It wasn’t until a week later that I saw Liam Foster again in the hospital lobby.

Perhaps knowing he’d been far too biased before, he deliberately brought Vanessa Bennett along this time, saying he wanted her to apologize to me in person.

Vanessa clung affectionately to Liam’s arm, her tone light and casual, without a trace of sincerity.

“I’m sorry, Sister. What happened that day was all my fault. I caused you such serious injuries. You’re the bigger person—please don’t hold it against me.”

I lifted my eyes and glanced at her calmly. My gaze was as still as stagnant water, without the slightest ripple. I didn’t respond. I didn’t even slow my steps. I simply turned around and walked straight back to my ward, leaving the two of them standing there.

Vanessa’s expression collapsed instantly. She looked at Liam with wounded eyes, tears welling up without warning.

“Liam… is Sister still angry with me?”

Liam watched my retreating back in silence. There was a hint of nostalgia in his eyes, and his tone was firm.

“No. She’s always been soft-hearted. She never truly holds grudges.”

But when they reached my room and pushed the door open, they saw me lift my hand and toss a familiar USB drive into the trash can beside the bed.

Liam’s pupils shrank abruptly. He strode forward, disbelief lacing his voice.

“Clara Bennett, what are you doing?!”

That USB drive held years of our memories—photos from our first date, videos from our trips together, recordings of him singing me a birthday song. I used to treasure it, keeping it in the deepest pocket of my wallet, never letting anyone touch it. And now, I’d thrown it away like garbage.

Before Liam could say anything else, I slid the engagement ring he’d given me off my finger. My fingertips loosened slightly, and with a soft clink, the ring fell into the trash can after the USB drive.

My tone was flat, utterly calm, as if I were talking about something trivial.

“Nothing. I just think Vanessa was right. Useless trash belongs in the trash.”

After that, I turned and walked away without looking back at either of them, heading straight for the doctors’ offices to complete my discharge paperwork.

Liam’s face drained of color instantly. His fingers trembled, his eyes filled with shock and panic. Vanessa, on the other hand, let out a soft scoff. Leaning close to his ear, she whispered provocatively so only he could hear.

“Liam, look—your sincerity was trampled on so easily.”

Liam stayed silent for a long time. His Adam’s apple bobbed several times before he finally spoke, his tone stubbornly reassuring himself.

“No. When she calms down, she’ll pick the USB drive and the ring back up.”

“We’ve been together for so many years. Our relationship runs deep. She won’t really break up with me over something this small.”

As his words fell, I returned holding my discharge papers—and heard every word clearly.

A cold, mocking smile curved my lips. I didn’t stop. I walked straight toward the exit.

Liam Foster, you’re far too arrogant.

No one waits in place forever. And no one will keep compromising endlessly for a relationship that has long since rotted away. Breakups are never caused by a single small incident, but by countless heart-chilling moments piling up until the final straw snaps.

Liam clearly noticed the mockery in my eyes. His expression darkened further. The three of us stood frozen at the ward entrance, none of us speaking.

Not long after, Liam received a phone call—something urgent at the company. He left first. Before going, he deliberately instructed Vanessa to accompany me home properly.

The car held only Vanessa and me. The silence was suffocating, pressing down on my chest. Then, halfway through the drive, a violent explosion of sound tore through the air—

Bang!

A massive impact hit us. The car lost control and flipped violently. The sudden weightlessness made my head spin. I instinctively grabbed the seat belt, but my body was still flung hard. My forehead slammed into the window with a sickening thud, sharp pain erupting. Before I could even react, a runaway cargo truck crashed straight into us. Heat and shattered glass rushed toward me.

My body, barely recovered from severe injuries, couldn’t take it. My vision went black, and I lost consciousness.

I didn’t know how long passed before I slowly came to.

When I opened my eyes, I realized Vanessa and I were tied up with ropes, suspended high in an abandoned warehouse. Beneath us roared a blazing fire. A massive pot of oil boiled violently, splattering scorching droplets that could fall on us at any moment.

My head was still dizzy. I tried to recall the details before the crash, confusion swirling in my mind. But when I turned my head, I saw that Vanessa wasn’t afraid at all. She was smiling, watching me like it was a show.

“Sister,” she said lightly, amused, “I heard that after Dad kicked you out back then, you fell into severe depression. It was Liam who slowly pulled you out of that abyss, wasn’t it?”

Her tone was playful, cruel.

“Now that your last bit of hope is gone… do you feel like giving up and killing yourself?”

The ropes bit painfully into my wrists, as if they might snap them. Yet I felt nothing. My eyes darted around the warehouse, desperately searching for anything that might help us escape.

Vanessa didn’t care about my reaction. She continued smugly, enjoying every word.

