Chapter 2

After Evelyn left, I cleaned up the mess in a daze. I still held on to a sliver of hope, so I didn’t cancel the wedding banquet.

The system’s notification sounded at the worst possible time. “Host, if you still fail to win Evelyn over within the remaining ten days, she will be erased. Would you like to choose a new target?”

I stood frozen in place for a long time before asking, “If I choose a new target, will Evelyn survive?”

“Yes. However, in exchange, you will forget everything about Evelyn and start over.”

Start over?

I stood there in a daze and didn’t answer because I still couldn’t let Evelyn go.

Not long after, my phone rang. It was a video call from my best friend, Josh Miller.

“Gavin, guess who I just saw?” Josh excitedly held up his phone. “It’s your fiancée, trying on wedding dresses with another man!”

“Didn’t you say today was the day you and your fiancée were trying on wedding dresses?”

I was speechless for a moment. Worried about Evelyn’s reputation, I stammered, “I... I was busy today, so I asked someone else to accompany her.”

The scene in the video stabbed my eyes red. Evelyn was wearing a wedding dress and smiling blissfully at Ethan, who sat in a wheelchair. She looked as if she were eagerly anticipating the life they would have together.

Anyone would have thought they were a perfect match.

But I was supposed to be the groom.

The moment Evelyn looked up and saw Josh, her expression instantly darkened. She snatched the phone away and scolded me furiously. “Gavin Blake, how pathetic can you be? You even found someone to spy on me!”

Ethan comforted her gently from the video. “Evelyn, don’t be angry. I didn’t know you were about to marry Gavin. Gavin is already upset. Maybe... I should leave.”

“Don’t go. You’ve forgotten everyone except me. Who will take care of you if you leave?” Evelyn deliberately kept the video call on. She looked at me with a cold smile and said mockingly, “If your mother hadn’t exposed us back then, why would you have divorced someone else?”

“Now that you’re divorced, it’s lucky that I’m still unmarried too.” Evelyn clasped his hand with a loving gaze. “I’ve been waiting for you all this time.”

Her words made my heart twist with pain. I was so miserable that I could barely breathe. So that was all I was to Evelyn: someone she couldn’t proudly claim, someone she had never loved, merely a tool to pacify her family.

Evelyn couldn’t even be bothered to lie to me.

A trace of smugness appeared in Ethan’s eyes, but he still pretended to hesitate. “Evelyn, when you say things like that... you’re going to make me misunderstand.”

“Misunderstand what?” Evelyn’s expression was firm as she made her promise tenderly. “Ethan, my heart has always belonged to you.”

My eyes turned red when I heard that. Bitterness filled my heart. Afraid I would lose control and lash out at Evelyn, I ended the call and fled home in humiliation.

I tried to find a trace of the warmth I had once shared with Evelyn in the home I had personally decorated for us.