Chapter 1

“Gavin Blake, I’m not marrying you anymore. Find time to cancel the wedding banquet, and move out of my house immediately.”

On the day we were taking our wedding photos, Evelyn received a phone call and suddenly changed completely. She wanted to cancel the wedding and break up with me.

“Ethan was in a car accident and needs me to take care of him. Move out of my house today. I have to stay with him.”

I looked at the wedding dress she still hadn’t taken off. The love we had shared only a moment ago now felt like a cruel joke.

Ever since Ethan Carter divorced his wife, Evelyn had spent less and less time with me. She had even forgotten the anniversaries that belonged to the two of us.

I thought I wasn’t showing her enough care, so I quit my job and moved in with her specifically to be by her side. To take care of her stomach, I even learned how to cook. But every time, she only forced down a few bites before complaining that my food tasted awful.

I smiled bitterly. I should have known this day would come.

I just hadn’t expected it to come so soon. The photo shoot wasn’t even over, yet she couldn’t wait to ask me to call off our engagement.

I grabbed her arm as she turned to leave, the corners of my eyes red. “Evelyn, can you please not abandon me?”

The system had told me from the beginning that if I failed to win Evelyn over, she would be erased.

I didn’t want that to happen. After spending five years trying to win her over, I had already fallen in love with her.

The moment I said it, Evelyn looked at me with disdain and shook me off as if I were something dirty. “Gavin Blake, have some self-respect. I don’t love you.”

“Do you know how disgusting it is to spend five years with someone you don’t love? These five years with you were nothing but a waste of time. They’ve exhausted me, body and soul.”

Five years. She actually said she had never fallen in love with me.

I didn’t believe her.

I looked at her with a bitter, self-mocking smile. “If you don’t love me, then why did you stay with me for five years and accept my proposal?”

Evelyn frowned, a trace of denial flashing through her eyes. As she struggled to answer, her phone rang again. It was Ethan calling. Her expression immediately softened, and she began soothing him in a gentle voice before changing out of her wedding dress and heading to the hospital.

In all five years, Evelyn had never looked at me that way.

“Evelyn, we’re getting married the day after tomorrow. You can’t just leave without explaining anything to our parents. Can’t you stay and be with me?”

I begged her not to go, trying to hold her back by bringing up both our families. But she was determined to leave. She looked at me with icy eyes, as though I were her enemy, and shoved me away without a word.

“Gavin Blake, the way you’re trying to threaten me is disgusting!”

She gritted her teeth. “Gavin Blake, I don’t love you. If you keep stopping me from pursuing my happiness, I’ll hate you for the rest of my life!”

Evelyn’s words stabbed through me like a knife, leaving me covered in wounds and filled with helplessness. In the end, I couldn’t bear to see her upset, so I still let her go to the hospital.