Theater: NovelMaster | Language: English | NEW
Synopsis
I had been married to Julian He for five years, truly believing I was the only woman he held in the palm of his hand.
He was the billionaire CEO of the He Corporation. He would cook for me, massage my legs, and buy me any piece of jewelry I casually mentioned liking.
Until I discovered his computer was filled with photos and videos of another woman.
Brenda Gu, the first love he had never gotten over.
Even more ridiculous, while pregnant with his child, I cried and called him thirty-one times. Yet, just because Brenda mentioned her foot hurt, he left me at home without a second thought.
That day, I lost my baby, and my heart turned to ash.
I signed the divorce agreement, retrieved my baby's ashes, and decided to take my belongings and leave for good.
Julian He, I don't want your money anymore, and I don't want your love.
But when I truly turned and walked away, what made this man—who had once treated me like an afterthought—so certain I would ever come back?
Natalie Xu's POV
The year I turned twenty-one, I married Julian He.
He was an old friend of my father's, a full nine years older than me, and in charge of the massive He Corporation.
In high society, people spoke of him as ruthless, someone who drove his business rivals into dead ends.
But when he came home, he was an entirely different person.
If I casually mentioned that a bracelet looked pretty,
the entire matching jewelry set would be sitting on my vanity the very next day.
My morning sickness was severe; I threw up everything I ate.
Julian would leave a hundred-million-dollar deal waiting in the conference room just to tie on an apron and cook oatmeal for me in the kitchen.
When my calves cramped at night, he would jolt awake no matter how deeply asleep he was. He’d cradle my calf in his palms and massage me gently until I drifted back to sleep.
For a long time, I thought I had stumbled into the greatest love story in the world.
Until that afternoon, when I found an external hard drive buried deep in the study drawer.
A faded label was stuck to the drive, written in Julian's handwriting with just one word: *Backup*.
Sitting in the chair, I plugged the drive into the computer.
The screen lit up with row after row of folders, all named with dates.
I clicked on the earliest one, dated six years ago.
The woman in the video stood by the sea, the wind tossing her long hair. Her profile, and the slight curve at the corner of her eyes when she smiled...
looked strikingly like mine.
I clicked through several more; they were all of her.
Eating, walking, daydreaming by a café window, giggling behind her hand.
The last one was an audio file.
The speakers played a woman's broken sobs: "Julian, what if I don't leave? Can I stay?"
Then came Julian's voice, raspy and trembling with a panic I had never heard in him before.
"Brenda, don't go."
Brenda. Brenda Gu.
I sat in the chair, neither crying nor smashing things.
I closed the folders one by one, unplugged the drive, and shoved it back into the deepest corner of the drawer, just as I had found it.
Dazed and out of my mind, I lost my footing and tumbled down the stairs.
Blood immediately began running down my calves.
With the last ounce of my strength, I dialed for emergency help.
"Save... save my baby..."
When I woke up, a nurse stood before me.
The nurse asked, "I'm so sorry, we couldn't save the baby. Would you like to see your baby?"
I jerked my face away, tears slamming into the pillow as I shook my head violently.
After leaving the hospital, I had a lawyer draft a divorce agreement.
I would take what was mine before the marriage, but I didn't touch a cent of the He family's fortune.
After signing my name, I picked up my phone and called Julian.
In the past, even in the middle of an international conference, he would answer within three seconds and ask tenderly what was wrong.
This time, I dialed thirty-one times in a row.
The first thirty went unanswered.
On the thirty-first try, the call finally connected.
The receiver was chaotic, filled with deafening music and clinking glasses. The voices of Julian's friends drifted through:
"As soon as Brenda Gu got back, Julian left his pregnant wife right at home."
"That girl was just a stand-in anyway. Back then, Julian drank himself into stomach bleeding over Brenda. He never let go of his first love."
"Just now, Brenda mumbled about her feet hurting, and Julian immediately scooped her up to go buy her flats."
I gripped the phone until my knuckles turned white, tears splashing onto the screen.
The other end suddenly grew quiet.
Julian's voice came through, demanding, "Who touched my phone?"
After a shuffle of footsteps, Julian's voice came through, still carrying that familiar tender tone. "Natalie, what's wrong? Are you scared being home alone?"
"Something urgent came up at the company. I'll be back later to keep you and the baby company."
I took a deep breath, my voice calm. "I called because I wanted to..."
Before I could finish, a woman's voice drifted through the receiver: "Julian, my foot hurts so much..."
Julian paused for two seconds, then rushed out, "Honey, go to sleep first. I'll get back as soon as I can."
The line went dead.
I let out a dry laugh as tears streamed down my chin.
Wiping away my tears, I looked toward the table.
On it lay a divorce agreement and a palm-sized cremation urn.
I had gone to the crematorium all by myself to bring my baby home.
