I'm Tristan Scott's driver's daughter. Ten years ago, my father died at the hands of Tristan's abductors as he tried to save Tristan.

Tristan had held me close and told me, "I'll care for you for the rest of your life on your father's behalf."

Later, my mother's cancer relapsed due to her sorrow after losing my father. Before her death, she hoped to see Tristan and me marry.

But on the wedding day, Tristan leaves me at the altar. I weep and try to keep him around, but he sneers and says, "You should know where to draw the line—your father gave his life in exchange for the cushy life you now have. That should be enough for you! You're dreaming if you think you can marry me!"

In the end, my mother dies without seeing Tristan put a ring on me.

That night, his assistant shares an Instagram story. The photo is of her and Tristan's faces plastered to each other as she shows off the ring on her finger. It's captioned, "My answer is yes."

My father was Tristan Scott's driver. Ten years ago, he was stabbed to death when saving Tristan during an abduction attempt.

Tristan held me tightly and promised, "On behalf of your father, I will take care of you for the rest of your life."

Later on, my mother fell ill from worry, and her cancer relapsed. She hoped to see Tristan and me getting married before she passed away, but on the day of our wedding, Tristan left me at the altar.

I tearfully pleaded with him to try and stop him from leaving, but he declared with a sneer, "By now, you should be satisfied with the amount of wealth and glory you've gotten in exchange for your father's life! How dare you even think about getting married to me? In your dreams!"

In the end, Mom died before she could see Tristan put the wedding ring on me as she had hoped.

That night, Tristan's assistant, Sally Cunningham, updated her social media account. She uploaded a photo of her and Tristan with their faces pressed together. Her hand was raised before the camera, revealing the ring on her finger.

The caption read, "My answer is yes."

By the time I saw Sally's post, Mom's body had already been taken to the morgue. I'd called Tristan 30 times, but he didn't answer a single one of my calls.

However, he did leave a comment on Sally's post.

"I'll fulfill all my promises to you."

In the photo, Tristan and Sally were in a tight embrace, and I even saw underwears behind them. It was obvious what they'd just been doing.

I felt as if all the energy had been sucked out of me. My heart ached so much that I almost couldn't breathe.

With just a single call from Sally, Tristan left me at the altar. Mom got so furious and agitated that she fainted on the spot. Even when she was lying on the hospital bed taking her last few breaths, she was preoccupied with her sorrow over not getting to see me start my own family.

However, Tristan had placed the ring that was supposed to be my wedding ring on Sally's finger instead.

While they were busy with their bout of passion, Mom passed away and was delivered into the cold, dreary morgue.

I figured Tristan had forgotten the promise he made ten years ago.

He was born the son of a wealthy family, while I was just the daughter of the Scott family's driver.

When Tristan was 14, one of the Scott family's enemies abducted him to blackmail the family. Dad boldly rushed in to save him, but in the process, his throat was slit. He died on the spot.

Feeling indebted to us, the Scotts took care of us from then onward.

The biggest change of all was Tristan's attitude toward me. Previously, he had always been rather unfriendly, but after that incident, he personally visited us to thank us.

He even took me by the hand and made a promise, saying, "Claudia, now that Mr. Granger isn't around anymore, I'll look after you for the rest of your life, okay?"

Being a teenage girl, I was easily taken over by such an ardent confession. I was even foolish enough to believe that he made it out of genuine affection for me.

The year we graduated from college, Tristan made a grand proposal to me in front of the media. Yet, the next day, he took Sally to the famous Love Bridge in Eiran and placed a lock there with her.

From then onward, he disappeared from my life and spent all his time with Sally instead. He dined with her and went traveling with her. He would even rush to her side in the middle of the night just to hug her when she said she had a nightmare.

When I saw the hickeys on his neck and smelled someone else's perfume on him, I asked him about it, but all I got in return was a tirade from him.

"Claudia, do you actually think you're my fiancée just because we treat you a little bit nicer? You got everything you have now by sacrificing your dad's pathetic life. Isn't that enough to satisfy you?"

