Chapter 1

I’m six years older than my puppy-like boyfriend.

When he confessed, he said, “I like you best, Claire!”

But after his career took off, he found himself a girl six years younger than him.

Later, when a man a hundred times better than him stood by my side, he begged me,

“Please. Let me come back to you.”

I said, “Then crawl back like a dog.”

Today, after spending ages choosing a ring, I was finally ready to propose to my boyfriend of six years.

I had been waiting for this day for a long time.

Ethan had promised that the day his career succeeded would be the day we got engaged.

That day had finally come. The brand he founded had officially launched, and after countless rounds of refinement, it had received an overwhelming response right out of the gate.

I couldn’t wait to marry him.

［Ethan, when are you coming home today?］

I sent the message nervously.

The room was decorated exactly as I had planned. Rose petals covered the floor. I had spent three months researching the perfect candlelit dinner. And I had prepared one more gift—twenty percent of my company’s shares.

Once we got engaged, I planned to give them all to Ethan.

My phone remained silent for a long time.

Ethan didn’t come home until midnight.

The first thing he said when he saw the decorations was,

“Why did you turn the room into this?”

“I wanted to celebrate your brand’s successful launch.”

“That’s enough! Claire, how old are you? You’re already thirty, and you’re still doing this childish, over-the-top stuff? Do you have any idea how much trouble it’ll be to clean this up? You’re not at the age where you should be chasing romance anymore.”

The Ethan standing in front of me felt like a stranger.

He used to surprise me again and again with little cakes and cute hair clips. He treated me like a spoiled little girl.

He used to tell me,

“Claire, whether you’re thirty, forty, or eighty, you’ll always be my little girl.”

I once asked him what would happen if people said I was too old to act young.

He had answered,

“Then don’t listen to them. My Claire will always be young.”

But now he called me childish. He complained that I had gone too far.

As I watched him rant, I quietly hid the ring I had never managed to give him and restored the room to its original state.

The difference between being loved and being unloved was truly enormous.

The next morning, Ethan left early, leaving me with only one sentence.

“Don’t do anything like that again. I was exhausted last night.”

I didn’t say a word.

I packed up every piece of Ethan’s clothing and threw it outside the door.

At that exact same time the day before, I had received a message from Ryan.

［Claire, isn’t this Ethan? ［Photo］］

The photo showed Ethan holding out a bouquet of roses to a young girl who looked barely eighteen.

The last time I had asked Ethan why he hadn’t brought me flowers in so long, he had said,

“You’re not young anymore. Maybe you should stop wanting the things little girls like.”

Now that I thought about it, the truth was obvious.

He hadn’t stopped bringing me flowers because I was too old for them.

He simply didn’t want to give them to me anymore. He wanted to give them to a younger girl.

An eighteen-year-old girl was nothing like me. I already had faint wrinkles and traces of time on my face.

Her smile was sweet, and standing beside Ethan, they looked perfectly matched.

Ryan’s message pulled me back to reality.

［How could Ethan do this? If I were him, I’d treasure you properly, Claire.］

I enlarged the photo again and again.

Ethan’s smile stabbed at my eyes.

So he hadn’t stopped loving me because I was childish.

He had simply decided to give his love and protection to someone else.

All the sweetness of the past dissolved into nothing.