Chapter 2

My thoughts drifted back eight years.

The day I met Adrian, I was on the edge between life and death.

Severe depression made it hard to distinguish reality from illusion. I walked onto a bridge in a daze, looking down at the surging river that seemed to beckon me.

Adrian, who happened to pass by, noticed my state and pulled me back from the brink.

At that time, he was also at a low point in his life.

We encouraged each other, healed each other's wounds, and gradually became the most important people to each other.

Later,

Adrian stood at the pinnacle of the art world, while I became a stay-at-home girlfriend who only revolved around him.

Even so, he always stood up for me when others mocked or belittled me.

He took action to defend our love.

He told me firmly:

"Cece, don't worry about what others say. You'll always be one of a kind in my heart!"

I thought true love could overcome everything.

Turns out the expiration date on our love was only seven years.

Sharp pain brought me back to reality.

Adrian vented his anger by kicking the broken bowl at his feet.

The shards hit the wall not far from me, then bounced back onto my arm. Blood immediately started flowing.

Adrian panicked. He rushed over to check my injury, tears even welling in his eyes:

"I'm sorry, Cece. I shouldn't have treated you like that... I've hit a bottleneck recently, the pressure is just too much..."

While explaining, he frantically rushed me to the hospital.

In his urgency, the usually composed Adrian even lost his shoes three times.

He still seemed like the Adrian who would lose his composure for me.

But only I knew—

We could never go back.

After watching the doctor treat my wound, Adrian went downstairs to buy me soup.

I held my phone and started clearing out the seven years of memories with Adrian stored inside.

That's when Quinn Snow appeared.

Come to think of it, this was our first direct confrontation.

She herself was like her paintings—breathtakingly beautiful.

Quinn looked at me like I was an ant, getting straight to the point:

"A fool like you doesn't deserve Adrian. Break up with him now."

I laughed out loud, with no desire to argue with her, keeping my head down as I continued clearing my phone.

Seeing my indifference, Quinn shoved her chat window with Adrian in my face.

[Cece has changed. She never used to argue with me. Tonight she even deliberately didn't dodge the shards. It feels like she's playing the victim for sympathy.]

My heart clenched with pain.

Before, if I just accidentally bumped into something, Adrian would lose sleep all night from worry.

Now I had such a long gash, yet he thought I was playing the victim for sympathy.

Indeed—

When a man stops loving you,

even if you hang yourself, he'll just think you're on a swing!

I blinked my eyes, desperately forcing back the tears.

Quinn continued scrolling up the screen.

I stayed motionless, masochistically viewing their chat history.

That Adrian who was always quiet and cold to everyone except me was actually interacting with Quinn every single day.

They shared paintings they loved, interesting things in life, even a weirdly shaped crooked tree.

I suddenly felt it was all quite meaningless.

I moved my gaze from the screen to Quinn's triumphant face, enunciating almost word by word:

"You shameless homewrecker."

The smile on Quinn's face briefly disappeared.

A moment later, she raised an even more provocative smile:

"Want to make a bet to see who Adrian trusts and cares about more?"

With that, she suddenly grabbed my hair and dragged me to the wall, forcefully slamming my head against it.

My right hand was injured and I was completely unprepared, so I couldn't break free from her grip at all.

Once, twice, three times.

Quinn only stopped after drawing blood.

Then she put on a panicked, frightened expression and stumbled toward the door:

"Doctor! Nurse! Where are you! Someone's self-harming here!"