Chapter 1

"Say yes! Say yes!"

I kneeled in the middle of the crowd, awaiting a response, as my friends' excited shouts drowned out the square.

"Enough. You're so annoying."

Hailey Morgan, the woman I was proposing to, snatched the flowers from the ground and hurled them hard at me.

Her expression was vicious as she exclaimed, "You're so selfish! What else do you know besides pressuring me into marriage? I've told you so many times that I can't get married right now."

She couldn't get married, or she didn't want to?

My throat felt constricted, and I was so upset that I couldn't speak.

This wasn't my first time in this situation, but it was the most humiliating.

We had been in love for eight years, and I had proposed 18 times but was rejected every single time.

My reputation preceded me to a comical degree at this point. Who else but me could turn a marriage proposal into a full-blown quest?

After taking a while to calm myself down, I lifted the ring with a cautious and pleading expression.

"Hailey, stop joking. All our friends and relatives are here. Just put the ring on," I said.

Even if it was only for the sake of everyone's effort, I wished she'd set aside her pride and stop refusing me.

But this was exactly what Hailey wanted. She slapped me hard, and her glare was sharp enough to silence the room.

"Stop joking? You're the biggest joke here! Don't you think this is gross? You're really trying to guilt‑trip me. Don't you know Eric has depression? Are you trying to drive him to his death by forcing a marriage on me?"

Guilt-trip her? If anything, she was the one guilt-tripping me.

She could have said she didn't like me anymore, or that she didn't love me, or that a life with me wouldn't work out.

But no, her reason for rejecting me was another man—Eric Dawson, her childhood sweetheart.

So, just because he had depression, she couldn't let him go. But what about me? Was I just supposed to accept that my girlfriend was hung up on another man?

I gritted my teeth, feeling anger coil in my chest. I looked down at the ring and pressed, "If he's depressed for a lifetime, will you never marry me?"

I said this with a sliver of hope. I wanted her to deny it and say it was all a joke, that she would marry me right then.

But Hailey's answer hit me like a punch to the gut.

She flung the ring violently from my hand and sneered. "Daniel Carter, he's my childhood sweetheart. How can I just abandon him?

"Besides, you've put up with it 17 times already. Can't you just bear a little longer?"

The ring rolled to the side, spinning farther and farther away until it disappeared from my sight. It felt just like my heart, sinking into a place where light no longer existed.

My friends seemed at a loss. They didn't know what to say and could only fumble, trying to keep things calm.

"Hailey's just playing around and testing Daniel's sincerity. It's fine. We'll definitely find the ring."

"It won't delay your wedding. Don't fight anymore, okay?"

They acted calmly, as if nothing had happened, and knelt on the ground searching.

In their actions, I saw my attitude toward Hailey—begging like a dog and wagging my tail.

I loved her. I thought that if I gave my all, I could win her over, so I punished myself endlessly.

Meanwhile, my friends knew how important she was to me, so they disregarded their pride and searched for a meaningless ring in public.

Hailey, on the other hand, stomped hard in her high heels and looked at them with contempt.

"Daniel, you're so willing to degrade yourself just to pressure me into marriage. You'd even use your own friends."

After saying that, she left with her friends, leaving me standing in the wind with reddened eyes.