Chapter 1

I went to my fiance's class reunion and took a big group photo with all of them.

Then his childhood sweetheart posted it online, and cropped me right out of the left edge of the shot.

My fiance even liked the post.

I didn't say a word. I just went into the office the next day and struck her name off the list for the company's subsidized housing.

The day after that, he came storming into the office to have it out with me.

He even threw down an ultimatum. "If you don't give Yannie the benefits she's entitled to, I'll buy her the place myself!"

I told him I didn't care.

"Suit yourself."

Once a man loses the plot, there's no reason to keep him around.

He's only a marriage partner. This one won't behave, so I'll swap him out for another.

1

The day after Vincent Henson and I got engaged, he said he wanted me to meet his friends.

I'm an introvert by nature. Crowds aren't my thing.

But I didn't want to spoil his mood, so I went.

I didn't really know any of them, so after a few polite lines I settled into a corner and played on my phone.

As the reunion was breaking up, Vincent's little childhood sweetheart, Yannie Ford, suggested everyone take a big group photo.

I'd been standing next to Vincent, but somehow I got nudged all the way to the far edge.

When the photo came out, Vincent and Yannie were pressed together, right in the center.

It was just a photo. I let it go.

Until I saw the post Yannie put up on her feed, our group shot from that day.

Sitting on the far left, I'd been cropped clean out of it.

What made me angry wasn't being cropped out. It was that Vincent had liked the post underneath.

I called him right away.

"That post Yannie just put up. You liked it."

"Yeah, so?"

"You didn't notice she cut me out of the group photo?"

"Did she? I honestly didn't catch that."

He gave a light laugh, and left it at that.

"What are you saying, that you think what she did was perfectly normal?"

"No, Yannie probably just did it by accident when she was editing the photo. It's one picture. Don't be so petty."

"Fair enough."

I hung up on him.

The next morning at the office, I turned to my assistant beside me.

"Bring me the list for the company's subsidized housing."

The assistant handed it over, and there was Yannie Ford's name, sitting right at the top.

"This Yannie Ford hasn't even been with the company a year, and her position doesn't qualify her. Why is she being allocated a hundred-and-thirty-square-meter unit?"

"That list was signed off personally by Mr. Henson."

I took out my pen and struck through Yannie's entire line.

"Vincent is only my fiance. My father promised him the general manager position after we're married, but we haven't registered the marriage yet."

"From now on, he is not permitted to involve himself in any Group affairs."

"Understood."

The truth was, I'd seen this list a while ago. I knew Yannie had gone through the back door, riding her connection to Vincent to land on it.

Senior people using their positions to squeeze out a few perks for their relatives, that's nothing new.

As long as it didn't go too far, I'd turn a blind eye.

What Vincent had done here went too far.

But given how close we were, I pretended not to see it.

Only now do I realize some people really will take a kindness and spit on it.