's only after Yuliana boards her flight and leaves the country that Charlie Zimmer finally realizes what he's lost. He chases her across the ocean like a man possessed.

In the face of his remorse, Yuliana has only one thing to say.

"I don't love you anymore."

The post-lunch lull had wrapped the restaurant in silence. Yuliana Beckett broke it with a calm declaration, laying out her plans so abruptly that her best friend, Madelyn Gardner, could only stare at her in disbelief.

"Yuliana, moving abroad is a huge decision," Madelyn said. "Are you really not going to talk it over with Charlie?"

Rain drizzled against the window. Yuliana absentmindedly stirred her cold coffee, her voice flat as she replied, "We're already divorced."

"What?"

The news hit Madelyn so hard that her fork slipped from her fingers and clattered onto the floor. Yet, the shock lasted only a moment before she sprang to Yuliana's defense.

"Charlie actually agreed to that? Everyone has seen how devoted you've been to him these past three years. Even someone with a heart of stone would have softened by now. Does he really feel nothing for you?"

Yuliana gave a faint smile, but the light in her eyes dimmed.

The truth was, she didn't actually know if her husband, Charlie Zimmer, had truly agreed or not.

Two weeks earlier, she had handed him the divorce papers while he was buried in work. Moving from one document to the next, he probably assumed it was just another contract in the pile and signed it without so much as a glance.

Since then, neither of them had brought it up.

There were only two weeks left until the divorce became official. After that, their marriage—built entirely on misunderstandings—would finally be over.

The sudden ring of her phone snapped Yuliana out of her thoughts.

"It's pouring out there," a deep male voice said on the other end. "Send me your location. I'll come pick you up."

She sent him the address.

A few moments later, a man in a long brown trench coat strode into the restaurant. Rain was pouring outside, soaking a wide patch across his shoulders, with droplets clinging to the tips of his hair.

Madelyn was still reeling, her mouth opening to demand how Charlie could possibly have agreed to the divorce, but Yuliana cut her off before she could say a word.

"If there's nothing else, I should get going. I'll call you later," Yuliana said, standing up. She grabbed her coat and followed Charlie out into the rain.

During the drive back, Yuliana remained lost in thought, her heart heavy. The weather forecast droned on from the car radio, but she didn't register a single word.

"Yuliana," Charlie called out, breaking the long silence. "What was that document I signed for you two weeks ago?"

His question snapped her out of her daze.

Two weeks had gone by, and only now had he noticed. Then again, it wasn't surprising. When had he ever paid attention to anything about her? His heart only had room for Alyssa Larson.

Yuliana pressed her lips together, hesitating over whether to tell him the truth about the papers.

Just then, Charlie's phone rang. A woman's voice came through the line, sugary and cloying, "Charlie, it's thundering outside. I'm so scared. Can you come over and keep me company?"

At the sound of that whining tone, Charlie's expression darkened at once. He gripped the steering wheel so tightly that veins stood out on the back of his hand.

His voice sharpened with warning. "Alyssa, I've told you many times. I'm a married man."

The line went quiet for a beat before Alyssa replied, completely unfazed, "Have you forgotten? That title was supposed to be mine. Yuliana is just living the life I was meant to have."

Alyssa's words sent a surge of anger through Charlie, yet he looked trapped. He bit his lip hard, as though wrestling with an impossible choice.

For years, Alyssa had been the only woman capable of making Charlie lose his composure.

At the next traffic light, he suddenly swerved, changing lanes to take a different route.

"You know I have a weak heart," Alyssa continued. "If the thunder startled me and something happened…"

She broke off abruptly. After a long pause, she spoke again, her voice choked with tears, "I understand. I won't bother you anymore. I hope you two are happy."

The call ended, but Charlie's brows remained tightly furrowed. He abruptly pulled over to the shoulder, tires spraying water as the car screeched to a stop.

He slumped forward, pressing his forehead against the steering wheel, his expression twisted in torment. After a long moment, he let out a resigned sigh, pulled out his phone, and typed a short message.

"I'll be there soon."

Yuliana watched him hit "send". Before he could say anything, she beat him to it. "It's fine. Go take care of whatever you need to. I'll find my own way back."

Charlie watched her open the car door and step into the downpour. When he saw her standing there, bracing herself beneath her umbrella, a flicker of guilt crossed his face.

"I'll come find you as soon as I'm done."

Yuliana stood in the rain, watching him speed away until his car disappeared into the gray mist.

They were in the middle of nowhere, and the weather was awful. The chances of catching a cab were slim to none.

Charlie must have regretted his youthful impulsiveness long ago.

The only reason he still bothered to play the role of a husband was out of lingering responsibility—or perhaps guilt. Whatever it was, she knew it wasn't love.

