"Hello, Miss Shepherd. Are you sure you want to erase all your personal records in this country?"

Madeline didn't hesitate. "Yes, please proceed with it."

"Alright, the procedure has been submitted. You'll receive a text message notification within fifteen business days."

"Thank you!"

As Madeline left the office, she felt a weight lift from her chest. The suffocating pain she'd been carrying around eased, even if just a little.

Suddenly, she remembered she'd left some things in Elias' office. She needed to clear everything out if she was indeed going to leave.

When she entered Elias' office, the two people inside froze momentarily. Madeline felt lost because their ambiguity could be seen at a glance.

Fighting back a wave of bitterness, Madeline plastered a smile. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt."

Elias was momentarily taken aback but quickly recovered. "Ah, Madie, why are you here? Did something urgent come up? Perfect timing—wait a bit and I'll take you out for lunch."

Madeline saw not a flicker of fear in Elias' eyes. She couldn't tell if he was hiding it exceptionally well or was just used to lying to her.

She controlled her emotions without revealing any flaws and smiled a little. "No, nothing urgent. I was running some errands nearby and remembered I left something in your office, so I came to grab it."

Elias was the epitome of perfection. Talented and strikingly handsome, he doted on Madeline to the point of obsession. Yet this paragon of virtue, a man everyone envied, was having an affair.

"Alright then, give me a moment to wrap up work with my secretary."

The moment Madeline sat; the secretary started speaking in perfect French. "Elias, you left me hanging earlier and I feel awful. How are you going to make it up to me?"

Madeline's blood ran cold. She stared at Miss Young, whose outwardly professional facade belied such brazen words.

Seeing Madeline's stunned expression, Elias and Whitney assumed she couldn't understand French. They became even bolder, openly flirting in her presence.

Elias glanced at Madeline, a faint smirk playing on his lips. His expression was even more composed than Whitney's—almost unnervingly so.

He teased Whitney in flawless French. "You little seductress, setting me on fire like this. Tonight, you'd better help me put it out, or you're not going anywhere."

Hearing those words, Madeline couldn't believe they came from the same man who had once cried the entire night when she was ill.

The two flirted shamelessly, unaware that Madeline was listening to every word. No one noticed her pale face or how her nails dug into her palms so hard that she bled. The saddest part? She had to pretend she knew nothing.

Her husband and his secretary flirted before her without a trace of shame. At that moment, Madeline felt like no one in the world could be more pitiful than her.

Since Madeline's major had nothing to do with French, they spoke these lewd and disgusting words in French without any hesitation. However, they didn't know that Madeline had been working hard to improve herself to be a good match for Elias. She had explicitly enrolled in courses and studied six foreign languages, one of which was French.

Her head was buzzing and she couldn't hold it in any longer. She clutched her chest, starting to gasp for air.

The man sitting in the executive chair finally noticed her and rushed over in a panic. "Madie! Madie! Don't scare me!" Elias picked Madeline up and ran out of the room, leaving Whitney behind in the office, glaring at them with a twisted expression.

"Hmph, no wonder she managed to become Elias' wife. She's got some tricks up her sleeve. Let's see how long she can hold on," Whitney sneered. She then added Madeline as a friend and sent her a video of Elias setting off fireworks all night to celebrate her birthday.

When Madeline woke up, she saw Elias talking on the phone with a smile on the balcony. It was apparent Whitney made him happy. Looking at Whitney's video and a clip of the two kissing passionately in a hot air balloon, Madeline felt her heartache once again after two days of finally calming down.

At that moment, she finally realized that Elias was no longer the boy who once risked everything for her.

"Elias is mine. You can't give him the thrill he wants anymore, so it's time to step aside," Whitney had messaged her, followed by screenshots of her conversations with Elias and details of what they had done together.

Madeline's heart felt like it was being sliced apart, piece by piece, leaving nothing but raw, bloody pain. Everything Whitney described—those intimate moments—were once hers and Elias' memories filled with love and warmth. Now, he was doing the same things with someone else.

Silent tears streamed down her face as she covered her mouth, refusing to let Elias hear her sobs.

After calling out a few times to ensure she was asleep, Elias quietly left the room. Madeline stood on the balcony, watching his car speed out of the garage.

She could clearly see the urgency of his departure, while the tears rolled down her cheeks. It took her a while to calm down before packing her belongings.

The next day, there was no doubt that Whitney sent photos of their night's performance from several angles to Madeline. The pictures revealed the chaos in the room—the floor and bed covered in disheveled clothing, a testament to the intensity of their affair.

Madeline's eyes turned red and suddenly she collapsed to the floor as if there was no strength left in her body. Her hands trembled as she held her phone, forgetting to breathe. Only when she started suffocating did she gasp for air.

She finally broke down and sobbed uncontrollably. At that time, crying was the only way she could vent the overwhelming pain in her heart.

Madeline met Elias when she was ten years old. He was thirteen at the time, having been sent to the countryside because the Fu family was going through a period of internal strife.

Perhaps due to a lack of love growing up, Elias was a very aloof and taciturn boy. Madeline was like a ray of light that shone into his dark world during that time.

After the internal conflict subsided, Elias was brought back to the family. When they parted, he promised to return for her when she turned eighteen.

Elias kept his word. When Madeline turned 18, Elias arrived with a fleet of luxury cars to take his princess home. From then on, there was a saying in country circles that Elias had a woman he pampered to the extreme.

Madeline had poor health and loved walking barefoot, so Elias covered their house with soft carpets. He hired the country's top doctors to take care of her health. Everything she wore—clothes, jewelry, bags and shoes—was designed by Elias himself.

Madeline became Elias' wife on her twenty-second birthday. On their wedding day, Elias transferred 30% of the Fisher Company's shares to her name.

That was merely the beginning. Beyond the shares lay a vast portfolio of businesses and properties, a gesture reverberating through the country's high society and igniting a burning envy in the hearts of countless women.

It was no exaggeration to say that Elias' love for Madeline moved the world. He adored her so profoundly that no one believed a man like him existed, but reality dealt her a fatal blow.

She couldn't understand why a man who loved her so much betrayed her. Still, she knew that once she decided to let go, she had to endure the pain, no matter how excruciating and never repeat the same mistake.

Recently, Elias noticed something strange. Madeline's attitude toward him seemed different as if a subtle distance had formed between them. "Madie, are you upset because I haven't been spending enough time with you lately?" he asked nervously.

Madeline looked at the concern on his face. Even the slightest change in her demeanor would send him into a panic. Still, he would wait every night until she fell asleep and then spend time with his secretary.

"It's nothing. Your work is important. What could possibly be wrong with me? I just eat, drink and have fun all day. I'm completely useless."

Elias immediately pulled her into his arms. "Don't talk about yourself like that. You're one of a kind to me. You've captured the world's most amazing man—how could you be useless?"

Madeline would have thrown herself into his arms with a smile and laughed if it were before. "That's right! The world's most amazing man belongs to me."

Now, she only said a word, "Really?" Then quietly continued eating breakfast.

"For some reason, her calm indifference filled Elias with dread. "Madie, I have a business trip to Europe in a few days. Why don't you come with me?" he suggested.

Madeline casually asked, "Will it just be the two of us?"

Elias answered as if it were nothing unusual, "No, Miss Young and Mr. Hall will also be coming."

Madeline had already guessed as much, but she couldn't resist asking anyway.

"What's wrong? Is there a problem?"

"No problem. I was just asking who else was going with us." In truth, Madeline agreed to the trip because she planned to cancel her domestic records and transfer all her funds overseas.