Chapter 1

A tear fell down Rose Sinclair's cheek when she closed her eyes.

"Yes."

It took only one word from her to make my mind go blank.

The next second, the surgery room was opened once more, and a nurse said quickly, "There isn't enough blood in the blood bank. The baby's life is in danger, and we need family members with the same blood type to donate blood!"

Rose snapped out of it and pulled out her phone. "Charlie, inform all employees who have O blood type to get to Central Hospital in 20 minutes."

Her assistant, Charlie, seemed hesitant, and Rose raised her voice. "We'll provide transport and compensate them ten times their usual wages. The company will also pay them a bonus of $150 per milliliter of blood donated."

Rose rarely wore her emotions on her sleeve, but now, her hands were trembling so much that she could hardly hold onto her phone.

Alan Jensen stood next to her, his eyes brimming with tears and looking like all his energy had been sucked out of him.

After Rose hung up, she placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry. I'm right here. Nothing is going to happen to our baby."

Alan hugged her as tears streamed down his face. Rose did not push him away, but hugged him back. Both of them looked in the direction of the surgery room as they held each other, looking like a young couple who were worried about their sick child.

I was Rose's real fiancé, but I looked like an outsider who should not even be there.

Three hours later, the light of the surgery room was finally turned off. The doctor appeared and pulled off his mask. "The baby is safe for now, but he would need to be admitted for observation."

Alan's knees buckled, and Rose quickly helped him up. She patted his back and said, "Everything is fine now. Our baby is fine."

Rose seemed to only remember me after that. She froze before turning to look at me slowly. "You should head home first, Walden. I'll explain everything to you when I get home tonight."

I clenched my fists, and my fingernails dug into my palm, giving me a painful reminder not to lose my composure. "The civil offices are about to close. We agreed that we'd…"

"Look at the situation around you, Walden. Do you really think this is a good time to get married?" Rose interrupted me coldly. I could see that she was getting annoyed. "The baby barely survived, and Alan's emotions aren't stable either. We'll talk about getting married another day."

I looked at her blankly. Rose was the one who kept wanting to get married, and had been pushing to get married for the past six months or so. She had been staying outside the country then, and they were seven or eight hours apart.

At that time, Rose kept reminding me that once her business trip was over, she would come back home to marry me, but she was also the one who postponed our plans today.

Alan stood behind her, not daring to look at me. His eyes were red from all the crying, and it was obvious that he was feeling guilty and trying to avoid me. I wanted to say something, but I had no idea what my place was in all of this.

Was I Rose's fiancé or Alan's best buddy? Or was I just a stupid man who had been betrayed by his fiancée and best buddy?

In the end, I said nothing, and I went home in a taxi.

It was 1:00 am when Rose finally returned home. She was taken aback to see me still sitting in the living room, and she ran up to hug me. "Why are you still awake?"

Rose smelled strongly of disinfectant from the hospital, but there was also a tinge of a woody scent on her. It was the scent of Alan's cologne, which he had been using for years. It only made me nauseous, and I pushed her off me.

"Why didn't you tell me that you slept with my best friend, Rose?"

Rose's eyes shifted guiltily. "What happened that night was an accident. I was drugged, and Alan was drunk. We were both not in our right state of mind." She paused before continuing, "Besides, Alan is your best friend, not some random outsider."

It took only an afternoon for Rose to call out his name with such tenderness. I felt my heart tighten inside my chest, and my voice trembled as I said, "It doesn't matter if you were drugged or who that man you slept with was. You slept with another man, Rose, and that's called cheating!"

Rose pressed hard between her eyes, sounding exhausted. "Why can't you understand my situation, Walden? Someone tried to drug me, and Alan was drunk. We were both victims."

If they were both victims, what does that make me? My fiancée and my best friend of many years had teamed up to lie to me for ten months! I choked back a sob. "What do you plan to do now?"

Rose was quiet for a long time before answering, "I've been trying to find out who that man I slept with was after that night. When I found out I was pregnant, I couldn't bear to abort the baby, so I found an excuse to leave the country and have the baby.

"When I found out the baby's father was Alan, I had no idea how to face both of you, so I got someone to leave the baby at his doorstep. I thought this would end things, but when my baby almost died today, I realized I couldn't let him go…"

It turned out Rose had lied to me about her business trip. I felt so stupid for worrying about her over the past ten months. I was worried about her gastritis and reminded her to have her meals on time every day, and worried that she would overwork herself, so I chatted with her until 3:00 am daily.

Every time she told me she was tired, I wanted to fly to her side right away, but in reality, she was busy being pregnant with my best friend's baby, while I knew nothing about it.

Rose did not dare to look me in the eye. "That baby is mine, and he can't be without a legitimate identity. Alan and I will get officially married first to make sure the baby's documents are all in place with his parents' information. We'll get divorced after that and… And then I'll marry you."

I was stunned for a few seconds before sneering at her. "Why would you think that I'd want to marry a divorced woman?"

Rose reached out to wipe away a tear from my face, gentle as always. I did not even realize I had been crying all this time. "Stop saying words out of anger, Walden. We've been together for six years. You can't bear to be apart from me."

That was when Alan called her. Rose picked up the call right away, and she turned pale when she heard what he said. "Don't worry. I'm on my way right now."

The call ended.

Rose grabbed the coat she had just taken off, and she left hurriedly without even explaining anything to me. I sat alone on the couch until dawn, and I finally picked up my phone to find an email I had put aside for a long time.

It was a notice for a transfer to my company's branch in Lunshire, and I replied with a confirmation.