Even now, Yuliana remembered the flutter in her heart when she first saw Charlie eight years ago.

On her very first day of college, she had watched him at the podium, delivering a speech on behalf of the student council, and fell for him instantly.

Bathed in the glow of the spotlights, he was impossible to ignore. Countless women in the freshman class were infatuated with him, and Yuliana was no exception.

Charlie was the scion of the prestigious Zimmer family, blessed with striking looks and a lineage most people could only dream of.

Yet, despite the endless line of admirers trailing him, his heart belonged solely to his childhood sweetheart, Alyssa.

They had been together for years, and Charlie's devotion to her was the stuff of campus legend. He once spent a fortune lighting up the sky with fireworks in the heart of the city just to celebrate her birthday.

He was fiercely protective, too. The first time he ever lost his composure and got into a fistfight was when jealousy flared after another man tried to pursue Alyssa. It had ended with a permanent mark on his academic record.

Every morning, without fail, he bought her breakfast and waited faithfully downstairs at her dorm.

He once even stood waiting in the snow until he ran a high fever. Later, when it turned out that Alyssa had simply ditched him to go shopping with her best friend, he didn't utter a single word of complaint.

Everyone said that Charlie loved Alyssa to his very core.

Yuliana believed it, too. With Alyssa in the picture, she buried her own feelings for Charlie deep in her heart, content to remain a silent observer and wish them well from afar. In her mind, simply being able to watch him was enough.

After graduation, Charlie couldn't wait to make Alyssa his wife.

Yuliana hadn't actually been invited to that lavish wedding, but she went anyway, slipping in under the vague guise of a former classmate.

But to everyone's surprise, Alyssa never showed up.

By nightfall, Charlie was frantic. He had called her 99 times, only to realize she had blocked and deleted his number.

He stared at that cold exclamation mark on his screen, frozen in place, while the guests began to assume the wedding would be called off. As a wave of pity for Charlie slowly filled the room, he suddenly did something that stunned everyone.

He walked onto the stage and took the microphone.

"Today, I, Charlie Zimmer, have decided to find a new bride," he announced. "Is there a single woman here willing to marry me?"

At that moment, Yuliana, who had always been a shadow in the background, felt her heart slam against her ribs. Perhaps it was the weight of years of suppressed feelings that finally gave her the courage to break through her own insecurity. The moment his voice faded, she stood up without hesitation.

That day, wearing a wedding ring engraved with Alyssa's name, she blindly married a man who didn't even know who she was.

If Alyssa hadn't disappeared, Yuliana's world would never have collided with Charlie's, let alone ended in marriage.

For the next three years, they fulfilled their duties as husband and wife. Their days together were fairly peaceful.

Yuliana had always known the truth. She was nothing more than a thief who had stolen someone else's destiny.

Then, a month ago, Alyssa suddenly returned.

The news was like a stone dropped into still water, shattering the fragile dream Yuliana had lived in for three years.

Since Alyssa's return, Charlie had been spending less and less time at home.

Deep down, Yuliana knew it was time to return the title of Mrs. Zimmer—a title she held in name only—to its rightful owner.

By letting go, she gave them a chance at happiness and found her own peace.

A bolt of lightning tore across the sky, followed by a crash of thunder outside the window. At that very moment, Charlie was likely holding Alyssa in his arms, murmuring soft reassurances.

Yuliana took out her phone and sent him a message.

"The document you asked about is tucked under the back seat cushion of your car. If you want to know what it is, just open it."

She braved the rain to get home, but she still hadn't heard back.

It wasn't until dusk settled in that Charlie finally replied.

"No need. I trust you."

Once again, he had missed his chance to learn the truth.

But of course he had. He was so wrapped up in comforting Alyssa, who was terrified by the storm, that he didn't have a moment to spare for Yuliana—not even to glance at a piece of paper.

The rain fell steadily all through the night, and Charlie never came home.

Yuliana stayed in, pulling out a thick, heavy sketchbook from her college days. Inside were hundreds of drawings, each page featuring the same face.

One by one, she tore the portraits to shreds, severing the last of her lingering attachments.

By the time the floor was buried under a layer of paper scraps, her phone chimed with a notification—Alyssa had posted something new on Twitter.

The photo was taken at a high-end restaurant, the table set for a romantic dinner with roses and champagne. In the bottom-left corner, the slender, elegant hand of a man was just visible.

A comment underneath read, "So sweet! Out for another romantic dinner with your boyfriend?"

Alyssa had replied, "Don't be silly. He isn't my boyfriend. He's just a friend who knew I was scared of thunder and came all this way to keep me company."

