Chapter 1

Not even ten minutes after I forwarded the video to the university group chat, there was an uproar.

"Isn't that Lenard? Look at his hand go! Is he trying to start a fire or something?"

"Did he have to do this in the middle of the night? I guess he must find it thrilling."

"Hold on. Isn't Lenard supposed to be Mandy's boyfriend? Then why did the video come from Jonathan, Sarah's boyfriend?"

In an instant, everyone was madly tagging me, Sarah Lindt, Lenard Johnson, and Mandy Sutton.

My phone rang as Mandy tried to call me, but I ignored it; my room door happened to burst open at that exact moment.

It was none other than my dear girlfriend, Sarah.

She had clearly just finished showering; her body was still clad in a towel while water dripped from her hair.

"Jonathan Goodwell, have you gone crazy?"

Snatching up a nearby vase, she charged toward me and brought it down on my head.

I didn't move, allowing the vase to smash against my forehead. Immediately, blood began dripping down the left side of my face.

Shocked by my demeanor, Sarah hastily backed out of our future shared bedroom.

However, she returned to my bedside a while later.

"Jonathan, do you have to take things so far? Mandy has been my best friend since childhood—we're closer than biological sisters! If you stubbornly refuse to let this go, what will she think of me? This is clearly a misunderstanding, so why do you have to treat it as real? Tell me, how are you going to clear up this mess now?"

The way she pretended to be innocent only caused a self-mocking smile to curve my lips.

Lightly caressing the wound on my forehead, she gently urged me to clear things up in the group.

"Just tell everyone that your account was hacked and the video is fake."

In response, I laughed mockingly. "Would you believe it if you were in my shoes?"

My words seemed to trigger her. The earlier gentleness in her gaze swiftly turned hostile.

"Jonathan, just how jealous must you be to kick up such a fuss over a simple misunderstanding? Are you satisfied now?"

"So, you genuinely think that this is just a misunderstanding?"

I looked her straight in the eyes as I asked, yet all I saw was fury and avoidance.

How was it even possible to send that kind of video to the wrong person? Especially since another message had been sent right after it, and on the night of my engagement dinner to Sarah, no less. They must truly think I was an absolute fool.

In the video, Lenard was on the couch across from the camera, his whole body trembling as his hand moved incessantly. The grunts he made reminded me of a boar in heat, all while he kept muttering, "I miss you so much! I miss that small mouth of yours!"

Mandy had been chasing Lenard since our university years and was constantly by his side, almost as though she were glued to him. Why the hell would he be missing her?

Sarah stood before me, obviously feeling extremely guilty. Several times, she opened her mouth to speak, only to swallow the words.

See? Even she couldn't think of an excuse! How utterly laughable!

"He must have accidentally sent it to the wrong person," she finally stuttered. "I'm already engaged to you, so why are you still so suspicious? Do we not even have a basic level of trust between us?"

Not wanting to say another word to her, I shut my eyes to go to sleep.

Realizing I actually had the audacity to ignore her, Sarah instantly grew enraged.

"Jonathan, this is only our first day of being engaged, yet you already dare to treat me this way? Honestly, what did I expect from someone who came from the bottom of society? No matter how much you gild yourself, there's no changing the fact that you're still that same despicable person!"

My eyes flew open. She had struck a sore spot I had carried since I was young.

She was the one in the wrong, yet she had so carelessly ripped open an old wound of mine.

I was born in a farming village in the countryside. However, due to a congenital heart disease, my parents abandoned me, leaving me to a childhood that was beyond miserable.

The other kids in the village would beat me up or force me to drink urine, while the resident crazy old man would constantly grope me. I even had to fight the strays for food scraps to survive.

Nonetheless, it was precisely all these hardships that forged my resilient character, allowing me to gradually build my own business empire.

I had sealed away my dark past in the deepest recesses of my mind, only ever telling Sarah about it. Unexpectedly, instead of feeling heartbroken for me, she gave me her scorn.

From then on, every time I did something that wasn't to her liking, she would bring up my past, gouging the wound in my heart over and over again.

She never seemed to remember that she, too, was only the daughter of an average salaryman in the city—nothing more.

Seeing that her words had succeeded in hurting me, she left the bedroom, satisfied.

A short while later, my phone suddenly buzzed.

It turned out that Lenard had sent a long voice recording to clarify things. He claimed he had meant to send that video to Mandy but accidentally sent it to the wrong person. His tone was filled with utmost sincerity as he apologized to everyone for the disturbance.

The excitement that had just died down swiftly returned, but I wasn't in the mood to read the messages anymore.

Just as I finally drifted off to sleep, Sarah barged in again, her expression twisted into smug delight.

"See what Lenard said? Don't just assume everyone is as filthy as you! Mandy also personally called me to apologize, so what else do you have to say for yourself?"

In no mood to waste time with her, I simply rolled my eyes and kept silent.

I didn't know whether to call Mandy gullible, innocent, or just plain stupid for falling for Lenard's honeyed words. Anyone with a brain would know he definitely hadn't filmed that video for her, nor had he ever meant to send it to her.

Just as I was marveling at Mandy's lack of intelligence, she sent me a message to complain.

"Jon, Sarah told me about what you did. How could you be so impulsive? Even if you don't trust Lenard, don't you at least trust Sarah?"

Profanity burst out from me. Sometimes, stupid people truly were more infuriating than evil people. There was no hope for Mandy—no cure at all.

I failed to get any rest for the remainder of the night. The moment dawn peeked over the horizon, I called my secretary.

"Stop all investments in Sarah's company."