How ironic.
This man once loved me as if I were his life.
Eight years ago, he first saw me at the old Chase family estate.
Back then, I was nothing more than Old Master Gu’s caregiver, so insignificant that I was not even worth remembering by name.
Yet he fell in love with me at first sight.
One hundred confessions.
Not once or twice, but a hundred times.
I once lingered a little too long over the bellflowers in the garden. The next morning, every rose in the yard had been uprooted overnight and replaced with the color I liked.
When I twisted my ankle, he booked an entire hospital floor and stayed by my side for three days and three nights.
It was also then that I learned there had always been someone pursuing him.
Emma, a childhood sweetheart and the daughter of the richest family, had chased him for years, loving him loudly and fiercely.
But there had never been anyone else in his eyes.
“Joyce, I only love you.”
“So what if she’s a perfect match? All I feel for Emma is disgust.”
To force him to let go, the Chase family took back his shares and even used their connections to send him to a remote island overseas.
Twenty whole days.
He starved himself until the family compromised, and in doing so, shattered every last line of my defenses.
I believed him.
So I married him.
After the wedding, he did keep his promise, doting on me so openly that everyone knew.
For a while, I truly thought my life would stay like this.
Until half a year ago.
Emma, who had been gone for years, suddenly returned to the country.
And Chase’s attitude toward her changed.
He canceled international conferences and went to the airport himself to pick her up.
To host her welcome banquet, he stayed away from home for three full days.
I swallowed my grievance and asked him about it. For the first time, he told me the truth.
“A year ago, I was in a car accident in the UK.”
“Shiyu saved me. She was in a coma for an entire year.”
He said it so calmly, yet every word stabbed into my heart.
“Joyce, I only love you.”
“But she just woke up. I have to repay this life debt.”
“One year. Just one year, alright?”
At first, I believed him.
I thought love could wait.
Until the night of that banquet.
My old illness relapsed, and I was rushed into emergency treatment.
But Chase’s phone was unreachable, no matter how many times I called.
Left with no choice, my mother went to the luxury yacht where the banquet was being held.
She never came back.
Everyone said it was an accident.
They said she lost control of her emotions and jumped into the sea.
Even Chase, who was not at the scene when it happened, chose to believe that.
But I knew better.
That night, after I was pushed out of the emergency room, I clearly received a phone call.
The other end was chaotic and piercing.
I heard Emma’s sharp scolding, and I heard my mother’s agonized screams.
She did not kill herself.
She was forced into the sea.
For the past six months, I lived in guilt and collapse.
Crying until my voice was gone, hurting until I was numb.
Until I pried a trace of the truth from a waiter.
I begged Chase countless times to help me.
But at that criminal private prosecution hearing, he stood on the opposite side without hesitation.
He protected the person who killed my mother.
To force me to submit, he even threatened me with my mother’s ashes.
At that moment, I looked at him and felt as if this man were a stranger who had crawled out of hell.
I was desperate.
And I gave in.
My fingers trembling, I signed my crooked name on that letter of apology.
“Are you satisfied now?”
“Then let them come back from the sea…”
The words had barely fallen when a sharp cry suddenly rang out behind me.
Emma suddenly clutched her head and collapsed over the defendant’s bench.
“Chase, help me… my head hurts again.”
The next second, Chase panicked. He threw down his tablet and rushed over.
On the livestream, the countdown had already ended.
Without receiving his command to stop, several bodyguards opened the urn.
“No!”