“Honestly, I should thank you. Back then, it was you who rescued Liam from human traffickers. That’s how I used it as an excuse to get close to him… and slowly replace you.”

“What did you say?”

My breathing stopped. Every drop of blood in my body seemed to freeze.

My memory was yanked back to a summer more than ten years ago.

On my way home from school, I was abducted by traffickers and locked in a dilapidated shack. Later, when they weren’t paying attention, I secretly untied myself and the other kidnapped children and led them in a desperate escape. We hadn’t run far before my strength failed and I collapsed.

I had always believed Liam found me afterward. I never imagined—

Vanessa looked at my stunned expression, her smile widening, malice spilling from her eyes.

“That’s right. I took credit for it. I told Liam it was me who risked my life to save him.”

“For all these years, you and your dead mother were nothing more than stepping stones for me to climb higher.”

The moment her words ended, the heavy warehouse doors were kicked open violently.

Liam Foster rushed in with a group of people, his voice cutting through the air—

“Stop!”

There were bloodstains on Liam Foster’s impeccably tailored suit—no one knew where they came from. The sight made him look disheveled, rushed. His gaze darted between the two of us hanging in midair. When his eyes landed on the boiling oil pot beneath us—rolling violently, heat waves surging upward—his pupils contracted sharply. His entire body froze, his breathing turning rapid and heavy.

Seeing this, Vanessa Bennett’s eyes instantly filled with tears. Large drops rolled down her cheeks as she looked at Liam, choking back sobs, every bit the picture of a terrified victim.

“Liam… I’m so scared. Please save me. I don’t want to die here.”

Perhaps because our struggling had been too violent, the rope above us suddenly began to sway. The already weakened joint creaked loudly, then snapped partway with a sharp crack. Our bodies dropped several inches at once, leaving less than half a meter between us and the seething oil. A scorching wave of heat rushed toward us, hot enough to burn skin.

At the brink of life and death, Liam didn’t hesitate for even a second. He sprinted straight toward the only ladder nearby, climbed it swiftly, and cut the rope binding Vanessa. He pulled her tightly into his arms, murmured a few words of comfort, then turned to climb down. He didn’t look back even once, leaving me only with his cold back as he said flatly:

“Clara, hold on a little longer. Once I get Vanessa out safely, I’ll come back and save you.”

I watched his unhesitating retreat and suddenly laughed. My laughter was hoarse, bitter, and soaked in irony, even as tears spilled uncontrollably. The man before me overlapped with the boy from my memories—the seventeen-year-old who used to wait for me after school with an umbrella on rainy days, who would press the sweetest candy into my palm, who held my hand and swore with utter seriousness that he would protect me for the rest of his life and never let me be hurt.

As if sensing my gaze, Liam paused for a fraction of a second while carrying Vanessa down the ladder and instinctively glanced back at me. In that look, there seemed to be a trace of hesitation—or maybe it was just my imagination.

Before I could see clearly, his men shouted urgently from nearby:

“Mr. Foster, it’s too dangerous here. Get Miss Bennett out first!”

At the same time, a vague voice echoed in my mind—a boy’s voice, anxious and urgent:

“Clara Bennett, don’t be afraid. Don’t believe him anymore…”

Liam didn’t hesitate again. Holding Vanessa, he strode toward the exit. By then, my body was nearly brushing the edge of the oil pot. Scalding droplets splashed onto my skin, sending sharp jolts of pain through me. I forced myself onto my tiptoes, pressing them against the ground at the pot’s edge, barely managing to keep from sliding any lower. I couldn’t even spare a thought for the soles of my shoes burning from the heat.

In Liam’s arms, Vanessa deliberately turned her head to look at me. Her eyes were filled with provocation and triumph. She didn’t speak—she only moved her lips, silently forming the words:

See? I won again.

Liam set Vanessa down in a safe spot and was just about to turn back and rush into the warehouse to save me when my voice rang out behind him—cold, resolute, final.

“Liam Foster, don’t bother. Take her and go. From this moment on, there is no relationship between us anymore.”

His steps halted abruptly. He froze, then turned back to look at me, shock written all over his face.

At that moment, Vanessa suddenly cried out and grabbed her calf, her brows knitting as she looked at Liam through tearful eyes.

“Liam! I think my leg got burned by the splashing oil just now. It hurts so much…”

Liam’s gaze dropped to the reddened skin on her calf. He hesitated for only a heartbeat before making his choice. He bent down, scooped Vanessa up in his arms, and hurried toward the exit, only managing to say one apologetic sentence over his shoulder:

“Clara, wait for me a little longer! I’ll be right back!”

Wait for you?

There was no need.

Watching him carry Vanessa away in a rush, the last faint spark of hope inside me went out completely. At that exact moment, the rope above my head snapped with a sharp crack and broke apart entirely. I instinctively curled my body and used the momentum of the fall to roll sideways, barely avoiding the boiling oil—but my forehead slammed hard into a jagged stone on the ground. Blinding pain tore through me.

