After my engagement to my childhood sweetheart Calvin, he secretly planned an overseas trip with Serena, the girl he had secretly loved for years.

The day before their departure, he was chatting with Serena and his buddies in the clubhouse of a golf course.

"Calvin, you just got engaged and now you're taking off with Serena. Aren't you worried Davina might find out?"

Calvin sneered, "I hired a guy to pose as her admirer. He'll keep her so busy she won't have time to look for me."

"And if something actually happens between them, it'll give me the perfect excuse to break off the engagement and be with Serena openly."

Standing outside the door, I trembled as his words reached my ears.

I turned to the handsome man behind me, who looked guilt-ridden, and said through my tears, "Then let's fulfill his wish and get married."

But as I was preparing for the wedding, Calvin fell to his knees before me in anguish, "Davina, I was wrong. Please don't marry him!"

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I look at the message from the wedding company,

Just as I'm hesitating whether to really change my marriage partner, Calvin returns with his suitcase.

As soon as he opens the door, he stands in the living room and impatiently shouts, "I'm starving to death!"

"Davina, come out and cook for me right now!"

Calvin's shout is particularly grating,

I frown as I hurriedly turn off my phone, then immediately go to the kitchen to quickly cook him a bowl of noodles.

But when I set the noodles in front of him, he doesn't even touch them, his eyes falling inquisitively on my face.

"While I was gone, did you meet anyone else?"

Hearing this, my heart trembles, and I immediately recall what he said in the private room at the bar.

My chest suddenly feels so tight I can barely breathe.

I know he's referring to Joaquin—the man he hired to pretend to pursue me.

Who might also become the groom at my wedding a month from now.

I pretend to be nonchalant, lifting my head to look directly into Calvin's eyes: "No."

Hearing this, a flicker of confusion passes through Calvin's eyes.

He gives me a long, hard look, muttering under his breath, "Could it be that guy took the money but didn't do the job?"

"Hm? What are you saying?"Calvin hastily changed the subject, trying to cover his unease. "It's nothing. This noodle dish is really delicious."

He quickly finished eating, wiped his mouth, and then matter-of-factly ordered me, "Hurry up and make some seafood porridge. I need to take it with me for dinner later."

Seeing me sitting motionless in my chair, he frowned, opened his suitcase, and tossed a palm-sized blue velvet jewelry box in front of me. "Here, this is a gift I bought for you while I was away."

"This thing is very expensive, so don't you dare lose it."

"Now can you go make the porridge?"

I opened the box to find a pair of rice-grain-sized diamond earrings inside.

Before I could even close the lid, Calvin impatiently yanked me up from the chair and shoved me towards the kitchen. "Hurry up and make it. I have to go out and take care of some business soon."

"If the other party gets impatient and decides not to sign the contract with me, the company's losses will be more than you can afford."

Ever since Calvin's company got on track, he's always used such words to intimidate me.

As I watched the shrimp meat bubbling in the pot, a sudden bitterness welled up in my heart.

Someone who's been allergic to seafood since childhood now actively asking for seafood porridge.

How laughable.When I handed him the thermos containing the seafood porridge, he complained, "Why so slow?" He then quickly opened the door and left, not even looking back as he departed again.

I looked at my scalded wrist and managed a bitter smile.

Just as I was about to search for the first aid kit, I unexpectedly saw an invoice on top of his open suitcase.

It was a receipt for a two-million-dollar diamond necklace.

The document clearly stated that the earrings I received were complimentary gifts.

As I stared at this receipt, I slowly clenched my fist, the bitterness in my heart growing more intense, so sour that I couldn't even feel the pain on my wrist anymore.

I opened my phone's social media feed, hoping to distract myself from the inner turmoil, when I unexpectedly saw a new post from Serena, who I'd recently added through a mutual friend.

She was holding a porcelain bowl of seafood porridge with one hand, beaming at the camera.

The diamond necklace around her neck was particularly eye-catching.

The caption read: [Food from my beloved tastes better than any delicacy in the world!]

I looked up at the engagement photo of Calvin and me hanging in the living room, and two streams of tears escaped my eyes.

Calvin, staying by your side is truly too painful.

Calvin, my next-door neighbor, and I grew up together. He was handsome and brilliant, often topping our class.

I, being slow-witted since childhood, looked up to him as my role model.

In our senior year of high school, I studied tirelessly, all in the hopes of getting into the same college as him.

Finally, on our college graduation day, I mustered up the courage to confess my feelings to him.

He was drunk, and he gazed at me for a long time with a complex look in his eyes.

Just when I thought he was going to reject me, he said, "Alright, let's start dating right now."

As soon as he finished speaking, he pulled me close, and his warm lips pressed against mine. I quickly lost myself in the kiss.

Because of that kiss, even when Calvin refused the help offered by the Blackwood family and rented a basement apartment, I was willing to stay by his side and endure the hardships.

When he was starting his business, a mutual friend advised me, "Calvin's heart belongs to someone else. He's just using you to pass the time. Leave him before you get hurt."

But I refused to believe it.

I gave my heart sincerely, betting that years of companionship would win his true love.

In the end, I lost that bet.

On the day of our engagement party, Calvin received a message from Serena saying she was back in the country.He left without a word, immediately abandoning me on stage as I was toasting the guests, and quickly drove away from the hotel.

I looked at the sympathetic glances from the surrounding guests, fighting back tears in my eyes, and made an excuse: "His company has an urgent matter that needs to be addressed immediately."

