Theater: NovelMaster | Language: English | NEW
Synopsis
At the altar, my fiancée stared at the little ring bearer with overflowing maternal tenderness.
Her long-time obsession took that exact moment to speak up.
"Serena, would you be willing to be his mommy?"
As if she had just won the ultimate prize, tears streamed down her face. She nodded eagerly and cried out, "Yes! I do!"
Murmurs rippled through the guests. It was only then that she snapped back to reality. Her face drained of color as she hurried to explain:
"I just feel bad for him! He’s so young and doesn't have a mother. I can be his mom and still be your wife! Besides, this way, I won't have to ruin my body having babies for you!"
I let out a bitter, mocking laugh and ended the ceremony right then and there.
"I have no interest in raising another man's kid. But since you're so desperate to be a stepmom, I'll happily step aside."
My sudden coldness terrified the little boy. He scrambled behind Serena to hide.
Serena instantly snapped. "Are you insane, Ethan?! Why are you taking your temper out on a helpless child?"
The whispering crowd instantly fell dead silent.
Everyone in that room knew I used to love Serena more than my own life.
She only had to crook her finger, and I would drop everything to run back to her.
My friends used to joke behind my back that Serena trained me like a dog.
Some even said I was more obedient than one.
This wedding was the first time I had ever lost my temper at her in public.
The guests quickly exchanged looks of pity.
They probably assumed I was just lashing out to save what little dignity I had left in front of my business partners and employees.
But the truth was, I was done. I was sick of it, and this was definitely not an empty threat.
With a cold face, I pulled the wedding band off and tossed it directly into the trash can.
"I'm not throwing a tantrum, Serena. I'm officially notifying you: we're done. Whoever you want to be with, and whoever's kid you want to raise—it has nothing to do with me anymore."
Serena's face darkened with rage. "Don't you dare threaten me! Did accepting your proposal make you think you could talk down to me like this?"
"The boy is innocent! I only wanted to care for him because he's sweet and lost his mother! Plus, I don't want to get pregnant. You have a massive company that needs an heir anyway. Isn't it perfect if he inherits it?"
I couldn't believe the depth of her delusion. She loved Julian so blindly that she wanted to hand everything I built over to his bastard!
I had foolishly believed she accepted my proposal because she finally saw my value.
Now I realized I should have dumped her long ago.
Seeing my silence, Serena gained her confidence back. "You should be thanking me! I found you a brilliant heir. And without childbirth, my body will stay in shape forever. It's a win-win for both of us!"
She was as vile as ever.
Scheming for my wealth in front of hundreds of people.
Trampling my self-respect into the dirt just to please her toxic first love.
Whenever she felt like it, she would insult me or hit me.
Not once had she ever cared about my feelings, or respected my dignity as a man.
I was completely dead inside. "Keep dreaming. I'd rather donate every single cent to charity before you ever see a dime."
"Like I said: we are officially done."
I turned on my heel to walk away. Serena’s face flushed crimson as she shrieked behind me, "You ungrateful jerk! Julian practically handed you a ready-made son, and you're throwing a hissy fit?!"
"You petty piece of trash! I'm warning you! If you walk out that door today, don't you dare think I'll ever marry you unless you transfer five hundred thousand dollars and the Crescent Bay condo into my name!"
I found her demand laughable. "Even better."
"Since you love Julian so much and want to play mommy to his kid, why not just marry him right now? It saves you the trouble."Serena’s fury vanished in a second, replaced by a bashful blush as she gazed at Julian.
Julian, caught off guard by the staring crowd, suddenly looked panicked.
He had probably just wanted to ruin my wedding and show off that his kid could inherit my fortune.
He never expected me to cut ties so cleanly.
Julian forced an awkward chuckle. "Hey, I was just joking. It's obviously best if you two have your own kids."
The out was right there, but Serena was too prideful to take it.
She was still fuming over what I had said.
She turned and yelled at me, "I would never have a baby with him! He disgusts me! Just having him touch me makes my skin crawl!"
Now I disgusted her? When she took my money, used my resources, and flexed my wealth to feed her vanity, she didn't find my money disgusting, did she?
A bitter chuckle escaped my throat. It felt as though all my organs had frozen over.
We had dated for three years, and she never let me touch her. Even after planning the wedding, she refused to sleep in the same bed.
So the truth was, I simply disgusted her.
Looking at her now, her face looked twisted and venomous. Her heart was thoroughly rotten.
After she schemed against me right to my face, how could I ever look back?
She thought I wouldn't dare walk out. She thought I was too weak to leave.
Today, I was going to prove her wrong.
