I had loved him for six years, across three cities, halfway around the world. And now my wish was finally coming true.

Unexpectedly, his ex-girlfriend suddenly appeared with his illegitimate child. Frederick Hastings cancelled the wedding with me without hesitation, saying, "She is the one I love all the time."

As for me, I became his ex-girlfriend.

We parted ways, but we never expected that an entanglement would begin...

1

Frederick and I broke up peacefully. How peaceful was it?

A few minutes before he broke up with me, I was pointing at my computer and discussing wedding photos with him.

It was rare for Frederick to be distracted. I could see that he was a little absent-minded, so I immediately stopped the topic, handed him a glass of water and asked, "What happened?"

Frederick thought for a while, and then said to me in a negotiating tone. "Scarlett, let's break up! We call off the wedding."

For the past 28 years, probably all my willfulness and youthful frivolity were shown to Frederick, including the one-night stand when we first met in Aramore.

"Why?" I asked him in a trembling voice.

The scene of him hugging that woman in the hospital during the daytime unconsciously emerged in my mind. At that time, I was in the hospital after finishing my pre-marital check-up. My first reaction was that I must be dazzled...

Frederick spoke with rare difficulty, "I'm sorry, my ex-girlfriend, the one we almost got married with, was on a business trip a few days ago. And we ran into each other."

I finally couldn't help myself and asked back with a smile, "Isn't it in the hospital?"

Frederick was obviously startled, and looked at me with a sharp gaze. A man's change of heart always started with a lie. And a lie required countless lies to cover it up.

After a while, he nodded in understanding. "You never asked. And I never told you. She was actually my first love, and we separated because of a misunderstanding."

"So you cheated?"

Frederick looked up suddenly, was stunned for a few seconds, and did not respond.

My heart suddenly tingled, which grew stronger and spread to my extremities.

Later, my friend was disappointed and said, "Can't you give him a slap in the face or find that woman?"

I could, but I didn't want to.

I didn't want to be like a shrew, crying, making a fuss, and even threatening to commit suicide to win back a man who no longer loved me.

Even if I did manage to keep him, it would hurt me every now and then.

It would hurt myself and him.

I forced my tense shoulders to relax slightly and listened to Frederick's explanation. "She has a son, four years old. When we separated, I didn't know she was pregnant."

The glass in my hand fell to the ground. Under my feet was the carpet that I had picked out with Frederick last week. The glass didn't even make any sound, but the color of the carpet darkened and slowly spread.

In a trance, I heard Frederick say, "Scarlett, I always love her."

Frederick never said love to me.

But he would bring a bouquet of my favorite daisies on the way to pick me up from get off work. He would leave work early and go to the mall to queue up to buy a cup of hot chocolate that I would crave every now and then.

I was so happy that I said something but meant it. "Don't buy it anymore."

He smiled, with his eyes showing indescribable fondness. "Okay, I'll listen to you."

We walked hand in hand in the park at dusk. He was not a romantic person, but he remembered all our anniversaries.

On our sixth anniversary, Frederick, who was originally on a business trip, walked into the house at the stroke of midnight. I was half asleep. He kissed me tenderly and whispered in my ear, "Happy anniversary, baby."

After living together, I was the one who cleaned everything in the house.

One morning, I was half asleep when Frederick whispered in my ear, "Where is the dark blue suit and tie of the same color that you bought for me last week?"

The night before, I stayed up watching a movie until about 2 a.m., and couldn't get up. I crawled under the covers and muttered, "Look for it yourself."

He said, "I have an important client meeting today. And I'm almost late. Please help me, dear." Frederick didn't get angry and gently carried me to the cloakroom.

I was a very ticklish person. His kiss made me feel tingling. I woke up immediately and handed him the clothes. Frederick carried me back to the bedroom to continue sleeping.

He was steady, considerate, self-disciplined, and wealthy, so naturally he was surrounded by many women.

The girl had just graduated from college and went to work as a clerk in Frederick's company.

Frederick proposed to me directly at the party in the name of a team party. When the ring was put on my finger, the man knelt on one knee and said, "Scarlett, I leave my life to you."

I stopped thinking, found my slightly hoarse voice, and said, "This matter is caused by you. You should handle the cancellation of the wedding."

My parents were not optimistic about our future from the beginning, so they would not make things difficult for him.

I said, "The house you bought before we got married is yours. I own this house that we jointly financed, and I'll pay you in cash."

Frederick had been listening silently, and only interrupted me at this moment, "I am sorry for you. You don't have to give me money. I have two hundred thousand dollars in cash, and you can have it."

Frederick and I came from middle class families, so we didn't care about these things. He just wanted to spend money to alleviate his guilt.

I nodded silently. And after a long while, I said, "Cancel our appointment with the pastor next week.

"Take the time to pack your luggage in the next two days, and leave the keys on the shoe cabinet before I come back from my business trip."

My words were clear and to the point.

If Frederick hadn't proposed the breakup, I would have had the illusion that I had planned it in advance.

I was tired, but ordered him to leave in a cold and distant tone. Until the sound of the door closing behind me, I could not control my trembling.

I covered my face with my hands. I rarely cried, but I couldn't control my tears now.

2

Frederick and I met in Aramore in 2015.

There was no melodramatic or romantic encounter, just ordinary adults getting tipsy in a bar and hitting it off right away.