"Just a friend". The audacity of saying that out loud.

Yuliana knew Alyssa was doing it on purpose, but strangely, she was past the point of caring.

She turned off her phone and went to the bathroom for a hot shower.

When she stepped out, her skin still damp and steaming, she found Charlie sitting in the living room. On the coffee table in front of him lay a bouquet of fresh flowers and a strawberry cake.

Yuliana froze for a moment. "I thought you hated sweets. Why the cake?"

Charlie walked over and pulled a small box from his pocket, revealing a necklace.

"Happy birthday."

Yuliana went numb.

Since she had grown up in an orphanage, birthdays had always felt foreign to her. She had never had a party, never received a gift, and until she met Charlie, she hadn't even known what birthday cake tasted like.

But in the three years of their marriage, no matter how demanding his schedule was, Charlie had always made it home to celebrate her birthday with her.

He had once promised her, "I'll be with you for every birthday from now on. I'll spend the rest of our lives making up for everything you missed out on as a kid."

Back then, when she looked into his eyes—so earnest and sincere—she let herself believe, if only for a heartbeat, that he had truly fallen for her.

She remembered how he would care for her devotedly when she was sick, staying by her side even when he was on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion. He had showered her with expensive gifts and taken her on beautiful vacations.

Yuliana allowed herself to believe that maybe, just maybe, she had carved out a small place in Charlie's heart.

Then, Alyssa came back, and reality crashed down all at once.

This year, on Valentine's Day, Charlie claimed he had to work unexpected overtime. Yuliana sat alone at home, eating the candlelit dinner she had meticulously prepared.

Just as the weight of her disappointment bore down on her, a photo from Madelyn popped up on Yuliana's phone.

In the photo, a woman—clearly intoxicated—was draped over a man's shoulder. Their posture was suggestively intimate.

That man was undeniably Charlie.

"Yuliana, isn't this your husband? I just saw him at the park with another woman."

Yuliana's mind went blank, a dull ringing echoing in her ears.

By the time she rushed to the park Madelyn had mentioned, she found the man who was supposedly working overtime locked in a desperate embrace with Alyssa.

Charlie's expression was dark with rage as he tried to shove Alyssa away.

"Alyssa, what do you take me for?" he snarled. "A dog you can whistle for whenever you feel like it? I'm a married man!"

But Alyssa wasn't listening. She lunged forward, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist as she sobbed. "I'm not leaving! I won't! I'm the one who was supposed to be your wife!"

Charlie let out a frustrated growl through gritted teeth. "Have you lost your mind?"

Alyssa released him, her eyes brimming with tears. "Fine. If you don't want me, then there's no point in living anyway. I swear I'll never show up again. You'll never see me for the rest of your life!"

With that, she bolted toward the edge of the lake.

Charlie's face went deathly pale. He lunged after her, catching her around the waist just in time to haul her back.

"Let go, Charlie! You're married! Why do you care whether your ex lives or dies?" she screamed.

"Alyssa, calm down! I didn't mean it like that! You've always been in my heart!"

In his panic, his true feelings had finally slipped out.

At that moment, Yuliana's entire world collapsed. The dream she had so carefully woven for herself shattered into pieces.

A flurry of memories flashed through her mind. The boy kneeling on one knee before the entire school on the track, the way he always angled his umbrella toward Alyssa in the rain, and his silhouette standing motionless for three hours in the freezing snow…

Each memory was proof of how deeply Charlie loved Alyssa.

Yuliana had known it all along, yet she had still clung to a pitiful sliver of hope.

What if he felt something for her? What if her devotion finally moved him? What if he forgot Alyssa? What if…

But there were no what-ifs.

Charlie's heart had never budged an inch toward her. Every kindness he showed her was nothing but borrowed affection, salvaged from the years Alyssa had been gone.

He tossed her scraps of warmth whenever his mood allowed, and she had been foolish enough to believe she was receiving the whole world.

Yuliana touched the necklace, but her heart didn't flutter at all. She simply gave him a polite nod. "Thank you."

Charlie lit the candles, a gentle smile playing at his lips. "There's no need to be so formal with me. Come on, make a wish."

Yuliana nodded. But just as she was about to blow out the candles, Charlie's phone rang.

She caught the brief shift in his gaze and didn't need to see the screen to know who was calling.

Sure enough, the call ended a minute later, and Charlie walked out the door, leaving his promise behind.

As Yuliana watched his car disappear into the rainy night, a bitter smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

The living room window was still open. A cold draft whipped the candle flames, their frantic flickering reflected in her eyes.

She brought her hands together, fingers intertwined, and made her 24th birthday wish.

"From now on, let there be nothing between Yuliana and Charlie."