Chapter 1

Anthony’s eyes widened.

“Are you insane? Are you really going to smash someone’s car in broad daylight?” He pointed toward the house and said in a lowered voice, “They’re meeting the parents in there and talking about getting engaged. No matter how jealous you are, don’t make a fool of yourself.”

Then, he tried to drag me back inside, but my feet felt nailed to the ground. I couldn’t move. Instead, I kept staring into the house like I was torturing myself.

Heather Hart, the woman who was supposedly working overtime at the office, was sitting inside Liam Crossby’s home. My cold, distant girlfriend, the woman who always kept everyone at arm’s length, was now leaning intimately against another man. Her gaze was filled with a tenderness and intensity I had never received from her before.

When my gaze dropped to their intertwined fingers, I forced down the bitterness rising in my chest and sent her a message.

[Where are you right now?]

When her phone screen lit up, Heather frowned instinctively.

[What is it?]

I repeated stubbornly. [Where are you right now?]

Heather paused. Then, her eyes drifted toward Liam, and her expression softened unconsciously.

[I’m working overtime at the office. Don’t bother me if it’s not important. I’m busy.]

I tightened my grip on my phone as I watched her lie so naturally.

[Got it.]

We had been together for five years. Through countless Christmases, Thanksgivings, and New Year holidays, she had always found some excuse to avoid meeting my parents. Even this time, after I told her I planned to discuss our marriage with my family during the holiday, she used “working overtime” as an excuse and told me to go home alone.

Working overtime? At Liam’s house? And somehow she had worked her way into becoming his girlfriend, too?

I grabbed a brick from the roadside and looked at Anthony after taking a deep breath.

“Didn’t you want to meet my girlfriend? Well, you’re about to.”

The car window instantly shattered with a crash, and the piercing alarm echoed through the entire neighborhood. The commotion outside finally alerted the people inside the house.

Anthony stared at me and shook his head.

“You’ve seriously lost your mind! Even if your girlfriend can’t compare to someone else’s, you shouldn’t take your anger out on innocent people!”

I ignored him and kept my eyes fixed on Heather, whose expression had finally changed. This time, what excuse was she going to use?

In the middle of the silence, Liam suddenly walked over with a smile and casually patted my shoulder.

“Ethan, perfect timing. Heather and I were just talking about you. We all work at the same company, and we’re friends anyway. When we get married, you have to be my best man.”

I shoved his hand away and looked directly at Heather, asking, “Married?”

Seeing the awkward look on Liam’s face, Heather finally stepped forward and lowered her voice.

“It’s not what you think. Please just cooperate for once.”

Liam immediately nodded and pulled out his phone to show me their chat history.

“My family’s been pressuring me to get married,” he explained. “So I came up with this idea and asked Heather to pretend to be my girlfriend to get them off my back. Ethan, don’t overthink it.”

As I stared at the transfer record of five hundred dollars in the chat, Liam cleared his throat awkwardly and whispered, “That was a payment to Heather for helping me with this act.”

The way he kept calling her “Heather” so naturally felt like needles stabbing into my ears.

With a frown, Heather blamed me. “Now that we’ve explained everything, can you stop making a scene?”

I was so angry that I almost laughed at how justified she sounded.

“My girlfriend refuses to meet my parents, but she’s willing to pretend to be another guy’s fiancée instead, and I’m not allowed to be upset?”

Heather’s expression darkened, disappointment filling her voice. “His parents have been pressuring him to get a girlfriend. Sometimes, he gets so anxious that he can’t even answer their calls, and when he goes home, he has to deal with all the pressure from relatives, too. Can’t you show him a little sympathy?”