In the final second before I lost consciousness, I thought I saw a hallucination—eighteen-year-old Liam standing in the sunlight not far away, dressed in a clean white shirt, smiling and clapping for me, his eyes bright and gentle. He looked nothing like the cold, biased man he had become.

…

When I woke again, it was the familiar hospital room. The smell of disinfectant filled my nose, making my stomach churn. The nurse beside me noticed I was awake and spoke softly:

“Miss Bennett, you’ve practically lived in the hospital this past month. Your body’s too weak. There’s no one here taking care of you—would you like us to call a family member?”

I lay on the bed, thick gauze wrapped around my head, my burned calf sending waves of piercing pain. I turned my head and saw Liam sitting on a chair beside the bed. My voice was hoarse, barely recognizable.

“That kidnapping was staged by Vanessa Bennett. I’m calling the police.”

Liam stayed silent, his fingers curling slightly. After a long pause, he finally spoke, guilt rare in his tone.

“Vanessa… she was hurt too this time. The burn on her leg is pretty serious.”

He paused, trying to persuade me.

“And she’s your own sister. Do you really have the heart to see her taken away by the police and left with a criminal record?”

I stared at him in disbelief, my eyes filled with fury and mockery.

“Liam Foster, are you out of your mind?”

“She almost killed me! Even if she were my full-blooded sister, I have the right to call the police and the right to hold her accountable!”

“I’ll compensate you,” Liam cut in quickly, his voice full of remorse. “Didn’t you always want a wedding of the century? Once you’re discharged this time, we’ll start preparing immediately and get it done. As long as I’m here, no one will ever bully you again.”

“Who wants your compensation? Who wants your wedding of the century?”

I raised my hand and slapped him hard across the face. The sharp smack echoed through the quiet room.

I screamed, releasing all the rage and despair I had bottled up for so long:

“Liam Foster, the only person who’s ever bullied me is you! I’m breaking up with you—right now, this instant!”

His head snapped to the side from the blow. His cheek burned, and his eyes were filled with shock, as if he had never imagined I could be this resolute. He stood frozen for a few seconds, about to speak, when hurried knocking suddenly sounded at the door.

A caregiver rushed in, flustered.

“Mr. Foster, Miss Vanessa Bennett in the next room says if she doesn’t see you, she won’t let us apply her medication and keeps crying. Should you go check on her?”

Liam’s body stiffened. After only a moment’s hesitation, he stood up and turned toward me, his tone perfunctory, soothing in name only.

“Clara, I’ll go see Vanessa first and make sure she gets her treatment. You rest here and don’t overthink things.”

“Don’t worry. This time, the wedding definitely won’t be postponed. I’ll give you a proper explanation.”

With that, he didn’t linger. He pushed the door open and strode out of the room, never once looking back at the deathly pale look on my face.

I only stayed in the hospital for one day.

The stitches on my foot had just been removed, the wound still throbbing with unhealed pain, when I packed a small bag and walked out of the hospital alone. The sunlight fell on me, carrying a trace of warmth, yet it couldn’t dispel the lingering chill in my heart—until I stood at the gate of the villa and my phone chimed softly with a new email from overseas.

The moment I opened it, an electronic admission letter filled the screen.

The gilded school crest stood out vividly. It was the top-tier university I had fought with everything I had to apply for, my only way out of this city built on betrayal and pain. My fingers trembled slightly. Only then did I realize that, without noticing, the “one-month preparation period” I had set for myself had already ended. The new life that belonged to me was finally here.

I stood there, watching the breeze lift fallen leaves from the ground and carry them spinning into the distance. The massive weight pressing on my chest collapsed all at once. For the first time, the future felt clear and bright. My plane ticket had long been booked, my luggage mostly packed—I could leave at any time. But before I went, I wanted to visit a few places, to properly say goodbye to the past that had entangled me for more than a decade.

Seven hours before departure, I drove to the place where Liam Foster and I had first met.

It was the abandoned warehouse where, at nine years old, I had been kidnapped by traffickers and locked up along with more than a dozen other children. Back then, I had been trembling with fear, when a young Liam stepped forward, clumsy but determined, standing protectively in front of me. Later, we escaped with all our strength—but overwhelmed by terror, I lost that part of my memory, giving Vanessa Bennett the chance to steal the credit and worm her way in.

Now, the old warehouse was gone. In its place stood a brand-new factory, machines roaring, people bustling about. There wasn’t a trace left of what had happened back then. I stood at the factory entrance, staring at the scene before me. Fragments of memories buried under fear surfaced faintly, yet they stirred no emotion anymore.

I exhaled softly and turned away.

The stolen credit. The misplaced past. They all belonged here now.