Serena was nothing to me anymore.
It was truly over.
That evening, my phone buzzed non-stop with sympathy texts from friends.
I didn't open a single one.
Reading them would only reopen the wound and remind me of the pathetic things I had done for Serena.
I had been blind enough to believe she was just an innocent girl who believed in pure love.
I thought if I treated her well enough, I could melt her cold exterior.
I thought she would eventually love me with the same devotion she once gave Julian.
Turns out, I was utterly wrong.
All my pampering and compromises had been one giant joke.
Serena’s obsession with Julian was borderline psychotic.
Even though Julian had married another woman and had a kid with her, Serena was still willing to drop everything to crawl back and raise his child.
I hadn't even known Julian would be at the venue today.
Serena had told me she found an adorable little boy to be our ring bearer.
I had thought she was softening up, that she was getting ready to start a family with me.
I was so happy. I swore to myself I would spoil her twice as hard.
Who knew it was an ambush cooked up between her and Julian all along?
They wanted to trap me in public and force me to surrender my assets.
I opened my feed and looked at all the photos Serena had made me post to prove my devotion.
My eyes burned, and nausea hit my stomach like a freight train.
I began deleting every trace of her. Halfway through, I saw a new post pop up from Serena.
It was a photo of her leaning against Julian's shoulder, their fingers tightly intertwined.
Her caption read: [Five years of circles, and he still brought me back to our favorite college BBQ spot. As long as you turn around, I'll always be waiting.]Five years? That kid at the wedding was at least five years old!
Which meant while Julian was stringing her along back then, he had another woman on the side.
And that woman was pregnant with his baby.
Anyone with half a brain could connect the dots.
Clearly, Serena didn't have one.
Julian had completely fried her common sense.
Before I could lock my screen, my bank app sent a notification: a $25.80 charge at Joe’s BBQ Shack.
That was the funniest joke I had seen all day.
Julian wouldn't even spend twenty bucks on her; he made her cover the bill.
These two clowns couldn't even afford cheap barbecue without swiping my credit card.
They were literally starving, yet still pretending to play star-crossed lovers.
Laughing coldly, I froze every single card linked to Serena's name.
As for the properties in the middle of being transferred to her, I called my lawyer and canceled all the paperwork immediately.
Let them play happy family on their own dime.
It took me half an hour to scrub every trace of her from my phone.
The screen suddenly felt a lot cleaner.
Just as I took a deep breath, Serena’s call came through.
The moment I answered, she unloaded on me like I had committed a federal crime.
"Why won't the front desk at Crescent Bay let me in?! The security guard said your assistant called and deactivated all my keycards! What the hell is going on?!"
My assistant worked fast.
Making him work late on a weekend meant he definitely deserved a raise tomorrow.
"It's my condo," I said calmly.
Serena grew even more furious. "You promised to deed this place to me! You said you’d transfer several properties under my name!"
Crescent Bay was where I had proposed.
Back then, she had cried and told me she never had a place to call home.
She said moving around as a single woman made her feel terribly insecure.
To reassure her and win her hand, I promised to gift her the condo before the wedding.
I wanted her to feel safe, knowing that even if we ever argued, she had a home of her own.
If the wedding had gone through today, she would have signed the paperwork tonight.
The condo would have been hers.
Instead, I said, "You must be confused. You're not my fiancée anymore. Why would I give you my property?"
"I'm not a charity case. I don't give away real estate to people who stab me in the back."
Serena dropped her voice to a harsh hiss. "Why are you being so petty?! You're really revoking the condo just because the wedding didn't happen?”
“What's the big deal? I gave you three years of my youth! I deserve a breakup settlement!"
"What kind of relationship did we even have?" I shot back. "You wouldn't even let me hold your hand, and now you want a settlement fee?"
"How much of my money have you spent over the last three years? How much did you secretly wire to Julian?"
"Keep pushing me, Serena, and I'll have my accountants pull every statement and sue you for every penny back."Serena screeched through the speaker. "Have you no shame?! A grown man bean-counting over pocket change!"
I didn't want to waste another breath on her.
Just then, a child's whining came through the line: "Daddy, I'm sleepy! I want bed! You said there was a giant fluffy bed here! Why are we still waiting outside? Daddy, I'm so tired..."
Serena awkwardly shushed the boy. "Almost ready, sweetie. Just wait a tiny bit longer, and Auntie Serena will buy you tons of toys, okay?"
Then she screamed back into the phone, "Living in your place and spending your money was me doing you a favor! You should feel honored that I chose your apartment over anyone else's!"
Only someone as shameless as her could utter those words.
