As soon as I got home, I received a message from Roxanne.

"I'm not coming back to the house tonight. Sam wants to see the light show at midnight on the beach, so I'm watching it with him."

At the same time, Samuel also posted on his social media.

"Who's the poor guy who doesn't have someone to go to the amusement park with? Who's the lonely sucker who doesn't get to watch the light show with a gorgeous chick by his side? Well, it's not me!"

He uploaded a photo of himself and Roxanne on a Ferris wheel, and another of their shadows forming a heart shape.

No matter how I looked at it, it was clear he was mocking me.

After all, I was the one who first suggested going to the amusement park with Roxanne today. I talked about wanting to see the light show at midnight on the beach.

Fueled by the booze, I tore up the love letters Roxanne once wrote to me, along with the photos we'd taken together over the years.

As I looked at the torn fragments now, memories of the past came back to me.

Roxanne and I had known each other since high school. She asked me out during our freshman year of college, and we'd been together ever since.

It'd been a whole nine years since we started dating in college. All of our friends called us the ideal couple.

But, on the very day I proposed to Roxanne, Samuel came back to the country. He claimed he just had his heart broken after a breakup, and Roxanne was the only person in his life who could make him feel loved.

He said he didn't think he could carry on living if she got married.

As a result, Roxanne rejected my proposal, saying that she needed to accompany Samuel while he recovered from his emotional trauma.

I thought it only meant a short postponement of our eventual marriage. I never expected Roxanne to start refusing to come to my house. More and more of her attention went to Samuel.

On my birthday, Samuel could summon her by simply saying that he missed her.

On our anniversary, she held a yacht party for him without saying a word to me.

Roxanne had never cooked a day in her life, but for his sake, she learned how to cook.

The only time Roxanne ever got angry at Samuel was when he put rat poison in my food. I'd ended up hospitalized in the ICU for an entire month.

That day, she promised me she would teach Samuel a lesson and keep her distance from him.

She went back on her word the very next day.

With an apologetic smile, she explained, "Sam was just kidding around. He didn't think it would be that serious. He cried his heart out last night and almost slit his wrists to take his own life. Since he's already apologized, let's just forget about it, okay?"

I should've known to cut my losses back then, but at the time, I remained hopeful. I genuinely believed that Roxanne would follow through on her promise to distance herself from him.

But now, after just six short months, Samuel had already taken everything that once belonged to me.

I burned the torn photos and letters. All the feelings I had for her disappeared along with them.

After contacting a real estate agent about selling the house, I spent the night alone on the couch.

When I woke up, I had a blanket over me. The living room wasn't as messy as it had been last night.

Roxanne came out of the kitchen with breakfast in her hands. "I made your favorite—blueberry pancakes."

I didn't eat them.

Roxanne continued, "Sam is sick. He suffers from depression, so that's why I had to take his side yesterday. Since you're not sick, you should be more patient and accepting toward him."

She made it sound like she'd just said the most reasonable thing in the world—like it was my duty to put up with such treatment.

"You forgot that I'm allergic to blueberries," I finally said.

Roxanne stiffened. Only then did she remember that blueberry pancakes were Samuel's favorite. She'd made it out of habit.

As it was, scenarios such as this had occurred many times before. She'd forgotten all about my preferences long ago, but she knew Samuel's favorites like the back of her hand.

"Sam isn't even allergic to it. Why are you so fussy and problematic?" Roxanne snapped impatiently. "Do whatever you want then. I don't care if you eat it or not."

She never would've acted this way in the past.

But now, all of her care and tenderness were reserved for Samuel and him alone. All I got was her anger and temper.

Why?

Because I wasn't suffering from mental health issues. I could take it.

"Just come right out and say it," I said before pausing to take a deep breath. "What does Samuel want this time?"

It'd become a pattern by now. Whenever Roxanne showed me the slightest hint of warmth or care, it always had something to do with Samuel.

"It's nothing, really," Roxanne said as she schooled her tone back into a patient one. "Sam wants to have a baby with me. His psychiatrist said it would help with his recovery."

I froze. Could any words sound more absurd than that?

Roxanne was telling her own boyfriend she wanted to have another man's baby!

I never imagined she would go to such lengths for Samuel. She would rather have a child with him than marry me.

After laughing in self-deprecation, I nodded. "Let's break up. That way, nothing will get in the way of you having his baby."

Roxanne's eyes flashed with disbelief. She shot to her feet, screaming, "Austin Shaw! This is not a discussion. I'm telling you my decision! Don't even think about threatening me with a breakup. I'm having Sam's baby no matter what!"

Her tone made it sound like I was the most heinous and deplorable man to ever exist.

At that moment, I just felt exhausted.

At my silence, Roxanne chose to push me even further, declaring, "Sam will be moving in with us. Remember to move your things out of the master bedroom. But don't worry. Once I've delivered the baby, I'll marry you."

Not only was she going to have someone else's child, but she wanted to make a baby right here, in my house?

It was nothing short of humiliation.

But right now, I wasn't in the mood to argue with her. I didn't have the strength to either.

Just then, Roxanne got a call from Samuel.

"I miss you so much, Roxy," Samuel whined, his tone coy and cutesy.

Roxanne used to say she found that kind of mannerism disgusting, but now, she responded to him with a sweet smile, her tone affectionate. "Patience, Sam. I'll come over to see you right away."

Once she finished speaking, she rushed out the door without even sparing a glance at me.

Not long after, Roxanne changed her WhatsApp profile picture from a photo of us to one of her and Samuel on the Ferris wheel, their hands forming a heart sign together.

