Chapter 1

I had been Adrian Black’s mistress for five years, yet I could never compete with the woman he had loved first.

The night Serena White returned home, he kissed her passionately beneath a sky full of fireworks. Then he called me “an insignificant nurse.”

Five years of devotion had earned me nothing but humiliation.

I finally gave up and submitted my resignation.

I never expected Adrian to approve it without even reading the applicant’s name.

I used to think that one day, he would fall in love with me.

But now, our five-year agreement was over. I didn’t want to wait anymore.

This time, I was going to disappear from his world completely.

Emma Carter POV

When the HR department called, I was watering the plants in the living room. Water sprayed from the nozzle onto the broad leaves of the monstera, pattering softly as it slid down.

“Ms. Carter, your resignation has been approved.” Ms. Parker from HR sounded surprised and regretful. “Mr. Black approved it through the system. But according to the records, he took less than two seconds to process it. He probably didn’t even open the details and didn’t notice that you were the one resigning. Do you want to… speak to him in person?”

My hand paused around the spray bottle. Water droplets slid off the leaves and splattered onto the floor.

“No need, Ms. Parker.” My voice was soft but strangely calm. “The approval process is complete. I don’t want to bother Mr. Black.”

Ms. Parker immediately grew anxious. “Emma, don’t be foolish! You’ve worked in our emergency department for five whole years. Everyone knows you’re Mr. Black’s most capable assistant. The ER is chaos, and you’ve helped him handle countless emergencies. Whenever he performs a difficult operation, you’re always the surgical nurse he requests. If you suddenly leave and he finds out, he’ll tear the HR department apart! What are you thinking?”

I turned and looked across the villa where I had lived for the past five years.

Its minimalist black, white, and gray design reflected the man’s cold, refined presence in every corner. This was Adrian Black’s private residence. Other than the housekeeper, I was the only person with access to its fingerprint lock.

In everyone else’s eyes, I was Adrian’s favorite subordinate, the assistant he could never do without.

But no one knew that at night, inside this villa, I was the woman lying beneath him.

“No one in this world is truly indispensable.” I smiled faintly into the phone, though my eyes remained empty. “My parents aren’t in good health, and they keep urging me to settle down. I still have to go home and meet someone. A woman only has so many good years. I need to think about my future. Since Mr. Black has approved my resignation, I’ll complete the handover and leave on schedule in one month.”

Hearing the finality in my voice, Ms. Parker could only sigh. “All right. If you’ve made up your mind, I’ll process the paperwork. Honestly, everyone at the hospital is going to miss you.”

“Thank you, Ms. Parker. I’m grateful for everything you’ve done for me these past few years.”

After hanging up, I tossed my phone onto the sofa and went to the storage room for a black, twenty-four-inch suitcase.

I had lived in this villa for five years. I’d thought I would have left countless traces behind, but when I actually began packing, I realized how pitifully few things belonged to me.

My section of the closet took up barely a quarter of the space. Everything was black or white, professional clothes chosen to match his preferred style. On the bathroom counter, my skincare products were neatly arranged in one corner, never crossing the invisible line. In the shoe cabinet, there were only two pairs of flats. I didn’t even own a single pair of slippers that belonged to the woman of the house.

Adrian had once frowned and said the fur from fluffy slippers would dirty the carpet.

I crouched on the floor and folded my clothes into the suitcase. Other than essential clothing and documents, I threw everything else into a large black trash bag.

The designer handbags Adrian had casually bought for me went in.

The expensive perfume I had bought to suit his taste went in.

In a drawer, I found two thick notebooks filled with his habits, allergies, and dietary preferences. I opened one and let my fingers linger over the dense handwriting for a moment.

Then I threw both notebooks away without hesitation.

The room slowly emptied.

As I stared at the hollow closet, memories came rushing back like floodwaters breaking through a dam. In the silence, they swallowed me whole.

Five years earlier, cicadas had screamed from the trees through the heat of summer. As one of the top graduates of my nursing program, I had been assigned to the most prestigious private hospital in the city.

On my first day, I ran into Adrian Black in the hallway.

He had just taken over the hospital. He was barely thirty, dressed in a perfectly tailored designer suit beneath a crisp white coat. He stood tall, his features carved and striking, gold-rimmed glasses resting on his nose. Everything about him was distant and elegant.

He glanced at me only once. His dark eyes held no emotion, yet my heart completely lost control.

Every female nurse in the hospital talked about him in private. He was everyone’s dream man.

I was no exception. I was simply more persistent—and more willing to work for it—than anyone else.

I knew Adrian valued ability above all else. So I practiced inserting IVs, memorized pharmacology, and worked in the most exhausting department in the hospital: emergency medicine.

While other people went shopping or dated after work, I stayed in the simulation room practicing how to pass surgical instruments. I worked hard to earn the highest-level emergency nursing certification. With my skills, I advanced step by step until I finally stood beside Adrian at the operating table and became his most trusted assistant.

I thought that if I became good enough, if I stayed close enough to him for long enough, one day he would lower his eyes and truly see me.

I quietly memorized that he drank his coffee without sugar, that he had a mild seafood allergy, and that after a surgery lasting more than ten hours, he instinctively pressed a hand against his stomach.

I was like a tireless sunflower, always turning around the dazzling sun that was Adrian Black, even if the only reward was seeing him more often.