I picked up the urn, placed it at the very bottom of the master bedroom closet, and slid the door shut.
In the dead of night, the electronic fingerprint lock at the front door beeped.
Julian took off his jacket, draped it over his arm, and loosened his tie as he walked in, smelling of alcohol.
"Natalie, why aren't you asleep yet? What are you looking for in the closet?"
I said nothing, just looking up at him.
Made uneasy by my gaze, Julian pulled a box from behind him. "You said a few days ago you were craving tiramisu from this bakery. I went out of my way to get it for you."
He unpacked the treats one by one, all things I craved during my morning sickness.
"Why the silent treatment?" He stepped forward, reaching out to touch my belly. "Is the little one acting up again?"
I turned aside to avoid his hand and thrust the document from the table toward him. "Sign this."
Just as Julian looked down to read it, the phone in his pocket rang.
The screen lit up with a single name: Brenda.
Julian answered, listened for a couple of seconds, and his expression instantly shifted.
He hung up, without even glancing at the document's contents.
He grabbed a pen, swiftly scrawled his signature at the end, snatched his car keys, and headed for the door.
"Honey, something urgent came up. I have to step out, but I'll be right back."
He brushed a quick kiss against my forehead and dashed out the door.
The roar of the car engine quickly vanished into the night.
"Julian He, it's over."Natalie Xu's POV
Looking down at the signature on the paper, my mind drifted back in a daze.
The year I was nineteen, I stole a kiss from Julian He.
Julian was stunned for a moment, then cupped the back of my head, leaning down to deepen the kiss.
The feeling of that kiss had stayed with me for five whole years.
That night, I sat awake with my eyes open until dawn.
Early the next morning, I called my father, Jonathan Xu.
"Dad, I got a divorce."
After a few seconds of silence, my father's strained voice came through: "Did he hurt you?"
"No, I just don't love him anymore. Once the paperwork is finished, I'll go abroad to join you."
I hung up, and a friend request popped up on my screen.
Once accepted, she sent a video directly.
In the video, Julian leaned back on a private lounge sofa with his eyes closed, his brow furrowed, mumbling Brenda's name under his breath.
Immediately after, a text followed: *I'm Brenda Gu.*
[He quit smoking years ago, but he still carries the lighter engraved with my name everywhere he goes.]
[The files on that external hard drive—he could never bring himself to delete them.]
[If you don't believe me, let's make a bet. Tell him right now that you had a nightmare, and see if he stays to comfort you.]
I closed the chat.
Ten minutes later, a message arrived from Julian: "Natalie, an emergency came up at the branch office. I have to go on a business trip for a week. Be good and eat your meals at home."
Looking at the screen, I tugged the corner of my lips into a bitter smirk.
For seven whole days, Julian didn't initiate a single call.
Yet Brenda Gu updated her Instagram several times a day.
Day one: a Michelin-starred restaurant with the caption: *He still remembers what I like.*
Day two: a riverside pier with the caption: *He hasn't forgotten a single word he said here years ago.*
Day three: a suburban bed and breakfast, with the cufflink of Julian's shirt peeking out in the corner of the photo.
Scrolling through those posts, the truth became painfully clear.
The restaurants Julian had taken me to.
The riverbanks where we had walked, and the boutique inns we had stayed at—they were all traces of Brenda Gu from the past.
He was merely piecing together another woman's shadow through me, over and over again.
On the evening of the seventh day, I found some cardboard boxes.
I packed away all the jewelry and clothes Julian had bought for me and stacked them in the storage room.
With a click, the front door opened, and Julian walked in holding a paper bag.
"Natalie, that out-of-print art book collection you mentioned last time? I got a friend to track it down for me."
He came over, wrapped his arms around my waist from behind, and nuzzled his chin against my hair. "Has the nausea still been bad these past few days?"
I pulled out of his embrace and took a step back. "You don't need to buy anything anymore."
The maid cleaning nearby chimed in, "Sir, Madam has barely come downstairs to eat at all these past few days."
Julian immediately frowned and rolled up his sleeves, heading toward the kitchen. "Why didn't anyone tell me sooner? I'll make something you like."
Behind him, the maid murmured softly, "Mr. He truly loves Mrs. He."
Standing there, I found the entire scene both absurd and pathetic.
Every bit of kindness he showed me was rooted in someone else.
Julian opened the fridge only to find it completely empty.
He ruffled my hair.
He spoke softly, saying he would run to the supermarket to grab some fresh groceries.
But less than five minutes after he stepped out, the doorbell rang abruptly.Natalie Xu's POV
I pulled the door open. Brenda Gu stood outside holding a gift box.
"Oh, you're home? Didn't Julian tell you I was coming over?"
I stepped aside to let her in, saying nothing.
Brenda slipped into house slippers, walked inside, and looked around the living room.