He smacked my face and eyed me in scorn before continuing, "Don't be too greedy, Claudia!"

I couldn't understand why Tristan had suddenly changed into an entirely different person. Nevertheless, due to the Scott family's involvement, our wedding was held as scheduled.

That day, Tristan wasn't even willing to get changed into his suit. He kept checking his phone, seemingly worried and impatient.

When it was time for us to exchange our wedding rings, Sally finally called him, and he abandoned me without hesitation.

Later on, Mom was taken to the emergency room after she fainted. I couldn't get Tristan on the phone, so I had no choice but to run over to Sally's house and get on my knees to beg him, "Mom wants to see us get married before she passes away. Please come with me…"

Tristan looked down at me. With a cold, arrogant expression, he said, "You would even resort to such a heinous excuse just to trick me into getting married to you, Claudia. I pity your mom."

Just then, Sally cleared her throat and called out coquettishly, "Tristan, you wore me out. I'm going to take a nap."

Tristan tapped her nose affectionately before turning back to me, saying, "I'm going to nap with Sally. I don't have time to play along with your little act. Get lost, Claudia!"

"I'm not acting!"

Fervently shaking my head, I tearfully explained, "My mom really is on her deathbed, Tristan…"

However, he simply scoffed and replied, "She deserves it for disturbing Sally's rest! She should hurry up and die!"

Then, without sparing me another glance, he slammed the door shut.

Mom didn't get to die in peace, and I lost my only family.

It rained heavily the day Mom's ashes were buried.

Exhausted, I dragged myself home. However, before I could even enter the house, I heard raucous laughter ringing out from the inside.

Through the crack in the door, I saw Tristan and his friends in there drinking alcohol.

"Tristan, don't tell me you're really going to marry that driver's daughter."

"She sure thinks highly of her dad's pathetic life! Not only has she mooched off the Scotts for so long now, but she's even deluded enough to want to be Tristan's wife. I've never met someone as shameless as her!"

Swirling the wine glass he was holding, Tristan responded darkly, "Her dad saved my life. For the sake of the company's reputation, I had no choice but to play along with her. I didn't expect that fool to actually take it seriously."

It turned out that Tristan had been faking the kindness he had shown me all these years. This explained why he seemed to have constant mood swings. He always treated me coldly in private, but he would be unusually gentle and warm when in the presence of the media.

The signs had been there from the start. I just refused to acknowledge them. Now that I heard Tristan saying the truth himself, I felt as if my heart had turned into ice.

His friends continued making their comments.

"That cancer-ridden mom of hers keeps talking about how she's dying soon too, using that as emotional blackmail against Tristan. I'm sick of hearing it from her!"

"The Grangers are all the same. They're a family of leeches!"

"I even suspect that her dad teamed up with the abductors to put on a show back then just so his daughter could marry into a wealthy family!"

They carried on chatting happily, turning Dad into a scheming, conniving scoundrel.

Dad died to save Tristan. How could Tristan laugh and smile along when he heard these people slandering Dad?

Standing outside the door, I started sobbing in silence.

I longed to hear Tristan stand up for Dad, but instead, he said dismissively, "I know, right? There's no end to their greed!"

His words cut me like a knife. I felt suffocated.

If I had a choice, I would've wanted Dad to still be alive. That way, Mom's cancer wouldn't have relapsed due to her emotional state, and she wouldn't have died as a result.

Just then, Sally noticed me through the crack in the door. She swung the door open and said, "Oh. You're back, Claudia. Why are you crying out here? Come in."

Everyone's eyes fell on me. They all saw me in my sorrowful, pathetic state.

Tristan didn't welcome my presence. The moment he saw me, he frowned and snapped in displeasure, "Why the hell are you here, Claudia?"

He seemed to have forgotten that the Scotts gave this house to Mom as compensation. Mom and I were the real owners. I was the one who should be asking him that.

Tristan didn't care that Mom had died. He even brought a bunch of people over to Mom's place to have a drinking party with them.

