Chapter 1

On my birthday, my boyfriend of five years broke up with me.

I agreed.

The next day, he posted a photo collage on his Ins.

In the photo, he and the other woman sat in a brand-new BMW, holding a marriage certificate, smiling sweetly at the camera.

The caption: "Starting a new life from now on!"

I sneered, opened my mobile banking app, and counted the zeros from right to left – millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions...

On my twenty-ninth birthday, I had just received some absolutely incredible news and was thrilled. I was about to share it with my boyfriend, Liam, when I saw his grim face.

"Cassidy, let's break up."

My smile slowly vanished. I stared at him, saying nothing.

"The rent's due at the end of the month. All the furniture and appliances we bought, I'll leave them to you. I'm just taking my laptop and a few changes of clothes."

Liam pretended to be generous.

I almost laughed out loud.

Furniture and appliances? Was he talking about the secondhand desk he used for gaming, or the broken fan that no longer oscillated?

Perhaps my sarcasm was too obvious, because Liam fidgeted uncomfortably.

"And our joint card, it was in your name. All the money in it, I'm leaving that to you too."

I rolled my eyes.

We had agreed to put half of our monthly salaries into a shared account for joint expenses.

But he was in sales, with a pathetically low base salary, and his monthly income was always inconsistent. Especially in the first few years, he struggled to schmooze with clients and always landed at the bottom of the sales charts. Even when he put his entire salary in, it wasn't enough; I was constantly subsidizing it from my own pocket.

Later, with his good looks and cool, detached vibe, he finally attracted a few clients, and his performance started to improve.

Even though his income increased, his demands for a higher quality of life only grew.

Sure enough, before the end of this month, he'd already squandered all the money in the card. The current balance wasn't even enough for groceries tomorrow.

How dare he say he was *leaving* all this for me?!

My face darkened, and I forcibly suppressed the surging anger in my heart, saying pointedly:

"Don't you have anything to say to me?"

Liam froze, his gaze darting away. Then he tried to soften the blow with a patronizing tone:

"Don't be like this. I know you're upset, and I didn't want to do this to you. But, matters of the heart can't be forced, right? Breaking up now is for our future, I don't want you to keep struggling with me…"

Forget it.

Maybe he was just under too much pressure.

That's why he had to give up on us.

I sighed in relief, feeling a bit soft-hearted, and was about to tell him the good news when my phone rang.

It was an unknown number.

Liam glanced at it, and his face instantly tensed up.

"It's probably a spam call, Cassidy! Don't just answer unknown numbers!"

Seeing him like that, my stomach dropped.

A woman's intuition told me this call wasn't so simple.

I raised my hand and pressed the answer button, putting it on speaker.

"Hello, is this Cassidy?"

It was a female voice.

Liam couldn't sit still any longer. He stood up and tried to grab my phone, but I, having anticipated it, dodged him.

"This is she."

I had a feeling about something, and my fingers trembled slightly.

"I'm Liam's girlfriend. Is he still there with you? Please tell him to come home early; I'm waiting for him for dinner."

After saying that, without waiting for my reply, she hung up.

I looked up at the ceiling, took several deep breaths, and tried hard to hold back the tears welling up.

After a long moment, I turned my head to look at Liam, who was utterly lost and flustered by his secret being exposed, and questioned him:

"She's your girlfriend, so what am I?"

"Cassidy, I'm sorry. I didn't want this. But… I can't control matters of the heart…"

Liam lowered his head and covered his face, looking utterly dejected.

He was always like this; when faced with a tricky situation, he'd bury his head like an ostrich, as if that would make everything disappear.

In the past, I would patiently comfort him, counsel him, and find ways to help him resolve things.

But this time, I wasn't going to waste any more time on him.