Five hours before departure, I went to the university campus where we met again.

The area outside the teaching buildings was still crowded and lively. Students in uniforms passed by constantly, some glancing curiously at the faint scars on my face that hadn’t fully faded, their eyes full of speculation. I didn’t care. I walked slowly, my gaze sweeping over the familiar tree-lined paths and the library, but I could no longer find the boy who once looked at me as if I were his entire world.

In my memories, that boy in a white shirt would rush to my classroom the moment the bell rang, save a window seat for me in the library, spot me instantly in a sea of people, take my hand solemnly, and promise word by word:

“Clara, trust me. I’ll be good to you for the rest of my life.”

A faint, self-mocking smile curved my lips.

Liam Foster, you broke your word in the end.

Three hours before departure, I went to the sea of flowers where he had proposed to me.

I had planned to bury all the little gifts he’d given me over the years—the movie ticket stubs from our first date, our anniversary couple bracelets, the small ornament he handmade for my birthday—deep in the soil here, to lay the past to rest once and for all.

But just as I reached the entrance, I saw Liam and Vanessa standing among endless red roses, with the estate’s butler beside them.

The butler was introducing the place respectfully.

“Mr. Foster, Miss Bennett, these roses were all carefully cultivated. Red roses symbolize passionate love and are the perfect choice for a wedding venue.”

Vanessa clung to Liam’s arm and swayed it lightly, her voice soft and coquettish.

“Liam, I don’t like red roses. They’re too tacky. Can we change them to champagne-colored ones?”

Liam lowered his head to look at her, indulgence melting in his eyes. He chuckled softly.

“Alright. Whatever you want. I’ll have them ordered right away.”

The butler hurriedly pulled out a tablet and handed it to them.

“We have other varieties as well. You could take a look… Oh, and there are also sunflowers—Miss Bennett used to like those very much.”

He added with a flattering smile,

“Didn’t you once say you loved the sunshine and loyalty of sunflowers, and hoped Mr. Foster would always be faithful to you? To see the two of you getting married now is truly a wonderful thing.”

He had mistaken the person—thinking Vanessa was the one who’d been proposed to back then.

Vanessa’s expression darkened instantly. A flash of malice crossed her eyes, and her grip on Liam’s arm tightened. Liam frowned and cut the butler off at once.

“No need to choose. Replace all the red roses here with champagne-colored ones. Redecorate the entire venue according to Vanessa’s preferences.”

The butler froze, looking at the roses blooming across the hills, and asked reluctantly,

“Then these red roses that have already been set up…”

Liam didn’t even glance at them. His voice was cold and decisive.

“Bring in an excavator. Dig them all out.”

Standing under the shade of a tree not far away, I watched red rose petals drift down through the air. My memories were dragged back to the day he proposed.

It had been here too. He used red roses to form a heart, knelt on one knee, held up a diamond ring, and called my name over and over:

“Clara, I’ll treat you well for the rest of my life!”

“Clara, will you marry me? If you say yes, it’ll be the happiest thing in my life!”

Those vows had once lit up my world like starlight. Now, they fell apart along with the petals, shattered beyond repair.

I took the small gifts from my bag and gently placed them in the grass at my feet, leaving behind a time that had long since rotted away, right here in this sea of flowers. Then I turned and left without a trace of hesitation.

In the final hour, I arrived at the airport right on time, pulling the suitcase I’d already packed. After checking in and passing security, with ten minutes left before boarding, my phone vibrated.

It was a message from Liam, with a wedding design attached.

“The wedding design is ready. Take a look. If there’s anything you don’t like, just tell me.”

I opened the image. The venue was filled with champagne-colored roses, and even the wedding dress in the rendering was a champagne mermaid gown—Vanessa’s favorite.

I let out a soft laugh. There was no sadness in my eyes, only complete relief. Since every detail had been designed according to Vanessa’s preferences, then the bride of that wedding might as well be her.

I opened the audio recording saved on my phone—the one I’d secretly recorded during the warehouse kidnapping, when Vanessa, drunk on triumph, confessed to stealing the credit for saving Liam’s life. I clipped the most critical part and sent it to him, then added a single line:

“Liam Foster, I wish you a happy wedding and a lifetime together.”

The moment it was sent, I blocked all of Liam’s contact information without hesitation—deleted him, then turned my phone off completely.

The boarding announcement sounded.

I pulled my suitcase and walked step by step toward the aircraft. The plane taxied slowly, then finally soared into the sky, piercing through thick clouds. I leaned against the window, watching the rolling sea of clouds outside, as if it had cut off all the darkness and pain of the past.

I closed my eyes slowly, a peaceful smile appearing on my lips.

Goodbye, Liam Foster.

Goodbye to this past filled with betrayal and hurt.

From now on, my life belongs only to me.