Chapter 3

He always loved to tease me.

We were together for a long time.

He bought an apartment near campus.

We lived the loving life of an ordinary couple.

My parents divorced when I was young, so I grew up living with my grandmother.

Once, while I was on a FaceTime call with her, he overheard her mention that her teeth were falling out and it was getting hard to eat.

The very next day, he took my grandma to have a full set of new teeth fitted.

Later, I brought up the cost awkwardly.

A full set of teeth was over $200,000.

He signed the bill without a second thought, but I had no idea how I could ever repay him.

He saw through my hesitant expression. "Don't worry about the cost. I'll take care of it."

I cautiously said to him,

"What if we break up later? You wouldn't ask for the money back for her teeth if we broke up, right?"

He burst out laughing.

Back then, I only knew he was rich, but not how rich.

It wasn't until I muttered to him one day about my scholarship not being disbursed yet.

Coincidentally, from that day onward, the Kingston Group scholarship process at school was streamlined and began to be announced and disbursed on the same day.

That is how I learned he was a son of New York's Kingstons.

Later, his father died.

The Kingston family's inheritance battle was a sensation.

Besides Julian, his father had several illegitimate children scattered around.

At the peak of the inheritance dispute, Julian was suddenly hospitalized.

The diagnosis was acute kidney failure.

He stayed in the ICU for over ten days.

After two rounds of dialysis, his kidney function still hadn't recovered.

The doctors, with no other options, suggested a kidney transplant.

But we waited and waited, but no suitable donor could be found.

I even went to each of his half-siblings, begging.

But not a single one was willing to be tested for a match.

And who would agree to be a match? Without Julian, they'd get a bigger piece of the pie.

They were practically praying for him to die; why would they step in to save him?

During that time, I felt lost in a fog, unable to find a way out.

Julian seemed to have a premonition. He had his lawyer transfer all his assets to me.

He lay in the hospital bed, his pale hand gently stroking my face.

Patiently, he wiped away my endless tears.

He said meeting me in this lifetime meant he had no regrets.

But to everyone's utter shock...

No sooner had I accepted his gift than I threw myself into another man's arms.

I chose not to stay with Julian through his final days.

I betrayed Julian, eagerly pledging allegiance to another.

And that man was his father's most favored illegitimate son.