Chapter 1

During the single minute the elevator plunged out of control, my mind was entirely filled with Julian, who was supposedly waiting in his hospital bed for the money that would save his life.

I had called him twenty-eight times, desperate to tell him that I had finally scraped together enough cash for his surgery, so he wouldn’t have to worry.

But he never picked up.

When I opened my eyes again, I was lying on a stretcher, being wheeled toward an ambulance.

From the crowding onlookers, a girly, high-pitched voice piped up with amusement,

"Look at her, babe. She looks like a suffocating dog."

Hearing this, the man beside her cast a careless glance in my direction.

In that instant, my eyes locked with Julian's—the very man who was supposed to be dying in a hospital bed.

The man who had been terminally ill yesterday was now standing right in front of me, looking perfectly healthy.

In his hand, he held a luxury designer handbag that I could never afford in a lifetime.

He froze for a second, then looked away coldly.

"She does. Just some nobody. Don't waste your breath on her."

"Aren't we supposed to go look at wedding dresses today?"

Lying on the stretcher, I watched their intimate, retreating figures.

It turned out that the five years I had spent sacrificing my life for our relationship was nothing but a sickening joke.