Chapter 4

This year, however, would be the last.

I sat alone in the restaurant, watching the minutes tick by as more than half an hour passed beyond the time we had agreed to meet. Liam was still nowhere to be seen.

Just as I was about to call him, fireworks suddenly exploded across the sky outside the restaurant, one burst after another forming the words, "Happy Birthday, Hailey!"

Everyone in the restaurant was immediately drawn to the spectacle, and when I followed their gazes, I finally found the man who had kept me waiting.

Liam was dressed in a suit, holding a bouquet of roses as he knelt on one knee in front of Hailey and proposed to her, while the giant screen on a nearby building began cycling through engagement photos of the two of them.

"Mr. Carter really went all out. That screen costs a million a minute, and he rented the whole thing."

"But I thought Mr. Carter's girlfriend looked different."

"What girlfriend? Rich men have their fun. A woman like that is just a mistress. This is the real one. They grew up together, and they're about to get married."

Their comments reached me one after another, and every word sounded painfully ironic.

So tonight had never really been about our tenth anniversary. It was about Hailey's birthday, along with an elaborate proposal party for her.

I let out a soft sigh, tossed the gift I had prepared into the trash, and got up to leave.

Before I could make it far, Hailey, the lady of the hour, appeared in front of me.

The gentle, innocent expression she always wore around Liam was nowhere to be seen, replaced by a provocative smile.

"I heard today's your tenth anniversary with Liam. Want to know the truth? He doesn't remember it at all. The only reason he remembered you even existed was because it happens to be my birthday."

If this had happened in the past, I probably would have already lost my temper and gotten into a fight with her.

"Is that so? Then I wish you two all the happiness in the world. Hope you have enough kids to field a soccer team."

I smiled, pushed past her, and turned to leave, but Hailey suddenly lost her footing and fell hard onto the floor, knocking over the champagne on the table and spilling it all over herself.

Before I even had time to react, Liam rushed over and saw her sitting there.

"Nora! Are you done making a scene?"

Without asking what had happened, he grabbed me by the collar and shoved me hard into the edge of a table. Broken glass drove into my palm, and blood immediately began pouring from the wound.

"I already told you I'd handle the engagement. Why do you still have to hurt Hailey?"

The shards were still embedded in my hand, sending sharp pain through my entire body.

Before I could even explain myself, Hailey, who didn't have a single visible injury, suddenly clutched her chest and began gasping for air.

Liam panicked instantly. His hands trembled as he called his driver, and his eyes actually turned red with fear.

"Don't you know Hailey has asthma? She's delicate. She's not like you!"

He roared at me, pouring all of his anger and frustration onto me as though everything were my fault.

"If you want to get married that badly, then go marry someone else! I'm never marrying you! Get out, and stop showing up where I can see you."

Everyone around us was watching the spectacle, while the pain in my palm gradually faded into numbness.

As I watched Liam leave with Hailey, my heart still gave one last painful throb despite everything that had happened.

I took a deep breath and said softly, "Liam, on this day that would've marked our ten years together, let's break up."

I didn't know whether he heard those final words. The only response I received was the cloud of dust kicked up by the car as it drove away.

I booked the earliest flight out and left this whole mess behind.

As I was about to board, Liam's video calls kept coming in one after another. After I blocked him, he started using unfamiliar numbers to send me message after message.

"Where are you? Can you stop throwing a tantrum already?"

The messages were still coming when I finally tossed my phone into the trash.