Chapter 1

All these years with my boyfriend, Simon Stone, he had trampled me into the dirt, and I had still taken it without complaint.

I booked restaurants for every girlfriend he had, picked out gifts for them, and even went to hotels late at night to deliver ultra-thin condoms for him.

Everyone snickered, calling a wealthy heiress a selfless unpaid errand girl who acted far beneath her station.

Even when Simon announced right in front of me that he was going to marry the substitute for the one who got away, he was certain I would not leave.

But Simon did not know that I was getting married too.

My new husband was someone Simon could not afford to offend, and could never hope to reach.

Wendy Wilson POV

At ten o’clock that night, Simon called.

“Tiramisu from Oceanview Patisserie. Deliver it to Riverside Club within an hour.”

I had just been about to ask why he wanted it so late, but he had already hung up.

Oceanview Hotel had closed long before ten.

I dug out the owner’s private number and paid triple the price to have them make a new tiramisu.

Over the past few years, my phone had filled up with numbers like this.

Famous cake shops, Michelin-starred restaurant managers, VIP concierges at jewelry stores.

All of them were contacts I had accumulated while running errands for Simon’s girlfriends.

At eleven, I stood outside the private room with the takeout box in my hand.

Just as I raised my hand to knock, I heard bursts of laughter from inside.

“Simon, you really have the nerve to order her around. Making an heiress deliver dessert for you in the middle of the night? She’s your official fiancée, you know.”

“So what if she’s my fiancée? A fiancée should know her place even more. She’s willing.”

“She really is. An heiress acting like a simp—first time I’ve ever seen it. Last time, Simon pretended to be drunk, and she came running over with hangover medicine. You poured it into the trash right in front of her, and she actually smiled and said she’d buy something else next time.”

“More than that. Simon’s girlfriends’ birthday gifts, breakup payoffs—which one hasn’t she handled? Every time Simon changes girlfriends, she knows whether the girl likes sweet or spicy better than his secretary does.”

The laughter grew louder.

“Enough.” Simon’s lazy voice sounded.

My grip tightened around the gift box. Was Simon stepping in for me?

“Phoebe wanted the tiramisu. Don’t fight over it later.”

So he was not defending me.

He just thought the topic was not worth continuing.

I gave a self-mocking smile, laughing at myself for never learning.

Phoebe Ford, I silently repeated the name.

Another new girlfriend.

I had already lost count of which one this was.

Simon changed girlfriends more often than he changed clothes, and every one of them looked somewhat like Chloe Harris.

For each one, I, his fiancée, was responsible for figuring out her lipstick shade, dietary restrictions, and preferred handbag brands.

When those women had birthdays, I was in charge of ordering cakes and choosing gifts.

When they threw tantrums, I was in charge of ordering flowers and booking restaurants.

When Simon wanted to break up with them, I was the one who took a check to negotiate and smooth things over.

The worst of it was that Simon would even send me a hotel room number in the middle of the night and tell me to deliver ultra-thin condoms.

When the woman opened the door for me, she would not even be wearing clothes.

I had never told Simon’s mother, Mrs. Stone, about any of this.

Mrs. Stone had a heart condition. I was afraid she would not be able to take it.

Mrs. Stone thought Simon and I had only had a fight and that there was a little distance between us.

Every time she saw me, she would hold my hand and say, “Simon has you in his heart. He just hasn’t figured it out yet. Wait a little longer. Once he matures, everything will be fine.”

For five years, I had been waiting.

I took a deep breath and pushed open the door to the private room.

The room was packed with Simon’s friends.

The looks they gave me were full of contempt and schadenfreude.

On the main sofa, Simon sat with his long legs crossed, Phoebe in his arms.

He had his head lowered and was kissing her as if no one else were there.

One hand gripped the back of Phoebe’s neck, while the other moved back and forth over her thigh.

Phoebe’s pale legs were curled over his knees. She tried to dodge but did not really get away, her face flushed as she let him do as he pleased.

Hearing the door open, Simon lifted his head. Phoebe’s lipstick was still smeared on his lips.

When he saw it was me, he pecked the corner of Phoebe’s mouth again.

“Put it on the table.”

I placed the food box on the table, opened it, and set out the tiramisu.

Phoebe sat up from Simon’s arms and timidly called out, “Wendy Wilson.”

I looked up at her.

Phoebe’s face was still flushed, and so were her eyes. She looked like a startled little deer.

Phoebe really did look like Chloe Harris. At least seventy percent similar.

Among all the substitute girlfriends Simon had found, she was the one who resembled Chloe the most.

“Oh, Wendy Wilson delivered it herself. Phoebe, you’d better thank Wendy properly.”

Simon’s buddy Gary Walsh jeered in a mocking tone.

“Thank her for what?” another person laughed. “Wendy is so generous. She’s used to it.”

Laughter rose and fell around the room.

