Dumped With Cancer: I Became The Woman He Spends His Life Chasing

On New Year's Eve, Aria Hart watched Julian Lawson come home with an eighteen-year-old model on his arm. Her fingers tightened around the late-stage stomach cancer diagnosis, while he mocked her without even blinking. "If I'm not marrying her, what, you think I should marry you?"

Aria had given him ten full years, only to be repaid with the news that Julian was going to marry someone else.

This time, she neither argued nor fought. After calling the hospital and agreeing to go abroad for treatment, she quietly disappeared.

She thought it would end cleanly there, but after Aria left, Julian completely lost his mind.

He ran from his wedding in front of everyone, put all his work on hold, and searched for her across the world.

Eventually, he found information about Aria at the hospital.

The nurse frowned. "Are you her family member?"

Julian nodded urgently. "I'm her husband!"

The nurse shook her head. "That's impossible. She said she has no family member. And she isn't here anymore."

......

As the New Year bells rang, Aria received two "gifts."

One was a set of photos of Julian on a date with an eighteen-year-old model, snapped by gossip reporters.

Everyone in the office turned to look at Aria, waiting for her to rush home and slap the other woman like she used to.

The other "gift" was a pathology report from the city oncology hospital—stomach cancer, with a recommendation to transfer to an overseas treatment center as soon as possible.

Whispers erupted around her.

"What's going on? Did her husband cheat again?"

"Stop talking nonsense. They've been together ten years and never got married."

"Not married? Then maybe she's just a side piece. No wonder she's always so eager to go after the other woman."

The vulgar comments reached Aria's ears. She ignored them completely, took leave, and went home.

The key had barely slipped into the lock when a woman's sweet, syrupy laughter drifted from inside.

Aria pushed the door open. High heels and stockings were scattered across the living room carpet.

On the couch, the eighteen-year-old model Lila Bennett was wrapped in Julian's white dress shirt, barefoot and curled up in his arms.

And Julian, the man Aria had loved for ten full years, lowered his head to kiss the top of Lila's hair, his gaze so gentle it felt unfamiliar.

When he looked up and saw her, his brows knit instantly. He pulled Lila tighter into his arms, as if afraid Aria might hurt her.

Aria didn't say a word. She simply stood there in silence. She didn't explode like before, didn't rush forward to slap the woman.

Lila put on a panicked act. "Oh! Aria, I didn't… Julian said you wouldn't be home tonight…"

Aria looked at Julian, the pain in her chest dripping like blood. "Julian… you promised me. You said you wouldn't bring another woman home. That was the line."

Julian stood up and stepped in front of Lila, his voice turning cold. "Aria, I bought this place. If you don't want to live here, then get out. Who the hell do you think you are, trying to control me?"

Aria froze, the weight of ten years settling over her.

At fifteen, when she first learned what love was, Aria gathered her courage and confessed to Julian. He said nothing, but he allowed her to stay.

At eighteen, an opportunity to go abroad lay right in front of her, and she was tempted. But when Julian got drunk, held her, and choked out, "Can you not leave?" she cried and gave it up.

At twenty-one, with a little alcohol for courage, Aria asked Julian, "What are we, exactly?" What she got was his vague answer, "You're different."

And at twenty-five, ten years of devotion were repaid with a single sentence, "Who the hell do you think you are?"

She had always believed that if she waited a little longer, once he was done playing around, he would eventually turn back to her.

But now, she could no longer lie to herself.

"Who do I think I am?" Aria suddenly laughed, moisture gathering at the corners of her eyes. "Julian, it's been ten years. Do you have any shame left?"

Julian's expression darkened, as if she'd struck a nerve. He stepped closer in angry humiliation. "I have no shame? You were with me since you were fifteen, stuck to me for ten years, clinging on and refusing to leave. Do you have any shame?"

Aria's mind exploded. Her thoughts shattered, the color draining from her face in an instant.

She remembered being twenty, when he got drunk and mistook her for his college sweetheart. Afterward, she became pregnant by accident, and as she lay on the cold operating table, he never even called, only had his assistant deliver a check.

She remembered standing in for him against ruthless business rivals, being cornered and threatened in an underground parking garage, while he was busy fueling rumors with a female celebrity, too stingy to offer even a single word of concern.

She remembered countless late nights waiting outside his mansion, waiting for him to stumble back drunk, just to make him a bottle of warm milk, only to hear him drunkenly call out another woman's name…

She had given everything, yet couldn't even earn the title of "girlfriend," reduced instead to a shameless hanger-on.

The air froze for a few seconds. Lila suddenly choked up. "Aria, I know you hate me… but Julian and I are serious! You can't keep trapping him with the past!"

Aria suddenly felt exhausted, so tired she couldn't even summon anger anymore.

Julian shot her a glance, irritation rising. "Drop the pathetic act. If you don't want to keep this going, then leave. No one's stopping you."

"Lila, I'll take you out for a meal now. Looking at this old woman kills my appetite."

Lila let out a soft laugh and hooked her arm through Julian's.

"Julian Lawson," Aria said his full name for the first time, "if I said I'm sick, that I'll be going abroad for treatment soon, that I may never come back… will you be sad?"

Julian froze for a moment, then scoffed. "What are you trying to pull now? Playing pitiful to force me to kick her out? Aria, can you grow up already?"

The door slammed shut with a bang.

Aria remained in the darkness, not knowing how long she had been sitting there.

Fireworks burst and faded outside the window, but the light of the new year never reached her eyes.

Her phone suddenly vibrated. It was a message from Julian.

Her fingers trembled, her heart giving a foolish little jump. Had he regretted it? Had he finally remembered that she was still sick?

She opened the message. There was only one cold line. "Bring me a full set of ultra-thin condoms to room 808. Now."

Another line followed. "If you don't come, consider us broken up."

It was always like this.

For ten years, every time she tried to leave, he threatened her with "breaking up." Every time she softened and went back, he trampled her dignity even harder.

She stared at the words and suddenly laughed, even as tears splashed onto the screen.

It was a naked provocation, but Aria was too tired. She didn't want to keep tearing at each other anymore.

She stood up and went to a convenience store to buy condoms.

Twenty minutes later, she left the items at the hotel front desk and turned away without looking back.

Back home, she called the hospital, her voice calm, frozen solid. "Hello, this is Aria. I agree to the transfer. I'll go abroad for treatment."

"Understood, Ms. Hart. Please come to the hospital in seven days to register. You'll be taking the hospital shuttle to the airport."