Faced with her insane logic, I hung up.
Her screaming was instantly cut off.
I blocked her number and every single social media account she owned.
I remembered back before we started dating, she used to call me in the middle of the night.
She would cry about how her parents favored her younger brother and how nothing would ever belong to her.
She poured her heart out, making me pity and protect her.
One night, she called me to drink with her, claiming she was heartbroken and needed me to stay the night.
To protect her reputation, I sat in a chair and watched over her until dawn.
The next morning, she told me she would date me, as long as I promised she would live a comfortable, wealthy life.
Naturally, a man wants to pamper the woman he loves.
Without her asking, I bought her whatever she laid eyes on.
All I wanted was to make her smile.
I thought my sincerity and respect had finally won her over.
Looking back, it was always about the money.
She wanted a luxury lifestyle so she could comfortably fund Julian on the side.
And now, she had the audacity to bring her first love and his kid to sleep in my bed.
Who knew how many times she had sneaked Julian into my home behind my back?
My hands shook with anger. It took me a long time to steady my breathing.
Those two parasites—I would never cross paths with them again.To keep my mind occupied, I skipped my planned honeymoon leave and took a grueling business trip instead.
A week later, I unlocked my front door, thinking the toxic past was behind me.
The moment the door opened, nausea hit me.
Toys and garbage bags were scattered all across the hardwood floor.
The little boy from the wedding was kneeling on my leather sofa, tossing around an antique sculpture I had spent a fortune collecting.
When he saw me, he shrieked, "Daddy! Someone's here!"
Hearing rustling in the master bedroom, I dropped my suitcase and marched over.
Serena was clutching the duvet to her chest, while Julian, shirtless, was leaning over the bed to grab a wrinkled shirt covered in lipstick and mystery stains.
Rage blinded me. I lunged forward and slammed my fist into his jaw.
Julian tried to scramble up to fight back, but fell right back down.
He wasn't wearing pants!
Disgust burned through my throat. Just as I raised my fist again—
Serena threw herself at me. "Are you crazy, Ethan?! Why are you hitting him?!"
I shoved her off, using every ounce of restraint not to strike her. "You're the crazy ones! Who gave you permission to break in?!"
Serena glared at me with pure venom.
"You think I wanted to come here?! If your guard dogs hadn't locked me out of Crescent Bay, we wouldn't be here in the first place!"
That was when I realized—in my hurry to leave, I forgot to revoke the spare key I gave her to this penthouse.
Back when we were dating, I gave it to her so she could feel at home.
I never imagined she'd have the nerve to drag another man into my bed.
I could barely breathe through the rage. "Get the hell out right now, or I'm calling security to throw you both onto the street!"
Serena crossed her arms.
"Fine. Tell the guards at Crescent Bay to let me in and unfreeze my cards. Otherwise, we have nowhere to go."
Even now, she was living in a fantasy.
"Keep dreaming! You will never get another dime from me as long as you live!"
"You're sleeping with Julian in my bed, right in front of my face, and you still expect me to fund your lifestyle?! Who the hell do you think you are?!"
"Get out!"
Even Julian had the decency to look humiliated, but Serena didn't care.
She lifted her chin indignantly. "Julian and I are just friends! Why do you always have to paint me as the villain?!"
"Julian just got back from overseas. His foreign funds haven't cleared yet, so I'm helping him out! Can you stop being so petty for once?!"
I laughed out loud.
"You're lying naked in my bed, and you're telling me you're just friends? Serena, do you honestly take me for an idiot?"
Right now, I felt profoundly relieved that I had never slept with her.
Otherwise, I would have thrown up my own stomach lining.
I couldn't stand the sight of the marks on their skin for another second.
I turned around, pulled out my phone, and called the building management to send security up immediately.
Seeing that I was dead serious, Serena finally panicked. "I just explained it! We're just friends! What more do you want?!"
"If you dare kick me out, we are truly over! You won't even have the privilege of being my safety net anymore!"
Another threat.
It used to work, but now it sounded like a joke.
I felt zero love for her.
After walking in on this circus, all I felt was profound disgust.
Even her voice grated on my nerves.
I didn't even want this penthouse anymore.
It felt contaminated.
"You know what? Keep it," I said coldly. "You wanted a breakup settlement? You can have this place. Just make sure you never show your pathetic faces in front of me again."
Serena still wasn't satisfied. "What about the credit cards?! I still can't swipe them! You need to reset the limits!"
The greed was limitless.
I sneered, looking down at her.
"Serena, I never realized how utterly shameless you were. Just how low will you sink for Julian?"
Chapters (5)
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Watch & Promotions
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