He was indeed heartless.

With reddened eyes, I said to him, "Let's break up, Tristan."

However, he merely retorted disdainfully, "What's this? Did your mom teach you a new trick? Don't even think about threatening me with a break-up to force me to marry you, Claudia!"

He pulled Sally into his arms before continuing, "The only one I've ever loved is Sally! I don't care what my family does to threaten me. This time, I won't back down, so you can forget about it!"

It was such a romantic declaration of love, but he didn't need to bother at all. My heart died the moment Mom was cremated.

Ignoring the crowd, I wanted to head upstairs to pack up Mom's belongings.

However, Sally abruptly called out in an aggrieved manner, "Claudia, it's my birthday today. Why are you dressed like you're attending a funeral? I know you don't like me, but you shouldn't dress like you're in mourning just to ruin my birthday party…"

She even started crying pitifully.

Naturally, Tristan couldn't stand to see the love of his life in tears. Infuriated, he bellowed at me, "Claudia! Didn't you hear what Sally said? She doesn't like what you're wearing. Hurry up and get out of those clothes!"

Glaring at Tristan, I ignored his demands. He was used to being able to order people around, so he couldn't stand the fact that I wasn't doing what he said. He signaled to his friends, who lunged at me and started ripping my clothes off.

While doing so, they even hurled insults at me.

"How dare you try to protest? Just who do you think you are?"

There were too many of them. I couldn't get away. My clothes were torn into pieces, with just a tiny bit of cloth left to cover the most important parts. My face was shoved against the floor as I was pushed around.

The whole time, I glared at Tristan with tears in my eyes, but he simply stood to the side and eyed me in amusement.

"Let go of me!"

I broke free of them and ran toward the door, but before I could even take a few steps, someone smashed something against the back of my head.

I fell to the floor, unmoving.

"Is she dead?"

"She asked for it! It's even better if she's dead. It's her fault for refusing to stop clinging onto Tristan!"

Amid my daze, I heard Tristan say, "She just loves putting on an act. Ignore her. Let's go!"

By the time I regained consciousness, the living room was empty. All that remained was the stench of alcohol and cigarette smoke that lingered in the air.

I touched the back of my head. The blood had dried.

I didn't know how long I'd been lying on the floor. With great difficulty, I crawled back onto my feet and headed toward Mom's bedroom.

Perhaps I was still a little out of it after getting hit in the head, or maybe it was just a force of habit, but when I opened the door, I instinctively called out, "Mom, I'm home…"

Nevertheless, once I saw the empty room, my heart deflated once more.

For a moment, I had forgotten that I no longer had a mother. Out of the three people in the family portrait that hung on the wall, I was the only one still alive.

After I had wiped my tears away, my eyes landed on a bunch of half-knitted sweaters.

Mom was an exceptional knitter. Before Dad started working as the Scott family's driver, Mom relied on her knitting skills to raise me and pay for my education. All our neighbors said she was extremely talented too, and they often sought lessons from her.

She was also generous with Tristan, often giving him the sweaters, beanies, and gloves she made herself.

However, Tristan said it was beneath him to wear such items. He gave away her entire summer's worth of labor to the dog his nephew raised, saying, "In our family, only the dog would use such lousy things."

Mom never knew that Tristan turned his nose up at her creations. Even as her health took a turn for the worse, she continued knitting away.

"While I'm still able, I'm going to make enough to last the next three years…"

Mom was afraid she wouldn't live past this year, and she still wanted to do something for Tristan and me.

Alas, Tristan had never once used anything she made for him. He came up with all kinds of excuses not to do it, claiming the items were either too childish, too unfashionable, or too dowdy.

And yet, when Sally gave him a pink hair tie, he posted over a dozen Instagram stories about it. It never left his wrist either. To this day, he was still wearing it.

Therein lay the difference.

He loved Sally, so everything that came from her was worthy of being cherished.

He hated me, so he hated everything related to me.

I put on one of the unfinished sweaters to immerse myself in Mom's scent.

Just then, someone shoved the door open.