His touch made me feel physically sick. I wasn’t sure if it was morning sickness or just pure disgust at the sight of him. I gagged and spat out a mouthful of sour bile, instinctively pushing him away.

"Saveline, are you insane? Are you done yet?"

Funny enough. He didn’t care that I was throwing up. He only cared that I had pushed him.

"Yes, I must be sick. I've been insulted by millions of comments, I don't dare turn on my phone and I still apologize. If that's not being sick, then what is?"

Even after being cursed at so harshly, my voice remained soft and petulant as I voiced my grievance.

I'd always been gentle and timid by nature. When others bullied me, I would simply avoid them.

I remembered being bullied by a girl who acted sweet but was actually manipulative.

Without hesitation, David stepped in front of me and said sharply, “You better jump and drown in the river. That way, people would still think it’s just a piece of trash!”

The manipulative girl ran off after being scolded and David gently pinched my nose, speaking softly, “You little weakling, what would you do without me? You’d get bullied too much.”

I never imagined that one day, David would stand against me.

My parents were in the business of mining raw diamonds. That year, the mine collapsed.

My parents were driven to suicide by public opinion, leaving me trapped in endless darkness.

I was taken in by our housekeeper, but it was David who stole his father’s antique collection worth over ten million dollars and sold it on the black market to get the money to set up a home for me and the housekeeper in another city.

As for David himself, he was beaten severely by his father and then kicked out of the family.

When I was broken and battered, he treated me like a treasure.

But now that all the hardships had passed, the man who once pulled me out of the abyss was the same one pushing me into another torment that devoured me from the inside out.

I closed my eyes, bit my lip and choked back my tears. “David, let’s at least keep some dignity for each other. Let’s end this on good terms and get a divorce.”

David frowned slightly, his voice laced with confusion. “Saveline, you’re really divorcing me over something this trivial? It’s just cyberbullying, haven’t you been through worse? When your parents killed all those people, weren’t the insults you got back then even harsher? You’ve already been through it once, haven’t you? Why are you still so sensitive? I really don’t get you.”

The people closest to you always knew where it hurt the most.

He knew better than anyone that my parents’ deaths were a pain I would never be able to face in this lifetime. Yet, at this moment, he tossed it at me so effortlessly, as if it was nothing.

"Get out! I don’t want to see you!"

With bloodshot eyes, I hurled a pillow at him.

"Shrew! Completely unreasonable."

Cursing under his breath, he grabbed the sakura pink bag and stormed out.

Not long after, Lucia posted a new update:

"My big straight man couldn’t even complete a simple little task. Girls, tell me, should I make him kneel on a washboard?"

David immediately replied: "Diana, have mercy!"

The comment section was flooded with people squealing about how sweet they were.

It seemed I really was just a piece in their game.

Love was supposed to be for both of us, but while I was still figuring out what went wrong, I had already been pushed from the main role in his story to just a background character.

It was just another cliché romance story, where the new lover laughed while the old one cried.

I wiped away my tears and unlocked my password-protected notebook.

Then, I dialed an international call across the ocean.

James was the CEO of the world’s largest diamond mining company.

Growing up alongside my father, I had learned a lot about raw diamond mining.

Even though my father had fallen from grace, his reputation in the industry remained formidable.

James admired my father, which was why he went to great lengths to find me and offered me a position at his company.

His company was based in Zenova State.

At the time, I was deeply in love with David and couldn’t bear to leave him.

Besides, I didn’t want to follow in my father’s footsteps, so I gave up the opportunity.

Right now, everything I once cherished regarded me as worthless. I had nothing left to hold me back.

With my ruined reputation, finding work in the entertainment industry, let alone any job in the country, would be nearly impossible.

Thinking about this made me uneasy. My heart pounded as I anxiously dialed the number.

When the call connected, I carefully asked, “Hello, is this Mr. James?”

There was a brief hesitation on the other end before a soft “Mm” came through, followed by silence.

His quietness made my palms sweat with nerves.

“I’m Lucas Carter’s daughter, Saveline Carter. Does your company still need a gemstone appraiser?”

I felt completely uncertain. I was terrified that if I only introduced myself as Saveline, he wouldn’t remember me and would just hang up. So, I had no choice but to bring up my father.

My body trembled with nervousness and my voice involuntarily choked up.

“It's okay, don’t cry.”

Unexpectedly, the voice on the other end was that of a gentle young man.

It sounded somewhat familiar, but it was definitely not the voice of the person who had given me the number that day.

“You… You’re not Mr. James? I’m sorry, I must have dialed the wrong number.”

My heart, which had been hanging in suspense, plummeted once again into the depths.

The person on the other end didn’t answer my question but instead said gently, “I’ll come pick you up.”

I was utterly confused. If he wasn’t James, why would he come to pick me up?

