Chapter 1

Sophia Bennett’s words left me frozen in place.

Even when boiling hot water poured over the back of my hand, I seemed unable to feel the pain.

I lowered my eyes and looked at the shattered glass by my feet, its fragments glaring under the reflected light.

It looked exactly like my relationship with Sophia Bennett.

Beneath its glamorous surface, it had long been riddled with wounds.

I took a deep breath, stared at the indifferent woman in front of me, and asked coldly:

“Are you sure you want him to stay?”

Adrian Gray was the first to walk toward the entryway, his tone full of considerate understanding.

“I’m sorry, Ethan, I disturbed your wedding night with Sophia.”

“But I didn’t mean anything else, and Sophia has always been picky, so I was afraid you wouldn’t take good care of her, and don’t be mad, I’ll leave right now.”

Sophia Bennett chased after him and shielded him behind her.

Without another word, she harshly scolded me.

“Who do you think you are?”

“You eat my food and use my things, and even this marital home was bought by me, so what right do you have to care who I bring back?”

“I already agreed to marry you for your mother’s sake, so don’t push your luck.”

I heard the disgust filling her words, and at that moment, I no longer hoped for anything.

I took the wedding ring off my ring finger and slowly placed it on the coffee table in front of me.

“In that case, I’ll make room for you two.”

There was no need to force this unsuitable love to continue anymore.

But just as I turned to leave, Sophia Bennett called out to me at an unhurried pace.

She pinched the wedding ring I had thrown down between her fingers and walked up to me.

Under my gaze, she let out a scoff.

“You can leave if you want, but leave the house keys.”

“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing, because do you really think I’ll fall for this playing-hard-to-get act?”

Before she could finish, I pulled the keys from my pocket and left through the door without hesitation.

When the security guard downstairs saw me leaving in only my inner clothes, his face was filled with shock.

As if he had remembered the man Sophia Bennett had just brought upstairs, he swallowed the question that had reached his lips.

I even saw a trace of pity in his eyes.

But I had no time to care, so I casually hailed a cab and returned to the place where my mother had lived before she passed away.

When my mother was alive, she liked Sophia Bennett very much, gave her anything good she had, and was afraid of neglecting her.

But during a fire six months ago, my mother ignored her own safety and rushed in to save Sophia Bennett.

When she came out, she could not even care about the large burns across her body and was still concerned about Sophia Bennett’s condition.

In the end, my mother could not be saved and died on the way to the hospital, and before she passed, she held both our hands and hoped we would get married.

I still clearly remembered kneeling beside the ambulance at the time and desperately begging the nurse to save my mom again.

And Sophia Bennett held me with tears all over her face, and she said:

“Ethan, I won’t let your mother’s wish down, and we’ll get married by the end of the year, and I’ll be good to you for the rest of my life.”

But in just half a year, everything had changed.

Sophia Bennett had turned a life-saving kindness into moral blackmail.

In her eyes, our three-year relationship could not compare to the few short months she had known Adrian Gray.

I once thought Adrian Gray was only a small episode and would not affect the firm feelings between us.

Little did I know that from that moment on, I had already stepped onto a road of no return.

It was almost dawn by the time I entered the door.

This apartment had originally been left by my mother as a marital home for Sophia Bennett and me.

She looked down on this place for being old and run-down, calling it a rough neighborhood, but she did not know that just last week, the government had approved the redevelopment of this area.

The compensation was expected to reach thirty million.

And now, it no longer mattered whether I told her or not.