Chapter 1

CEO Liam Blackwood had finally recovered after three years of paralysis, and his buddies threw him a celebratory party at an exclusive private club.

I stood by the entrance, clutching a carefully chosen gift. Just as I was about to push the door open, I heard Liam's voice, mingling with his friends' chatter from inside.

“Liam, Sera has been absolutely incredible for you. Honestly, if it wasn't for her these past three years, you wouldn't have recovered this brilliantly.”

“He's right. She's just a girl, yet she massaged you daily, pushed you through rehab, barely slept a wink, terrified you'd have a breakdown in the dead of night... You owe her for life, man.”

“She is indeed a very good person,” Liam's voice was low and gentle.

My fingertips trembled slightly, a warmth spreading through my chest.

The next second, I heard someone ask, “So, when are you going to marry her?”

A terrifying silence fell over the room. My hand hung in mid-air, my heart involuntarily quickening its pace. I held my breath, as if awaiting a final judgment.

After a long pause, Liam's voice, flat and distant, finally broke the silence. “I think of her as a sister.”

“A sister?!” His friends' voices shot up. “She's been with you for three years, and you just see her as a sister? Liam, you can't still be pining for Genevieve, can you? She ditched you the second things went south, didn't even bother to check in! Now you're back on your feet, and suddenly she reappears? Liam, you can like *anyone* else, but not her!”

Liam didn't respond.

I stood outside the door, my heart twisting in a brutal grip.

Silence, in itself, was the clearest answer.

I had foolishly believed three years of unwavering devotion would earn me his true feelings. Instead, his heart had always belonged to the one who abandoned him.

Three years ago, Liam Blackwood was a golden boy, standing at the pinnacle of success. A top-tier university grad, heir to a massive empire, a natural at everything from skiing to equestrian. And his face? Sculpted by the gods themselves.

Me? I was just a scholarship kid, lucky enough to be sponsored by the Blackwoods.

I first saw him at a school awards ceremony. He stood on the podium, his expression cool and distant, his posture tall and unyielding, like an unreachable mountain pine.

I sat in the very last row, clutching my scholarship check, too afraid to even clap loud enough to be noticed.

Back then, standing by his side was Genevieve Sterling, the university's reigning queen, gorgeous and from a family just as powerful as his.

Everyone said they were like a prince and princess from a fairytale.

Until that car crash.

Liam's spine was shattered, and the doctors said he might never walk again.

Genevieve? She didn't even make it to his hospital room. Just a cold breakup text, and then she vanished, poof, into thin air.

The Blackwood heir, once the center of everyone's universe, plummeted into absolute darkness overnight.

He became volatile, moody, even attempted to take his own life.

Mr. and Mrs. Blackwood wept endlessly, completely helpless.

I was the one who stepped up.

I knelt by his wheelchair, my voice a soft whisper. “Liam,” I promised, “everything will be okay. I'll be right here with you.”

For the next three years, I dedicated myself to learning various massage techniques, sleeping only two hours a night, terrified he'd do something reckless in the dead of night.

When he'd spiral, smashing his legs with a chair, I'd instinctively throw myself in front of him, taking every brutal blow.

“My legs are already ruined!” he'd roared, his eyes bloodshot. “It doesn't matter if I break them! Are you crazy? Can't you tell what's more important, your life or my legs?!”

Sweat beaded on my forehead from the searing pain, but I clung to his legs stubbornly. “I can tell,” I whispered.

“Precisely because your legs are so important, I have to stop you.”

“Because one day, I *will* make you walk again.”

In that moment, Liam, who had always been so proud, trembled as he pulled me into his arms, his voice thick with emotion. “Sera, please... don't leave me...”

Everyone called Liam's recovery a miracle.

But only I knew the truth. Miracle? There was no miracle. Just me, fighting tooth and nail, clawing him back from the edge of the abyss, piece by agonizing piece.

And now...

He'd climbed out of that abyss, but he no longer needed me.

Just then, my phone vibrated sharply.

I fumbled for it, and the name “Mrs. Blackwood” on the screen stung my eyes.

I knew exactly what that call meant.

Sure enough, as soon as I answered, Mrs. Blackwood's gentle, yet unmistakably firm voice came through.

“You see, dear, Liam's the CEO of a major corporation now. His wife simply *must* be someone with a strong background, someone who can truly support him, not just... well, not just anyone.”

“I truly appreciate your unwavering care these past three years. But you must understand, if it weren't for the Blackwood family's generosity, you wouldn't have even seen the inside of a university. Consider all those past debts... paid in full, okay?”

There was a pause on the other end, as if she expected a torrent of desperate questions, or perhaps a tearful, humble plea.

But I simply lifted my gaze toward the empty hallway where Liam had walked away. The empty hallway seemed to echo with mocking laughter, a cruel testament to three years of unrequited hope.

“Okay,” I heard my own voice say, eerily calm. “I'll leave. I'll never appear before him again.”

I hung up the phone and went straight to the hospital.

My forehead wound required three stitches, and the doctor advised me to keep it dry.

I numbly nodded, and as I walked out of the clinic, I saw Liam's Maybach parked not far from the hospital entrance.

The car window was half-open. Genevieve was weeping, her head buried in his shoulder.

“Liam, I'm so sorry for what I did back then...” Her voice was choked with sobs. “I don't expect you to forgive me, but I had no choice but to leave you. My parents wouldn't allow us to be together; they forced me abroad, even confiscated my phone. It's not that I didn't want to find you...”

Liam sat in silence, the line of his jaw hard.

I stood not far away, my feet rooted to the spot.

“Then why are you back now?” Liam finally spoke, his voice deep.

Genevieve lifted her face, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Because I couldn't forget you... I know you have Sera now, but I don't ask for anything else, just please don't send me away... Just let me watch you from afar...”

I stood in the shadows, watching Liam stay silent for a long time before finally reaching out to wipe away Genevieve's tears.

“I don't blame you,” he said. “As for Sera... I just see her as a sister. It's not what you think.”

Genevieve's eyes lit up, and she broke into a tearful smile. “Really?”

Liam nodded.

Genevieve cried tears of joy, burying herself in his arms once more.

I let out a self-mocking laugh, turned, and headed straight to the immigration office.