I clearly remembered that there was an uneven scar on his waist. When my palm brushed across it, it seemed to cross mountains and rivers. So much so that in every dream of him later, it always made me shy and my heart beat fast.

We indulged in lust. I regretted it when I woke up. Because my growing environment and family education did not allow me to be a loose girl. I left the hotel before dawn and didn't even know his name.

I thought that this one-night stand of ridiculous romance would take root in my heart forever, but I didn't expect that fate would be so coincidental and random.

In 2017, in Cladeland abroad, Frederick and I met again unexpectedly.

We chose a restaurant in perfect tacit agreement. There were no greetings after a long separation, but just a few strange yet deliberate small talk.

Frederick said, "My girlfriend and I plan to get married at the end of the year."

At that moment, my heart jumped up from seeing him, like broken glass scattered all over the ground.

"Congratulations." I said my sincere blessing reluctantly.

He had a girlfriend. We naturally do not need to leave each other's contact information. We meet and separate like strangers.

Fate played tricks on us.

But God had a clever plan.

In 2021 in Koriland, at an accidental dinner, Frederick was the Party A person in charge of my company's cooperation project.

He had a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, which made him look like a gentleman. My style was also very different from five years ago. I had dye hair and contact lenses.

"You've changed a lot." Frederick handed me the menu.

My hands were shaking, and I almost didn't catch it.

Everyone started to joke. "Mr. Hastings, you knows Scarlett?"

He and I understood each other tacitly and smiled at each other.

The night view of Koriland was beautiful and intoxicating. And what made me even more ecstatic was that Frederick was single again.

The joy of meeting again after a long separation had already overwhelmed all my rationality and shame. I leaned against the door of Frederick's hotel room and asked him, "Mr. Hastings, do you believe in fate?"

He was already a little drunk. He raised his hand to pull off his tie, and lazily unbuttoned the two buttons on his shirt, revealing his sexy Adam's apple.

I had a crush on him.

"Fate plays tricks on people." Frederick advised me.

I tried to probe, but also carefully. "But, I miss you too much."

I didn't understand Frederick's eyes at that time, but now when I thought about it, I found it was a kind of nonchalant look of resignation to fate.

Desire made it happen. Everything happened naturally.

3

Our separation was extremely peaceful, yet also traumatic.

His parents and relatives had all bought their tickets for their trip to Koriland, but the trip was canceled. Naturally, they were very angry.

Frederick's mother called me once, in a tone that was both flattering and angry, "He wants to cancel it, so you just let him do it? So what if they have a child? I was able to keep that woman out five years ago, and I can do the same now."

She talked a lot, and then I realized that he and she were not a good match. It was not so much a misunderstanding as it was family obstruction.

"No, it was my idea to cancel the wedding."

Frederick's mother treated me very well and doted on me. Perhaps she was hurt by these words, and she suddenly choked up. "Scarlett, you..."

After a long silence, she sighed and hung up the phone.

Frederick went to my hometown, Frostham. When I hurried back, my parents had already ignored him for a whole day. Although my parents were angry, they were well-educated, and they had never quarreled with anyone in their lives.

"Since you've broken up, we have no need to meet again. Why are you here?" He and I walked side by side out of the street.

"I have to come here and apologize in person. The fault is mine," He said calmly.

Maybe it was my illusion, I thought Frederick's eyes were as gentle and affectionate as ever.

I turned my head away, forcing myself not to fall.

The Frostham was attractive at night. I still remembered the same street scene when Frederick first visited my parents. He touched my head and said, "You are just like the city."

He said I was gentle and delicate.

There was an elusive regret in his tone.

Now that I thought about it, he must have been thinking of someone at that time.

Frederick's back looked thin. The twists and turns during this period probably made him physically and mentally exhausted. He must have smoked a lot. He bent over with a cough and shivered slightly.

He and I had a lot of mutual friends, and many of them spoke up for me. It was also at that time that I found out that the woman was also from Frostham, and her features and temperament were similar to mine.

That was why he felt sorry.

But soon, Frederick would get what he wanted.

These days, I felt sleepy, had no appetite, and my period was delayed. I finally couldn't bear it any longer and went to the hospital.

I sat on the bench outside the hospital for a long time holding the pregnancy test results, sneering. This was ridiculous.

The weather in Koriland in October was pleasant and sunny, but I still felt very cold. The weather made me shiver.

In the days after I found out I was pregnant, I was extremely conflicted and on the verge of collapse.

I didn't know how he knew about my pregnancy. When I got home from get off work, I saw Frederick leaning against the car door smoking, looking depressed and forbearing.

4

Frederick was one of the most self-controlled men I had ever met. He never smoked two cigarettes in a row, but here there were five or six cigarette butts scattered around his feet.

I could even sense his anxiety, probably the uneasiness and boredom that came from things getting out of his control again.

When he saw me, Frederick quickly put out his cigarette, raised his hand to dispel the smell of smoke around him, and then walked towards me.

After staring at me for a long time, he spoke with difficulty, "Why didn't you tell me?"

I had no intention of using a child to tie down a man who didn't love me and even only treated me as a substitute and confession. My indecision these days was only about whether I should keep my unborn baby.

I responded calmly, "This has nothing to do with you."

Frederick stood in front of me and asked, "Are you planning to keep this child?"

He sounded slightly rattled.