Chapter 2

The pain in her voice made my heart jolt. Wasn’t everything she said exactly what I had gone through all these years?

Ever since we started dating, my parents had only ever seen photos of her. She had never even agreed to a single video call with them. All my relatives knew I had a girlfriend I’d been dating for five years who had never once shown up in person, and behind my back, the things they said were even harsher than Anthony’s insults.

The pressure I had endured was a hundred times worse than what Liam had faced, and Heather knew all of it. Yet, she left me alone to deal with the gossip and ridicule, ignoring the pressure I had carried for five whole years. Instead, all her sympathy and concern had gone to another man.

I was just about to break up with her when Liam’s mother, Mrs. Crossby, came outside after hearing the commotion.

“What’s going on out here?” she asked as her gaze swept across us, a frown on her face. “Liam, your girlfriend–”

Liam quickly interrupted her. “Mom, this isn’t Heather’s fault.”

Then, he glanced at me awkwardly.

“Ethan’s liked Heather for a long time. That’s why he couldn’t accept our engagement and smashed the car after finding out.”

His tone sounded gentle enough, but he made sure everyone around could hear him clearly. The neighbors who had come outside to watch the commotion immediately changed the way they looked at me.

“Ethan Wright seemed like such a good kid growing up. Who knew he’d end up an adulterer?”

“So, because he couldn’t steal someone else’s girlfriend, he smashed their car? That’s terrible behavior.”

“No wonder he never brought his girlfriend home for five years. It turns out she was never his girlfriend at all.”

Heather frowned when she heard them mocking and cursing me. However, she said nothing, which meant she tacitly agreed with them, and that silence sent a chill down my spine.

Liam spoke again in a calm, generous tone. “We’re all neighbors here, so let’s just forget it. Ethan, you don’t have to pay for the damages.”

Everyone immediately started praising him for being kindhearted.

Anthony shoved me impatiently and said, “Look at how generous he is. Now, apologize instead of embarrassing yourself here.”

The smug satisfaction hidden in Liam’s eyes ignited my anger again.

I turned to Heather and said calmly, “Tell them, Heather. Am I the other man or not?”

Heather was about to answer, but the moment she saw my bloodshot eyes, her expression wavered. Then, she looked away.

“Stop making a scene. We’ll talk when we get back.”

That vague answer instantly planted doubt in everyone’s minds.

Anthony stretched out his hand. “You said you’ve been together for five years, didn’t you? In that case, hand over your phone and prove it.”

I gave him my phone. However, after scrolling for a while, his expression became stranger and stranger.

“You’re saying you dated for five years, but there isn’t a single couple photo on your social media.” He kept swiping as he clicked his tongue. “And these chat histories… why are you always the one talking? What kind of girlfriend is so cold to you?”

I looked at our messages. Most of them were long paragraphs from me, with Heather occasionally replying with a simple acknowledgement. A heavy weight pressed down on my chest.

Heather had always been distant. Whenever we were together, I would speak for one minute, and she would give me a one-word answer. She also hated taking pictures. I would secretly snap photos of us out having fun together, and she would make me delete them afterward. I had grown used to that kind of relationship, but only now did I realize just how one-sided it had always been.

After that, Liam took out his own phone. Looking slightly embarrassed, he showed everyone his screen.

“We haven’t been together that long, so there isn’t much.”

That was what he said, but the moment he opened his profile, everyone saw the freshly posted relationship announcement. In the photos, Heather posed awkwardly beside him and even made heart signs with her hands. In fact, in the last picture, she tilted her head up slightly while Liam leaned down to kiss her. The shot had clearly been taken candidly.

My mind buzzed. Stiffly, I turned toward her.

“If this is all just an act, did you really have to go that far?”

Amidst the suffocating silence, I clenched my fists tightly, as if that could somehow suppress the pain tearing through my chest.

Liam and I had never gotten along since we were kids. Back in school, I was always the “perfect child” that relatives and neighbors compared everyone to. Anthony and Liam both hated me for it, and I had always known that.

When we were teenagers, Liam stole two girlfriends from me. After that, I threw myself into studying and eventually left for a university in the capital, where Heather and I started dating. It had been five years since then, and when I saw that the company’s new intern was Liam, alarm bells immediately went off in my head. Because of that, I told Heather everything about our past.