Sensing my silence, he added, “I’ve heard about what happened to you. I have a flight tonight. Let’s talk in person.”

With that, he hung up.

I was completely bewildered, knowing nothing about the identity of this person.

The only thing I was sure of was that he knew me. Maybe it was because of my father that he was willing to help me.

How ridiculous. Just to leave David, I had started to look forward to the arrival of a stranger I had never met.

The love I once depended on had now become the very thing I was desperate to escape from.

Two people who had once loved each other so deeply had now reached the point of mutual resentment. It was quite a pity.

Even though that person was only willing to help me out of respect for my father, at least I had a place to go.

For a brief moment, the heavy weight in my heart was lifted.

Now, all I had to do was wait for him to arrive and help me process my work visa.

While waiting for the visa, I could finalize my divorce.

With that plan in mind, I started packing my belongings.

Looking at the single suitcase before me, I couldn’t help but smile bitterly.

After ten years of marriage, everything I owned in this home could fit into just one suitcase.

I had made up my mind. I didn't want anything. As long as David agreed to sign the divorce papers without trouble, I was willing to leave with nothing. Even the house and car that he transferred to my name, I would give them up as well.

It wasn’t that I saw money as worthless or thought of myself as noble. It was just that David had once been the one who pulled me out of the abyss. He simply didn’t love me anymore; it wasn’t as if he had committed some unforgivable crime.

I still remembered that year, right after my parents' suicide. The widows of the miners who had died in the collapse gathered at my doorstep, holding banners and demanding that I die with them, saying that the Carter Family deserved to be wiped out.

It was David who hid me in the basement. Despite being so young, he stood tall like a man, looking at me with unwavering determination and saying, "Saveline, wait here. I'll take care of it and once it's done, I'll take you away."

I didn’t know how that young boy handled the situation, but when I saw him again, his body was covered in welts from a belt.

I cried as I asked him if it hurt.

He grinned, revealing a mouthful of bright white teeth. "Saveline, the old man has cut ties with me. From now on, I’m sticking with you!"

It was only later that I found out. He had stolen antique calligraphy and paintings from his father and sold them at a low price.

He took me away from that city where everyone wanted me dead.

He gave me, an orphan with nowhere to go, a home.

Love was supposed to conquer all hardships. In the early days of building our careers, we faced countless struggles together.

But in the end, he rose from being a little boy to a president.

Yet time didn’t just change our circumstances. It changed our love as well.

I didn’t want to take advantage of him and I was willing to give my blessing to his love with Lucia.

If I was destined never to have happiness, then at least the person I once cared about can be happy in my place. That’s enough.

All I asked for now was a peaceful, amicable separation.

After mailing my passport to the address James provided, I stayed home, waiting for his update.

But before any news about my visa arrived, David came first.

"You should get ready. You're coming with me to a banquet tonight."

I was stunned. For years, David and I had even taken separate elevators downstairs, never once sharing a meal in public. What was wrong with him this time?

Seeing that I didn’t move, he spoke arrogantly, "What, are you too excited to react? Look at you, acting like you've never seen the world before."

"I'm not feeling well. I don't want to go. If you need a date, you can take Lucia. Aren’t you two trending as a couple right now?"

I was leaving anyway. I had no intention of getting dragged into their mess.

"Saveline, do you really think you're that important?" David scoffed. "Of course, I will date Lucia. The reason I'm taking you is so your rustic demeanor can make her look even more elegant and pure."

Arrogance was written all over his face.

"Saveline, let's be real here. Just do as I say and I promise I'll never abandon you. This time, your job at the banquet is to act meek and heartbroken. Leave the rest of the negative publicity to the media. Once Diana makes money, I'll reward you with a trip to the Maldiva."

I listened to him quietly, then handed him the divorce papers I had prepared in advance. “David, let’s get a divorce.”

“Saveline, are you getting too full of yourself?” David’s brows knitted tightly together, his arrogance replaced by a sinister glare.

“What’s all this fuss about? So what if I have another woman? Which man doesn’t fool around? As a wife, ask yourself honestly. If you had done your part well, would I have gone looking elsewhere?"

I was so enraged that I laughed. He made cheating sound so justified.

Back in middle school, he and I were strolling through the park when we happened to witness a wife catching her cheating husband with his mistress. The wife’s family had shown up in full force and the hot-blooded teenage David took advantage of the chaos to kick the scumbag a few times along with them.

Even afterward, he was still fuming. "Men who cheat should be physically castrated! They’re the worst kind of trash. Tell me, why isn’t infidelity a criminal offense?"

Now, he had transformed from that young man who despised infidelity into the very thing he once loathed. Not only was he unaware of it, but he also had the audacity to manipulate me, his lawful wife.

It must have been my fault. I must not have been good enough, otherwise, he wouldn’t have gone looking for another woman.