Chapter 1

I became Luke's girlfriend when his company was on the brink of collapse.

For five years, I secretly poured a lot of money into his business.

On the eve of his company's IPO, he finally proposed, promising to make me the happiest woman in the world.

But then, I accidentally came across his messages with a friend on his computer.

"I'm marrying Chloe just to piss Seraphina off."

"The company's about to go public. I'll be a billionaire soon. I'm sure Seraphina won't just watch me marry that woman."

"As soon as Seraphina agrees to come back from abroad for me, I'll break up with Chloe and marry her instead."

Turns out, Luke only proposed to me to make his first love jealous.

I scoffed. Then I immediately called my dad to pull all the investments.

"Dad, withdraw the shares from Luke's company in a few days."

With the company's IPO imminent, my dad pulling out would be catastrophic for Luke.

"Did that kid hurt you? I'll deal with him!"

My dad has always doted on me. He didn't even ask why, and was immediately ready to confront Luke.

I managed a bitter smile.

"Dad, this is something I want to handle myself."

My voice caught in my throat.

To keep my dad from worrying, I quickly hung up.

My eyes stayed fixed on the alarming chat logs on the computer screen in front of me.

Luke and I attended the same university.

During our freshman year, when some guys were harassing me, Luke stepped in without hesitation. He fought them off and ended up with a bloody head.

But it was seeing him like that which made me fall deeply in love with him.

Growing up, besides my dad, he was the first man who had ever thrown himself into danger for me like that.

So in college, I pursued him for a long time. He never said yes.

Looking back, I was really pathetic.

His indifference only made me want him more, making me believe such a man was truly captivating.

It wasn't until after graduation, when his company went bankrupt and he was millions in debt, that he finally started to come around, with me by his side through his darkest days.

That's when he finally agreed to be my boyfriend.

I then pleaded with my dad to use our family's resources to secretly help him from behind the scenes, getting his company back on track.

Five long years, and his company was finally on the verge of going public.

He even proposed to me the day his IPO application was approved.

I thought we were finally going to get our happy ending.

Who knew it was all just a ploy to make his first love jealous?

And I was nothing but a pawn in his game.

On our wedding day, I would probably be the laughingstock of everyone.

Luke was out entertaining clients today. He must have left in a hurry, forgetting to log out of SnapChat on his computer.

Even though those chat logs made my heart ache so much I could barely breathe, I seized the chance to open his Ins feed.

I'd never seen his Ins before.

He seemed to never post, not even sweet photos of us when we traveled.

But opening his Ins now, I discovered he did post.

He had just always blocked me.

Soon, I found a picture of a girl on his feed.

Only her fair wrist was visible, but the stunning emerald bracelet on it was particularly dazzling.

I'd seen it in his suit pocket not long ago.

I thought he was finally getting romantic, planning to put it on my wrist at our wedding.

Instead, it was a gift for another woman.

Turns out, he wasn't unromantic.

He just wasn't romantic with me.

Just then, my phone rang.

"Chloe, hurry over! Luke's in a fight!"

I could faintly hear Luke's angry shouts over the phone.

"You bastards, you need to apologize to my girlfriend!"

My heart gave a violent lurch.

I wasn't even there; the girlfriend he was talking about definitely wasn't me.

I wanted to know what happened tonight, so I grabbed my jacket. As I went to the shoe rack, I saw the scarf I'd made him lying on the floor.

Looking closely, there were clear footprints on it.

I'd spent over ten days knitting it, pricking my fingers countless times, and then given it to him myself.

But he didn't value it at all.

I bent down, picked up the scarf, and expressionlessly tossed it into the trash can.

Then I hailed a cab and headed to the bar where Luke was fighting.

I saw Luke with his arm around a woman, tears streaming down her face.

On her fair wrist, she wore that same gorgeous green emerald bracelet.