Chapter 1

Prologue

On the eve of our wedding, my fiancé decided I was too conservative and boring, and cheated on me with an A-list actress.

He was certain I loved him so desperately that I would never escape his grasp in this lifetime. He even told me to give up our wedding to his new love.

What he didn’t know was that at that very same wedding, I married the older brother he feared and respected most—Alexander Foster.

Sylvia Bennett’s POV

There wasn’t a single person in Los Angeles who didn’t know that Zachary Foster loved me to death.

When I was fifteen, I was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder. Hematology experts across the country were helpless.

Even my parents had started secretly looking at cemetery plots.

But Zachary refused to give up.

He had the Foster family use every connection they had, chartered a plane to bring in a team of top specialists from Europe, and dragged me back from the gates of hell.

In half a month, we were supposed to get married.

Today was the day I was promoted to Chief Attending Cardiothoracic Surgeon. A double blessing.

A chief attending physician at twenty-eight—the youngest in the entire state.

Zachary said he would celebrate for me at a private club tonight and told me to get there early.

But in the afternoon, an emergency surgery came in at the last minute.

By the time I left the operating room, it was almost seven.

Holding back my exhaustion, I rushed to the private club without daring to waste even a second.

When I reached the door of the private room, it was slightly ajar, not fully closed.

Laughter and chatter, mixed with the smell of alcohol, spilled out from inside.

I reached out to push the door open, only to hear my own name.

“Good thing Sylvia Bennett had surgery and got held up. Otherwise, Yvonne would’ve been exposed today.”

My hand froze on the doorknob.

“Exactly. Yvonne has way too much guts. Zachary threw this promotion dinner for Sylvia Bennett, and she still dared to show up. She’s an A-list actress—doesn’t she worry about getting photographed and ending up on the trending topics?”

“If she weren’t bold, would she have been able to steal Zachary away?”

A burst of laughter exploded.

“Speaking of which, how are Zachary and Yvonne still not done? It’s been two hours!”

“What’s the rush? Zachary is that intense, and Yvonne is wild and knows exactly how to flirt. Isn’t it normal for her to get him going a few more rounds?”

“But Zachary really has guts. Going at it hot and heavy in the private room next door, and he’s not afraid Sylvia Bennett might suddenly show up.”

“What’s there to be afraid of? Sylvia Bennett trusts Zachary so much, she’d never even think in that direction. Last time Zachary went to see a movie with Sylvia Bennett, Yvonne was sitting on Zachary’s other side. Zachary used one hand right there and made Yvonne cry, and Sylvia Bennett didn’t notice a thing.”

I stood outside the door, cold from head to toe.

So that was how it was.

These past few months, he had said every few days that the company had a project, that he had to work overtime, that he wouldn’t be home all night.

In the middle of dates, a single phone call would summon him away.

Last month, I came back from a business trip. My flight landed in the early hours of the morning, in a downpour.

He had said he would come pick me up. He was almost there when he messaged me, saying there was an urgent matter at the company and telling me to take a cab myself.

I dragged my suitcase and waited in the storm for forty minutes for a car, still feeling sorry that he was working so hard.

So there had been no urgent matter at the company.

So all those late-night emergencies had been happening in his new lover’s bed.

And that movie.

For the first time in over a decade, he didn’t hold my hand.

Halfway through, he went to the restroom twice. After the movie ended, he said something had happened at the company and told me to go home first.

That night, he didn’t come home either.

So the hand that hadn’t held mine had been on the woman beside him.

So while I sat on his left watching the movie, he was making another woman cry on his right.

The casual conversation in the private room continued.

“Sylvia Bennett is such a good person. Isn’t Zachary afraid he’ll drive her away?”

“Oh, shut up. With Zachary’s status, what man doesn’t have a few women around him? Zachary finally found someone he likes. Stop saying unlucky things.”

“Exactly. Zachary said it himself. Sylvia Bennett is too conservative. After all these years of having sex, she doesn’t even change positions. Who wouldn’t get bored after a while? Yvonne is different. She has all kinds of tricks, she lets loose, and she’s fiery too!”

“Enough, enough. We just need to keep our mouths shut. Zachary may be playing around, but anyone can see his love for Sylvia Bennett is carved into his bones. He won’t marry anyone but her.”

My ears buzzed, and every sound receded into the distance.

It felt as if a hand had grabbed my heart and wrung it hard. Pain spread through my veins and into my limbs.

I used to be the most pampered heiress in Los Angeles.

Street racing, horse racing—I was flamboyant and reckless, unable to tolerate even a speck of sand in my eyes.

When I was eighteen, Bennett Group’s capital chain snapped, and the company collapsed overnight.

My father jumped from the top floor of an office building.

My mother couldn’t take the blow and suffered a heart attack on the spot. From then on, she was hospitalized for years.

Everyone who used to circle around me changed their faces. The snickering at cocktail parties and the mocking remarks in newspapers came down on me from every direction.

It was Zachary who announced our engagement at the height of the storm.

The red carpet stretched the full length of Chang’an Avenue — a famous central thoroughfare in a historic Chinese downtown district. Blooms lined the three-kilometer stretch from the hotel’s front doors all the way to the church.

He brought out the full grandeur of the Foster family, and the entire city was stunned.

Holding my hand beneath the crystal chandelier, he said to everyone,

“Sylvia Bennett is my fiancée. If anyone dares touch a single hair on her head, they answer to me first.”

From that day on, no one dared mock me to my face again.

His friends all called me Sylvia Bennett and accepted me.

But I knew I was no longer the young lady who could act however she wanted.

I tucked away all my edges and my temper, learning to become a flawless, perfect fiancée.