"The camellias on the terrace are my favorite variety. I only mentioned them in passing back then, and Julian actually planted them."
"The fish in the pond are the ones I picked out, too. The vintage French sofa, the gramophone... all styles I chose in the past."
She walked straight into the master bedroom, opened the nightstand drawer, and twirled a pair of custom cufflinks between her fingers.
"These cufflinks were a birthday gift I gave him. He actually kept them all this time."
Standing in the doorway, I looked at every decoration in the room.
I had lived in this house for three years, only to learn today that the origin of everything here was Brenda Gu.
Even the four wedding photo themes hanging on the master bedroom wall had been planned by Brenda Gu and Julian He all those years ago.
The front door opened again, and Julian walked in carrying grocery bags.
Seeing Brenda, he froze for a second, then smiled and introduced her, "Natalie, this is Brenda, the girl from next door. We grew up together."
Brenda smoothly linked her arm through mine. "Don't mind me. Julian is an amazing cook. Back then, to learn how to make pan-seared cod and fresh mozzarella for me, he cut his hands so many times."
My face darkened.
Those two dishes were what Julian made for me most often. Every single time, he told me he had learned them specifically for me.
I pulled my arm away and turned to head upstairs to the second floor.
Not long after, Brenda followed me up with medicine and set it on the nightstand.
"Natalie, hurry and take your medicine. Julian asked me to bring it up."
Brenda leaned against the doorframe and asked casually, "Have you picked out names for the baby yet? Julian told me back then that if it's a boy, he'd be named Julian Jr., and if it's a girl, Natalie Jr."
I clutched the bedsheet beneath my hands tightly.
Those two names were the ones Julian had excitedly suggested to me not long ago.
Just as I was about to stand up, Brenda picked up the bowl, jerked her wrist, and splashed the hot water straight onto my forearm.
"Oh! I'm so sorry!"
Brenda cried out an apology, but her body shoved violently forward.
We were standing right at the top of the second-floor staircase. Thrown off balance, I tumbled down the stairs.
Brenda collapsed onto the edge of the stairs right after me.
Downstairs, Julian heard the commotion and rushed over. His very first instinct was to catch Brenda.
"Brenda! Are you hurt anywhere?"
Taking advantage of the moment, Brenda closed her eyes, pretending to faint in his arms.
Julian scooped Brenda up and dashed out the door toward his car, without casting a single glance at me lying in a pool of blood.
Lying on the cold tiles, my vision began to blur.
In the final moment before my eyes shut, I caught sight of the white edge of the cremation urn peeking out from the bottom of the master bedroom closet.
When I woke up again, I was lying in a hospital bed.
Julian was sitting by my bedside, holding my hand. "Natalie, how do you feel? The doctor said you had quite a bad fall."
The rounding doctor pushed the door open, looking down as he flipped through the chart. "Didn't this patient just have a miscarriage a few days ago? Why is she in such weak condition and suffering from severe trauma on top of it?"
My heart seized. I raised my hand and fiercely swept the glass cup off the nightstand.
With a sharp crash, shattered glass scattered across the floor.
Julian was startled and quickly leaned down to check on me. "What happened? Did you cut your hand?"
The doctor caught my look and swallowed the rest of his words.
He instructed me to get plenty of rest before stepping out of the room.Natalie Xu's POV
Julian sat down beside the bed and took my hand in his.
"Natalie, I'm sorry. My mind was completely scattered that day, and I didn't realize you had fallen down the stairs too. It won't happen again, I promise."
I pulled my hand back, turned over, and faced away from him.
"I'm tired."
I closed my eyes and ignored him completely.
During the days I was hospitalized, Julian stayed by my side in the room.
Every day before dawn, he would get up to cook, bring the food to the hospital in a thermos, and blow on each spoonful to cool it before offering it to my lips.
Whenever the doctor made rounds, he followed closely, typing every single medical instruction into the notes app on his phone, and even setting alarms for when the nurse needed to change the IV drip.
The nurse's station buzzed with gossip about how they had never seen such a devoted husband, and the patient in the next bed sang his praises too.
I hardly said a word throughout it all.
Most of the time, I just stared out the window. I would push the soup away after two sips, and even when he coaxed me for ages, I would only force down one more swallow.
Julian simply assumed it was pregnancy mood swings, attending to me with even greater care.
On the day of my discharge, he arranged a surprise.
First, he booked out an upscale downtown restaurant so that only the two of us occupied the entire dining hall.
Next, he took me luxury shopping, where the store manager personally greeted us at the door and presented the latest seasonal designs to me one by one.
Finally, there was a private lakeside water screen show, put on exclusively for me.
Sentences declaring love gradually lit up across the curtain of water, their reflections shimmering on the lake.
The lakeside breeze blew in damp and cool. Julian pulled my coat tighter around me from behind, resting his chin on top of my head.
