When I returned home from abroad the day before my engagement party, I unintentionally discovered that my boyfriend of five years had been seeing a woman who resembled me by nearly seventy percent.
During all the days and nights I was abroad, the two of them had been secretly together.
When I called him, he only let out a faint sigh. “While you were gone, she kept me company. One shouldn’t be too heartless.”
“The company needs a secretary anyway. Why not let her stay for the time being? Otherwise, people might say you were being small-minded.”
Five years of deep affection had, in the end, been lost to the constant presence of his kept woman.
As I looked at the man who once vowed with his life to love me forever, I still couldn’t bring myself to say the words break up.
I wanted to see with my own eyes, between a medical prodigy returning from abroad and a mistress who had to hide in the dark, which one he would choose?
——
In the middle of the engagement banquet, the wedding ring suddenly disappeared.
The host, sweating nervously, forced himself to fill the silence with clumsy small talk.
Coming closer, Gideon Fontaine caught my hand and murmured beside my ear, “It’s only a ten-carat ring. Addison got curious, tried it on, and now it’s stuck. Tomorrow, I’ll make one myself for you, bigger and more beautiful than this.”
My heart suddenly dropped. Just last night, he had called me on video chat, promising sincerely, “I’ve spent a lot preparing a surprise for you. Tomorrow, you just need to be the happiest bride in the world.”
Trembling slightly, my fists clenched as I looked at him stubbornly. “Gideon, is this the surprise you said you prepared for me? Without a ring, how can there even be an engagement…?”
Before I could finish, Gideon’s assistant rushed in, panic written all over his face.
“President Gideon, Secretary Addison just handed in her resignation. She said she’s returning to her hometown.”
Suddenly, Gideon pushed me aside and was about to run out.
I grabbed his sleeve. “Gideon, if you walk out today, everything between us ends here.”
He turned his head for a brief moment, then yanked his arm free and left without another look.
The guests exchanged glances, whispering quietly to one another.
Gideon’s parents looked restless, pacing back and forth. His mother came over and held me, trying to comfort me.
“You’ll always be this family’s only daughter-in-law. I’ll make sure Gideon gives you an answer.”
But my heart was already growing numb. Fighting back tears, I forced a smile.
“I’ll give back the engagement gifts. Let’s just treat today’s banquet as my first day of freedom.”
My older brother’s expression turned dark as he prepared to confront Gideon.
“For him to leave my sister during her engagement banquet for another woman, that’s complete disrespect toward the Quinton family.”
Suppressing the pain in my heart, I quickly stopped my brother and tried to look calm. “Brother, let it go. I don’t want everyone here watching us make a scene.”
He let out a heavy sigh, and my heart sank with it.
Then Gideon’s assistant came over, looking uneasy.
“Miss Ophelia, please don’t be upset with President Gideon. You were gone for three years. If Secretary Addison hadn’t been there for him, he might not have made it through.”
“She disappeared so suddenly, without a word. President Gideon only worried she might hurt herself.”
To them, Addison’s three years of standing by Gideon proved enough to excuse everything, and my coming back was what threw things off.
But if she really wanted nothing back, then why would she quit on the very day we got engaged?
I didn’t see the point in arguing. I just said a few things to my brother and headed home.
That afternoon, Gideon sent a flood of gifts, luxury cars, villas, designer bags, and even a rare old medical manuscript I’d been looking for.
I took one look at them and told the servants to throw everything out.