At banquets, I knew when to advance and retreat. In front of elders, I was respectful and proper, hiding every emotion behind a poised smile.

I thought that was how I could repay him.

In the end, not only did he betray me, he also let a group of his friends humiliate me with the most intimate details of our sex life.

He disliked that I was conservative.

He disliked that I was boring.

Then he turned around and held a wild, fiery actress in his arms, having sex with her next door to the promotion dinner he had thrown for me.

My blood burned from my chest all the way to the top of my head.

If he looked down on me like this,

then I didn’t need to keep pretending anymore.

I turned around and walked, step by step, toward the private room next door.

I pushed the door open.

On the sofa, a woman lay pinned underneath, completely naked.

The man’s shirt was open, his suit pants hanging loosely on his hips. Broad shoulders, narrow waist—his hips moved deep and hard.

The woman’s moans were sweet, sticky, and seductive, her legs wrapped around the man’s waist.

At the sound of the door opening, the woman shrieked and shrank into the man’s arms.

Without even turning his head, the man shielded her, his tone displeased.

“No manners. Get out.”

I didn’t move.

By the light of the wall lamp, I recognized that face.

Yvonne Hayes, the actress who had risen to fame the fastest in the past six months.

From an unknown D-lister no one could even identify, she had shot all the way up to A-list. Films by acclaimed directors, S-tier variety shows, luxury endorsements—one after another. Her airport candids were on the trending topics every day.

The entire internet was guessing who her powerful backer was.

Even someone like me, who didn’t care about the entertainment industry, knew her.

Now there was no need to guess. Her sugar daddy was currently on top of her.

The man noticed I hadn’t left and turned around.

The moment he saw me clearly, every trace of color drained from his face.

“Sylvia—”

I stepped forward and slapped him across the face.

The crisp sound exploded in the room, and his face snapped to the side.

“Where did this crazy woman come from? How dare you hit Mr. Foster?!”

Yvonne screamed, grabbed a wine bottle from the table, and smashed it down toward my head.

The bottle shattered. Wine mixed with warm liquid ran down from my temple.

“Sylvia!”

Zachary cried out, panic in his voice, and hurried toward me.

The more he cared about me like that, the more my heart hurt.

Without hesitation, I bent down, picked up the longest shard of glass from the floor, and stabbed it back toward Yvonne’s neck.

The shard snapped the diamond necklace around her neck and cut a gash along the side of her throat.

With a clatter, the necklace scattered all over the floor.

Yvonne was terrified out of her mind, screaming as she stumbled backward again and again.

“Sylvia Bennett! Are you insane?!”

Zachary seized the shard in one grip. The glass dug deep into his palm, and blood instantly gushed out.

He didn’t even look at his own hand. His eyes were only on Yvonne.

“Yvonne, are you okay? Let me see the wound.”

Then he swung his arm hard and flung me away.

I staggered and fell to the floor, my palms landing on shards of glass scattered everywhere. Blood poured out.

Zachary grabbed some clothes and wrapped them around Yvonne, then lifted her into his arms.

“I’ll take you to the hospital.”

Holding her, he strode away without looking at me again.

The private room fell silent.

I sat on the floor, staring at my mangled palms.

Blood from my forehead dripped onto the carpet one drop at a time, and my head felt heavy and dazed.

I remembered the year I interned in college. In the lab, a needle pricked my skin, and a tiny bead of blood appeared on my fingertip.

Zachary’s face turned white. Without a word, he dragged me to the hospital and insisted the doctor give me a full set of tests.

The doctor on duty stared at the pinprick-sized wound on my finger and held back for a long time without daring to roll his eyes.

That was the kind of person he was.

If I shed even one drop of blood, his heart would ache like crazy.

It was still the same now.

Only the person whose pain he felt sorry for had changed.

I casually wiped the blood from my face and hands and walked out of the private room.

I knew very well that one thing that group of people had said was true. Zachary would marry no one but me.

He had told me countless times, Sylvia, in this life, you can only marry me. Aside from me, no one else will do.

In high school, a boy handed me a love letter.

The next day, that boy transferred schools and never appeared in Los Angeles again.

The year I went abroad for an exchange program, Zachary flew more than ten hours every week to see me, saying he couldn’t sleep if he went a day without seeing me.

He once said that even if I ran to the ends of the earth, he would chase me back.

He would not let me go.

Besides, the wedding was in half a month. The invitations had been sent all over Los Angeles. The hotel, the wedding attire, the officiant—everything was ready.

The Foster family would never allow me to call off the wedding and drag the Foster family’s reputation through the mud.

I drove straight to the Foster family estate.

“Grandpa.”

I entered the study of Zachary Foster’s grandfather, Richard Foster, and knelt down without hesitation.

“Sylvia? What happened to you? Who hurt you?”

“Grandpa.” I knelt with my back straight and looked up at him. “I don’t want to marry Zachary Foster anymore.”

Richard Foster stared at me for a long while, his brows knitting tightly.

“Nonsense!”

His face darkened.

“The invitations went out three months ago, and now you’re telling me you won’t marry him? Where does that leave the Foster family’s reputation?”

“I watched you grow up. You are the granddaughter-in-law I chose. No matter how wronged you’ve been, Grandpa will stand up for you. But the wedding cannot be changed.”

“Grandpa, you’ve misunderstood.”

I shook my head.

“The wedding will go on as planned. The invitations don’t need to be changed, and neither does the date.”

Richard Foster frowned at me.

“Then what do you mean?”

I looked straight into his eyes and said, word by word,

“I just want to ask you to help me find out whether Alexander Foster is willing to marry me.”