After forcing myself to return home, I stared at his newly posted social media update all night long.

A pair of intertwined hands once again stung my reddened eyes.

From that day on, Calvin not only came home later and later, but after showering, he went straight to his study.

Standing outside the door, I could clearly hear laughter coming from inside.

I pretended to be clueless and asked Calvin what he was doing in the study all night.

He coldly replied with displeasure: "You're too stupid to understand even if I told you. Stop asking about my business from now on."

Hearing this, my mood became even more dejected.

Indeed, a childhood sweetheart is no match for a destined love.

While cutting vegetables, I accidentally cut my finger due to being distracted.

Seeing the deep, bone-deep wound, Calvin had no choice but to come out of his study to take me to the hospital for stitches.

As I opened the passenger door, I instantly saw that his car was filled with plush toys and adorned with many cute stickers.

My nose stung with emotion.Suddenly, I remembered leaving a fluffy keychain in the car. When he saw it, his expression immediately changed.

Right in front of me, he threw it in the trash with a look of disgust.

Calvin noticed me looking at him, and a flash of discomfort crossed his eyes.

After arranging all the stuffed animals on the back seat, he said, "Now can we get in the car?"

I was trying to ignore the sickly sweet smell assaulting my nose when I was about to get in, but Calvin's phone suddenly rang.

"You're hurt? I'll be right there!"

He frowned at me, "Go to the hospital by yourself. I have something I need to take care of."

I watched as the car quickly disappeared from view, my eyes suddenly stinging.

After my treatment was over, I unexpectedly saw a social media post from a mutual friend.

I found the golf course based on the location tag.

In the private room, Calvin held Serena in his arms, with a tenderness in his eyes I had never seen before.

Before I had time to feel upset, I overheard what he was saying in the lounge.

And the strange man Calvin had hired was standing right behind me.

He looked at me with eyes full of sympathy: "Don't be sad."

Calvin didn't come home again last night.

The next day, just as dawn was breaking, the vibration of my phone jolted me awake from my slumber.

As soon as I answered the call, Calvin's commanding voice rang out from the speaker: "Make a few of your signature dishes right now and deliver them to the address I'm sending you before noon."

"Uh..."

Before I could utter a word, Calvin promptly hung up.

I looked out at the wild, stormy weather. On the road, the blurred visibility caused by the rain nearly led to several accidents as I drove.

After purchasing the ingredients, I didn't pause for a moment. I hurriedly prepared four dishes and packed them into insulated containers.

When I finally arrived at the hotel room door Calvin had specified, drenched in sweat from my rush, it was Serena who opened the door.

She was wearing a bathrobe, her exposed neck covered in red marks from a night of indulgence.

Serena took the insulated containers with a cheerful expression: "You must be Davina, right? Calvin said your cooking is delicious. Thank you for bringing this food especially for me."

Her gaze kept scanning me up and down: "I'm really envious of your culinary skills. Unlike a klutz like me - last night I tried to cook dinner for Calvin myself, but I ended up cutting my finger with the knife.Serena waved her bandaged finger in front of my face.

"Calvin cares about me too much to let me keep cooking," she said.

"He said there's an on-call maid who can bring me food. I suppose that maid is you."

Such blatant provocation was more than I could take.

I snatched the thermos she was holding. Serena tried to grab it back.

Finding she couldn't wrestle it from me, she suddenly bent down and bit my hand.

The pain of teeth sinking into flesh made me instantly let go.

The thermos I was holding immediately fell to the ground, its contents splattering everywhere.

Some of the food even landed on her legs.

Feeling the grease on her legs, she released her bite and cried out in alarm.

Hearing Serena's scream, Calvin quickly came out from inside, his upper body bare. He worriedly embraced Serena and asked, "What happened?"

The tenderness in his eyes was something I'd never seen in all our years together.

Serena said nothing.

She just pointed at me, pretending to be scared as she hid in Calvin's arms.Calvin frowned and angrily questioned me, "What did you do to Serena?"

"I just asked you to bring over a few dishes, how did you turn it into this mess?"

"If Serena's finger hadn't been cut by a knife yesterday, leaving a five-millimeter wound, I would never have let you come over."

I defended myself pitifully, "She bit me first."

I raised my hand, which was bleeding from Serena's bite, but Calvin shouted even more impatiently, "You're just bleeding a little, how can that compare to Serena's finger!"

"Serena has always been a kind and fragile person. If I find out you're bullying her again, I'll break off our engagement immediately."

As Calvin was about to close the door with a cold face, I quickly reached out and stuck my hand in the door gap.

Calvin yelled, "Do you want to lose your hand?"

Ignoring the anger on his face, I asked directly, "Calvin, are you cheating on me right in front of my face?"

As soon as I said this, a flash of unnatural panic crossed his face.

Calvin said with little conviction, "What nonsense are you talking about? I'm just taking care of an old friend."

He pried my hand away and shut the door without hesitation.I was left standing dazed outside the hotel room.

When I returned home, exhausted, I received a call from Calvin's mother on my cell phone.

"Davina, as the future daughter-in-law of the Blackwood family, don't forget to attend Grandma's birthday celebration with Calvin in three days."

Suppressing the pain in my heart, I replied, "Okay."

Attending Grandma's birthday celebration one last time as his fiancée would be my final act as part of the Blackwood family.

Once the celebration is over, it will be time for me to leave.