My face showed no expression. I had heard things like this too many times.

After putting away the takeout box, I turned to leave.

“Stop.” Simon spoke unhurriedly. “Who said you’re free to leave?”

I halted and looked back.

“Let me introduce you.” Simon pulled Phoebe closer into his arms. “Phoebe Ford, my girlfriend.”

“You’re welcome to go complain to my mom again. But I’m going to marry her.”

Phoebe’s eyes widened slightly at his words. Then she lowered her head, twisting the hem of her skirt between her fingers, looking as if happiness had struck her so suddenly she did not know what to do.

“Phoebe isn’t like you. She’s innocent, clean, and doesn’t have so many schemes.”

Simon warned me coldly, “If you dare use those dirty tricks again, I won’t let you off.”

Dirty tricks.

I stood where I was, my fingertips digging into my palm.

I knew what he was referring to.

Five years ago, Simon had cheated on me with Chloe Harris.

That night, I had originally gone to find Simon and break up with him.

But my father, Gordon Wilson, drugged Simon’s wine.

In the end, I did not get to bring up the breakup. Simon took me in that hotel room for the entire night.

When I woke the next day, the sky had fallen.

Chloe cried as she broke up with him, then turned around and left the country, becoming the thorn Simon could never pull out of his heart.

And the blame for drugging him was pinned on me.

I explained, but Simon did not believe me.

Mrs. Stone also told Simon that Chloe had not left in anger because of that incident.

Instead, she had happily left after taking five million from Mrs. Stone.

But after Simon heard that, he smashed up the study, saying I had colluded with Mrs. Stone to make up lies and smear Chloe.

From then on, my nightmare began.

It was not that I did not want to leave.

But the specialty medication that kept my grandmother, Helen Shaw, alive was in Gordon Wilson’s hands, and Gordon forced me to please Simon.

I had once foolishly hoped that if I waited until his anger faded, waited until he grew up, waited until one day he believed me.

I waited for five years.

All I got in return was him getting worse and worse, announcing in front of a room full of people that he would marry another woman.

All of a sudden, I felt exhausted.

The string that had been pulled taut in my heart for five years snapped silently.

I nodded and said softly, “Don’t worry. I won’t.”

Simon froze.

I knew what he was thinking.

I had not been like this before.

In the past, at a time like this, I should have had red-rimmed eyes, speaking gently as I coaxed him and begged him.

But now, I simply stood there calmly, as if I were looking at someone who had nothing to do with me.

“Good.” He looked away and awkwardly added, “It’s going to rain. Have Leo drive you back. Don’t stand here being an eyesore.”

I did not refuse. I turned and walked out.

The car had not been on the road for ten minutes when the rain came pouring down.

Sheets of rain battered the windshield. Even with the wipers on their highest setting, the road ahead was hard to see.

“Ms. Wilson, something urgent suddenly came up at home. Get out at the intersection ahead and take a cab back. The rain is heavy and the roads are slippery, so I won’t make the detour.”

When the driver, Leo Lewis, said this, he did not even turn his head.

I looked at the curtain of rain outside the window and understood.

This stretch of road was difficult to drive. He did not want to take the long way in such heavy rain to send me home.

It was not the first time something like this had happened.

Last time, when I rode in Leo’s car, we hit traffic on the way, and he dropped me off directly at the entrance to the overpass.

Simon did not care about me, so naturally the people under him did not take me seriously either.

They would only step on me harder than Simon did.

“Fine. Stop here.”

I got out of the car.

The rain was so heavy I could barely stand steady. I held my umbrella and walked forward, the canopy almost flipped over by the wind.

I stood in the rain for a long time, soaked through and shivering from the cold, before I finally managed to hail a taxi.

The driver looked at me through the rearview mirror. “In rain this heavy, no one from your family came to pick you up?”

I tugged at the corner of my mouth and did not answer.

I took out my phone. The messages in the friend group were still from the afternoon.

【Breaking news! The Kingsley family has made an announcement. Julian Kingsley, the heir of the wealthy family, is taking a wife, with a wedding fund of ten billion!】

【Even with ten billion, no one would dare marry him, right? Ever since Julian Kingsley went blind in that car accident three years ago, his personality changed completely. He’s terrifyingly violent. I heard the last caregiver ran away after three days. No heiress from any family is willing.】

【Exactly. It’s not like we’re short on money. No matter how rich the Kingsley family is, it’s still a living hell. Marrying into that family is jumping straight into a fire pit.】

I thought of the ugly face Gordon Wilson showed when he used Helen Shaw’s medicine to bully me.

I thought of the way Simon had said he was going to marry Phoebe Ford.

I thought of the torrential rain outside.

No matter how terrible that fire pit was, it could not be harder to endure than what I had now.

At the very least, it was a way to leave Simon Stone and Gordon Wilson.

I would be the Kingsley family’s daughter-in-law.