Chapter 1

“I can’t pretend to love Lalita anymore! She’s stupid, her body sucks, and doesn’t even know how to take care of herself! How did she even end up as your sister?”

Thump!

Her fiance’s voice froze Lalita’s body. She’s in a private room of an all-you-can-eat restaurant, called RUMI.

She stopped grilling the meat and turned off the stove.

Her eyes immediately darted to the source of the voice, desperately hoping she had heard wrong. But there is not a mistake.

She found Aldo with her stepsister!

They are in the private room right next to Lalita’s. The slightly ajar door allowed Lalita to see both of them clearly.

Still unaware of Lalita’s presence, the two were locked in an intimate hug.

“This year, Dad is going to retire. He promised to give me the company he built with Lalita’s mother because Lalita doesn’t want to continue the business and wants to focus on you,” Citra explained. “So just be patient, okay?”

“But what if he retires after Lalita and I get married? I don’t want to marry her! I want to marry you.”

“Babyyyy... Come on...” Citra whined coquettishly. She took both of Aldo’s hands and gently kissed them.

Lalita’s hands clenched tightly as she watched the scene.

All this time, she had been lied to!

Aldo had always told her that he wanted a wife who would stay at home and devote her life to taking care of the household, her husband, and their children.

That was why Lalita had desperately taken cooking classes, sewing lessons, flower-arranging courses, and many others, spending a fortune of her father’s money in the process.

She had even quit her job just to become the “ideal” woman Aldo wanted.

But who would have thought this had all been part of a scheme between him and her own sister?

They had even painted Lalita as the obstacle and the wicked villain standing in the way of their love.

The woman smiled bitterly, laughing at her own foolishness for believing Aldo when he had pursued her so relentlessly.

Lalita had even helped Aldo and Citra with their university assignments and had gone as far as joining her father’s company. All while she herself was busy with a different and more demanding major.

As if that weren’t enough, she now had to hear another lie from her sister’s mouth.

“Help me, Aldo. If she finds out that you love me, she’ll definitely hurt me and Mom,” Citra said in a trembling voice, pretending to be frightened.

“She’s stupid, sweetheart. She wouldn’t be able to hurt you.”

“Are you falling in love with her?” Citra accused, tears streaming down her face. “I’ve told you so many times, haven’t I? Whenever you’re not around, that’s when her true colors come out. She’s not as nice as you think. She’s evil! She’s been horrible to me and Mom. Even though we have a right to it.”

Citra’s fake tears made Aldo look furious.

Seeing that, Lalita shook her head in disbelief.

When had she ever been cruel to Citra and her stepmother?

All this time, Lalita had treated them well.

And now they were talking about rights?

Lalita scoffed inside. What rights?

Citra’s mother had been nothing more than an ordinary housewife. She had only started living comfortably after marrying Lalita’s father, a successful IT consulting entrepreneur.

In fact, the company had been built from the ground up by Lalita’s father and biological mother before her mother passed away.

How dare they talk about “rights”?

Her stepmother had contributed absolutely nothing to building the company!

All Wita had done throughout her marriage was take care of her husband, attend social gatherings, and go to Pilates classes. The woman had never even done the laundry or cooked, let alone taken the children to and from school!

She had simply enjoyed Lalita’s father’s hard work without ever knowing what it took to earn money.

Citra must have manipulated Aldo, Lalita thought, finally losing her patience.

As painful as it was, she’s ready to call off the engagement.

But she felt she had to clear her name of these accusations first.

Then, Aldo’s final words stopped her dead in her tracks.

“Unfortunately, the poison didn’t manage to kill Lalita,” Aldo said coldly.

Lalita’s heart pounded violently.

“Poison?” she whispered in disbelief.

Her entire world seemed to come to a standstill.

With what little composure she had left, she put on a mask and walked out of the restaurant.

Unfortunately, Lalita was too afraid to go home as well.

She wasn’t sure she could face her father’s questions if he saw her tear-streaked face.

What about her apartment?

Aldo would surely look for her there.

Then, Lalita suddenly remembered the place where she had spent her childhood...

Bandung.

She could use getting some time away as an excuse to go there while also looking for the nearest hospital to get herself checked.

Lalita quickly booked a high-speed train ticket and reserved a room at the nearest four-star hotel.

But, there’s no denying that the betrayal still cuts deeply.

Even after she arrived at the hotel, she cried until her vision blurred, and then...

“Aaawww!”

Lalita stumbled and fell after crashing into someone.

“Are you okay?”

The deep baritone of a man’s voice made her gasp.