Looking at the water screen, for a dazed second, I felt like I had returned to the past.
Those were the days when he had first begun treating me so gently, the days when I thought I had found true love.
For an instant, I even wanted to lift my hand and touch those hollow illusions of light.
But my hand came to rest on my lower abdomen.
It was flat. Completely empty.
The illusion before my eyes shattered into dust.
Julian noticed how stiff my body had become.
Wrapping his arms around my waist from behind, he asked, "What's wrong? You don't like it? Or are you not feeling well?"
He paused, his voice softening even further.
"Natalie, if something's bothering you, just tell me. How about I book an appointment with a therapist for you? It's completely normal to have emotional ups and downs during pregnancy. You'll feel better if you talk it out—don't keep it all bottled up inside."
"
I turned around and looked up at him.
"Julian, if I'm honest with you, can you be a hundred percent honest with me?"
Julian froze for a moment, then chuckled.
"Of course. What is there between us that we can't talk about?"
"Then let me ask you something."
My voice was quiet, yet crystal clear.
"That first love you've held onto for all these years—have you really let those feelings go?"
The smile on Julian's face instantly froze.
The stiffness lasted only a fraction of a second.
Julian quickly regained his usual tenderness, raising a hand to ruffle my hair.
"Natalie, that was so many years ago. It’s long over. Ever since we broke up, we haven't been in touch at all."
A bitter taste filled my mouth.
He didn’t even blink when he lied.
I turned my head, dodging his outstretched hand, and lowered my eyes without answering.
Julian frowned. "What’s wrong? Are you upset because of this? Didn't I tell you, it’s all in the past."
The moment the words left his mouth, his phone suddenly rang in his pocket.Natalie Xu's POV
He pulled out his phone and glanced at the screen, his expression shifting immediately.
He answered the call, and whatever was said on the other end made his voice tighten sharply. "Where are you? Stay right there, I'm coming now!"
Hanging up, he grabbed his coat and rushed toward the door.
"Natalie, something urgent came up at the company. I need to go handle it. Call a cab on your phone to get home, and stay safe."
I stood where I was, watching his hurried figure retreat.
I didn't take a cab straight home.
I walked to the curb, hailed a taxi, and told the driver to follow Julian's car.
The drive ended near a secluded alley, where his car pulled over.
I got out and followed quietly, softening my footsteps.
Under the dim light at the alley entrance, Julian stood shielding Brenda Gu behind him, facing down several men armed with clubs all by himself.
His moves were vicious and decisive, devoid of his usual corporate composure.
In the brawl, one of the men suddenly pulled out a switchblade and lunged straight at Brenda.
Without a second thought, Julian threw himself forward, using his own chest to block the blade.
Steel tore into flesh, and blood instantly soaked through his white dress shirt.
He collapsed into Brenda's arms, his breath faint, yet his grip remained locked onto her wrist.
"Don't be afraid... I promised you... I'd protect you for the rest of my life..."
Standing in the shadows, my fingernails dug deep into my palms.
Outside the operating room at the hospital, Brenda sat on a bench wiping away tears, intermittently recounting things from the past.
She said years ago, Julian had raced on a motorcycle through pouring rain to chase her down at the airport, crashing into the guardrail and suffering massive hemorrhaging, barely surviving.
I sat beside her, listening in silence.
Only then did I realize that this usually calm, restrained man could also throw his life away for someone.
It was just that the person worth dying for had never been me.
The operating room doors swung open, and a nurse walked out holding a clipboard, saying the blade had barely missed his heart and that a family member needed to sign.
Handing over the pen, the nurse added offhandedly, "While he was unconscious, he kept calling for Brenda. Family members should stay by his side and talk to him more."
I took the pen and signed my name on the consent form.
As soon as I turned to walk down the hallway, I ran straight into Julian's assistant.
The assistant clutched a thick stack of documents, hurriedly explaining that Mr. He had just signed an amendment to his will this morning, demanding it be delivered to the law firm today.
On the cover of the document, neatly printed under the beneficiary line, was Brenda Gu's name.
Only after he finished speaking did he realize it was me standing in front of him, and his face instantly drained of color.
There wasn't a ripple of emotion on my face; I didn't even break my stride.
Brenda chased after me from behind. "Natalie, are... aren't you staying to take care of him?"
I stopped walking, without turning around.
"I really did love him once, but now I've come to my senses."
"You're the one who's always been in his heart. I'm stepping aside for the two of you."
With that, I walked out of the hospital doors and plunged straight into the night outside.
He had never loved me.
And I should no longer occupy a place that belonged to someone else.
It was finally coming to an end between us.
Chapters (5)
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Watch & Promotions
- Search this code in the NovelMaster app:
539185Open NovelMaster → Search code → Find the title