Chapter 2

I rarely joined Camilla in her gatherings, as her friends all hated me and never bothered to hide it.

The sorry state I was in right now wasn't the first time I had been like this, and Caleb was always the one who started it every time.

The reason they didn't like me was simple—they thought I didn't deserve Camilla.

Camilla, Nathan, and the rest had known each other since they were young.

Nathan was like a shining star, being the heir to a wealthy family and always being number one in everything.

Meanwhile, I was a hearing-impaired commoner who only got to study in university due to a scholarship. Without my hearing aid, I couldn't even have a normal conversation with people.

Much like Nathan, Camilla had also been born into a prestigious family and was extraordinarily beautiful.

People like them were often thought of as being favored by the deities, so with them practically being a match made in heaven, they should've had a happy ending together.

However, fate decided that it wanted to play a cruel joke on them.

The Stenson family got in trouble, resulting in Camilla shouldering a heavy debt that had more zeroes than I could count. Because of that, Nathan also fled overseas.

From then on, the debt collectors weren't just Camilla's nightmare, but they became mine too.

Once, the debt collectors had beaten Camilla up till she was battered and bloody all over. Dragging her broken legs behind her, she had somehow crawled her way over to the convenience store I had worked at to beg me to save her.

Originally, I wasn't supposed to be on the night shift that day. Countless times after that day, I had felt thankful that my colleague had decided to switch shifts with me. I couldn't even begin to imagine what fate would've befallen Camilla if that hadn't happened.

I had hidden Camilla in the storeroom, then returned to my post. As the debt collectors followed the blood trail and entered the store, I saw that they were towering over me. When I insisted that I had no idea where Camilla had gone, they threatened to beat me up too.

Ripping off my hearing aid, I gathered my courage to confront them even as I called the police.

Worried about the trouble that I would bring them, they had instantly turned and fled the scene.

Only once I had confirmed that they were truly gone did I drag my trembling body over to check on Camilla, who had gone into shock from too much blood loss.

After passing over the shift to my colleague, I had sent her to the hospital and used all of the money I had on me to pay for her medical bills.

Upon waking up, she asked me who I was, and I learned that she had lost her memories.

Regardless, there was no way I would forget that it was she who had defended me when a group of people had once called me deaf and began throwing my hearing aid around. She had berated them fiercely before snatching my hearing aid back from them.

For the next three months, I had stayed by her side and carefully nursed her back to health.

The look in her eyes had slowly changed, from the cold indifference of staring at a stranger to that of dependence on someone familiar.

I helped her pay off her debts, bit by bit, and in a show of emotion, she had pulled me into a tight hug.

"Hendrick, once I finish paying off my debts, I'll throw you a grand and unforgettable wedding."

Subsequently, a cold sensation had brushed my skin as she had slipped a silver band around my ring finger. Pressing a kiss to my lips, she had promised that she would definitely replace the ring with an even bigger one in the future.

Eight years later, she had finally finished paying her debts, and we were finally about to get married, only for Nathan to return.