Chapter 2

Ethan’s mother was kind, so she let me stay with them and keep Ethan company.

He loved teasing me. He couldn’t braid hair, but he insisted on trying. Whenever I went to school, my hair was always a tangled mess.

Ethan was two years older than me. The year I first realized I had feelings for him, I fell in love.

After that, I spent countless days and nights chasing after him.

Whenever he entered a competition, I entered too.

If he came in second, I made sure to come in first.

Through that silent competition, we made it through high school and were both accepted into top universities.

Then, during our freshman year, the Dalton family suddenly went bankrupt.

Overnight, everything they had disappeared.

Ethan’s father died in a car accident while on his way to take Ethan abroad.

His mother couldn’t withstand the back-to-back blows and took her own life at home.

While Ethan was at his most helpless and broken, I chose to stay by his side.

The Dalton family was buried in debt.

Ethan earned a meager living by performing solo piano pieces.

The fall from privilege to poverty didn’t defeat him.

Instead, it gave him a chance to rise from the ashes.

During our sophomore year, his unique piano style earned him a loyal following and countless awards.

But it also attracted the attention of his family’s enemies.

The grudges of the older generation eventually fell on Ethan.

He was kidnapped and taken to an abandoned factory. Those men wanted to destroy him so that even his dead father could never rest easy.

Back then, everything was far less advanced.

By the time I found Ethan with the police, he had already been beaten unconscious, his head covered in blood.

The men fled when they heard the sirens, but I had interrupted what they were doing.

So they turned their attention to me.

I had guarded against every possible danger, but I never suspected my closest friend.

She was a musical genius from the same department and knew how important my hands were to me.

So when those men found her, she agreed without hesitation to trick me into going somewhere remote.

That was the day my right hand was severely injured, and I lost my ring finger forever.

I never told Ethan what had happened.

I couldn’t bear to make him blame himself, and I didn’t want to distract him from building his company.

Even now, he had no idea why I had lost my finger.

I thought about the ten years I had spent struggling beside him. I thought about how the company had grown from a tiny startup, through crisis after crisis, into what it was today.

I had waited ten whole years for Ethan to marry me.

Instead, all I got was his disgust and a new love.

Suddenly, I woke up to the truth.

I had been wrong from the very beginning.

My life should belong to me. It shouldn’t revolve around Ethan every day.

I had spent all my energy worrying about whether he would cheat on me or go out with another woman.

After ten years beside Ethan, I had built up plenty of connections of my own.

I used to be sensitive and insecure about my missing finger.

Even on the hottest days, I wore gloves.

I had heard Ethan say countless times, “Don’t follow me when you go out. You embarrass me.”

Maybe it was because I had pressured myself for so long. Maybe I cared too much about his opinion.

Either way, I had fallen into a vicious cycle and never considered getting a prosthetic.

I contacted a famous orthopedic specialist overseas, explained my condition, and scheduled treatment for the beginning of spring next year.

Ever since my right hand had been seriously injured, rainy weather made the bones in my palm ache as if ants were gnawing on them.

That torture had lasted five full years.

I had been willing to endure it for Ethan’s reputation.

But now, I didn’t want to endure it anymore.

Then I thought about my position in the company.

I took out my phone and sent Ethan the resignation letter I had prepared long ago.

I waited for a long time, but he didn’t reply.

So I went straight to the office.

Everyone in the company knew about my relationship with Ethan.

When they saw my missing finger, every one of them looked shocked.

I smiled and greeted them. Then I returned to my office, packed up my things, and sent Ethan another message.

“Have you signed the divorce papers? I’m coming to pick them up.”

Ethan’s office was one floor above mine.

After thinking it over, I decided meeting him in person would resolve everything faster.

I just hadn’t expected his office to be so lively.

Only the secretary was allowed into the CEO’s office.

It was obvious who was making the breathless sounds and the noises of clothes rubbing together behind the door.