Chapter 1

The ambulance sped into the hospital with its siren blaring. The nurse examined me quickly, murmuring to the doctor beside her in a grave tone.

My acute gastroenteritis had progressed to a perforation. If I had arrived 30 minutes later, the infection in my abdomen would have been enough to kill me.

I gripped the bedsheet beneath me as Wayne Garner's careless words echoed in my mind. I had called him when I was in so much pain that I was about to lose consciousness, yet all he cared about was another woman's mild cold.

As the nurse wheeled me toward the emergency operating room, I spotted two familiar figures around the corner.

Wayne held Andrea Graham's hand in one hand and carried a bag of cold medicine with the other. He lowered his head and patiently listened as she quietly complained about how crowded the hospital was.

Andrea was an underprivileged student whom he had been supporting.

The instant Wayne and I locked eyes, his entire body stiffened, and panic flashed across his face.

I saw him instinctively let go of Andrea's hand and take half a step forward. But then, he stopped. He turned and patted Andrea's arm to comfort her. In the end, he never walked over to me.

Andrea followed his gaze to look at me, and a trace of triumph crossed her eyes. She deliberately leaned even closer to Wayne.

I looked away from Wayne, letting the nurse wheel me down the hallway. The moment I entered the operating room, the tears I had held back for so long finally slipped silently onto my clothes.

A dull pain from the surgery came in waves, but I didn't shed another tear.

Ever since the first time he abandoned me for Andrea, a crack had formed in my heart. Today, my heart finally shattered beyond repair.

After the surgery ended, I was placed in a private room.

Not long after, the door to my room was gently pushed open. Wayne walked in with a trace of guilt on his face. He pulled a chair over and sat beside my bed, reaching out to touch my forehead, but I instinctively turned my head away.

His hand froze in midair, and his voice softened. "Andrea just got here and has no one to rely on. I didn't think your condition would be this serious. I'm sorry I neglected you today."

Neglected. What a light word that was.

I forced a faint smile. The movement pulled at my incision, and the pain made me inhale sharply.

All that was left inside me was nothing but disgust. My voice was weak but unusually firm. "Wayne, let's break up."

His face darkened instantly, and he began to guilt-trip me with the same old lines. "I already apologized. Do you really have to keep holding on to it? I was just taking care of a friend. Why do you have to be so petty? Can't you be a little more understanding?"

I stared at the ceiling, listing every empty promise he had ever made, word for word. "At that dinner, you left me to be with Andrea. Back then, you held my hand and told me it would be the last time.

"Since then, every time she came to you with some minor issue, you'd come back and make a bunch of promises to me. You said I was the only one in your heart and that you knew what mattered most. But what about today? Wayne, your promises mean absolutely nothing."

He still wanted to argue.

A sharp pain suddenly shot through my abdominal incision, and I curled up in agony. I couldn't be bothered to argue with him anymore. I simply closed my eyes and stopped responding to anything he said.

When Wayne saw that I had stopped arguing, he assumed I had relented and forgiven him. The tension on his face eased a little, and he sat by my bed, going on and on about how he would make it up to me once I was discharged.

My heart went cold, and I quietly made up my mind. Once my wound healed and I was discharged, I would leave for Warler right away. I would leave this city full of disappointment for good and leave Wayne behind.