Samuel did the same.

They both updated their WhatsApp status to say, "I heard that the wish you make at the highest point of the Ferris wheel will always come true."

By comparison, I looked like the clown who was trying to get between them.

As the humiliation surged within me, I moved to pack my things, only to get a call from Maureen Hill, Roxanne's mother.

"Austin, you need to come to the office right away. There's a business deal that only you can handle."

I told her I'd be there.

Firstly, Maureen had been pretty nice to me all this time, so I wanted to say a proper goodbye to her. And secondly, I had to take back the family heirloom Grandma had left to me.

Once I arrived at the company, Maureen immediately gave me a cup of coffee, saying, "Have some coffee to warm yourself up."

A warmth stirred in my chest.

She continued, "By the way, Roxy tells me that you two are planning to have a baby? You should arrange a meeting with your parents, so that both families can get to know each other better. You and Roxy should set a date for the wedding ceremony."

I blanked for a moment before realizing that Roxanne had hidden the truth from Maureen. I was just about to tell her when she added, "But even after you two get married, don't forget about Sam, okay? You need to look out for him. He and Roxy are childhood friends. He's like a son to me."

Instantly, the words caught in my throat. I simply busied myself with work before heading to Roxanne's office.

Grandma had previously given me an emerald bracelet. It was a family heirloom meant to be passed down to the daughters-in-law of the family.

Since Roxanne and I weren't going to end up together, it was time for me to take back the bracelet. But when I opened the safe, it wasn't there.

Amid my confusion, the office door opened.

Samuel came in while twirling an emerald bracelet around his fingers—the very same one Grandma left to me.

I couldn't believe that Roxanne would give away a family heirloom from my grandma to someone else.

Suppressing my rage, I growled, "That bracelet is mine. Give it back."

"Sure," Samuel said with a nod.

He made a show of bunching up the bracelet to toss it to me, only to throw it hard against the floor instead.

The bracelet shattered. Even the emerald gemstones cracked into pieces.

I couldn't hold back any longer. With nothing left to lose, I swung my fist at Samuel. He didn't fight back. Instead, he screamed for Roxanne to help him, just as she came running in.

"Austin! Stop it!"

Roxanne and several other employees rushed toward me. After pulling me away from Samuel, she raised her hand and slapped me.

"Have you lost your mind? How dare you hit Sam?" she shrieked, her expression stormy.

Ignoring my stinging cheek, I pointed at the shattered bracelet on the floor and questioned, "Why did you give him the emerald bracelet?"

Roxanne froze for a moment before answering, "Sam has been having a lot of depressive episodes lately. Since the bracelet caught his eye, I lent it to him so that he could play with it for a while."

She knew very well just what that bracelet meant to me, so her tone was a lot less confident than usual.

"I'm sorry, Roxy. I didn't mean to do it," Samuel cried out pitifully. "I saw Austin rummaging through the office, so I wanted to stop him. Who knew he'd fly off the handle and start beating me up? That's when the emerald bracelet fell and broke."

Roxanne's heart ached to see him look so wronged.

She glared at me, her tone protective toward Samuel as she snarled, "The bracelet wouldn't have broken if you weren't in here trying to steal things! You've got no one but yourself to blame for what happened.

"To think you'd destroy your own dead grandma's belongings just to frame Sam. You're vicious! Why did I not realize sooner that you're such an unscrupulous guy?"

As always, no matter how ridiculous Samuel's claims were, Roxanne would always choose to believe him.

Therefore, I didn't bother saying anything. I simply bent down to pick up the fragments of the bracelet before turning to leave under Samuel's mocking gaze.

"Austin!" Roxanne called out to me, her tone rude and disdainful. "You can just glue everything back together anyway. Don't act like I've done something so terrible to you.

"Anyway, when you get back to the house, make sure you clear out the master bedroom. Sam doesn't like having other people's things in his room. I won't be going back for the next few days. Sam and I need to start working on getting pregnant."

Once she finished speaking, she left with Samuel.

I'd given up for good.

The real estate agent arranged a meeting with a buyer for me, and I signed the sale agreement on the spot.

Other than my own documents and paperwork, I didn't take a single thing from the house. They were all too revolting to me.

As promised, I followed Mom back to Rothspire. At the same time, I withdrew the resources I'd secretly been providing the Moores.

…

Third-Person POV

A week later, when a grinning Samuel arrived at the house to propose to Roxanne, Maureen finally discovered what was really going on. She froze in shock, her expression furious.

"Austin has already agreed to it, Mom!" Roxanne convinced her. "Besides, I'm only doing it for Sam's sake. Sam's grandpa wants him to have a child, so I'm just trying to help him out. Our families already have a close bond, and no other woman is worthy of having Sam's baby."

After hearing all that, Maureen hesitated for a while before giving her consent. "Since Austin has agreed to it, I guess it's fine."

They even had a formal engagement party to celebrate the occasion. Then, they made a grand return to Austin's old apartment, pulling up in a convertible that was decorated with a banner announcing that they were engaged.

However, when they arrived at the entrance to the apartment complex, the security guard stopped them.

"Your license plate number isn't registered in the system. Are you visiting someone?"

"Huh?" Roxanne sounded confused. "Didn't Austin Shaw, the owner of Block 8, Unit 502, add the license plate number to the system?"

She looked displeased.

The security guard replied, "According to the records, Unit 502 has been sold off. The owner isn't Mr. Austin Shaw, but Mr. Shane Lewis."

"That's impossible!" Roxanne's expression stiffened. "I'm his girlfriend! Why wasn't I informed that he's sold the apartment?"