The day the mistress my fiancé had been keeping outside finally gave birth, he brought the newborn baby to me. He presented the child as my birthday gift. In front of everyone we knew, Carter Sterling looked me in the eye and asked if this baby was enough to finally make me give up on him. At that exact moment, I realized with absolute certainty that there was no future for us. So, after chasing him for seven long years, I chose to walk away. Seeing my surrender, Carter didn't even spare a glance at the infant. He reached out, his touch intoxicatingly gentle, and brushed his fingers through my hair. "Chloe, it doesn't matter who you fall for next. Your Carter will help you win his heart." Later, when I ended up with his closest friend, the usually aloof and untouchable heir lost his mind, desperately trying to destroy the wedding everyone else was blessing. Someone told me that the girl Carter had been hiding away was pregnant. I didn't believe it. But late that night, I still found myself knocking on Carter's bedroom door after he got home. The sound of the shower echoed from inside. A minute later, Carter opened the door, a towel slung low around his waist. "Come in." I instinctively clenched my hands into fists, looking at the fiancé I had secretly loved for seven years. I stepped slowly into his room. With his damp hair messy and falling into his eyes, he lounged lazily on the sofa, casually pouring himself a glass of red wine. He looked at me standing near the door with a playful, teasing glint in his eye. "What do you need?" I stared at the tips of my toes, unsure of how to even ask the question. I had always known. Carter didn't like me. I was five years younger than him, just a fiancée forced upon him by his family. But I liked him. I liked him so much. I liked him so much that even though there was a constant, revolving door of women by his side, I never once questioned him about it. But today, after hearing that the girlfriend he had been keeping for months was pregnant, I lost my composure for the first time. I had to confront him. While I was lost in my thoughts, Carter had already walked over to me, wine glass in hand. His large, heavy hand clamped down on my chin, lifting my face with an unyielding grip. He brought the half-empty glass of wine to my lips. "Be a good girl, Chloe. Drink." A low, unexplainably excited laugh rumbled in his chest. "Tomorrow is your birthday. I prepared a special gift for you. You're going to love it." That night, I completely forgot the reason I had gone to his room in the first place. I lay in bed, my cheeks burning, listening to my heart hammering wildly against my ribs. I couldn't wait for tomorrow to arrive. Chapter 2 Carter threw an incredibly lavish birthday party for me this year, inviting practically everyone in our elite social circle. It was massive. But as the party dragged on and eventually drew to a close, the man who promised me a gift never showed up. I stood by the grand entrance, staring out into the driveway with stubborn hope. But the warm, flickering flame that had burned in my chest all night felt like it was slowly freezing into solid ice. Carter had always loathed our arranged engagement. He actively resisted it. Why would he suddenly change his personality overnight? Just as I turned around, utterly disappointed, a smooth, magnetic voice called out from the distance. "Chloe!" Dressed in a bespoke, immaculate black tuxedo, he had finally arrived. Trailing behind him was a middle-aged woman dressed like a nanny. She was holding something bundled in her arms. Carter looked at me, his eyes burning with intensity. "Did I keep you waiting? I had to go pick up your gift." Under my anxious, expectant gaze, the nanny pulled back a corner of the blanket, revealing a tiny, sleeping infant. "My newborn son, Chloe. I'm giving him to you." The smile on Carter's face vanished instantly. He stared dead at me. In the fraction of a second our eyes locked, I suddenly understood exactly what the look in his eyes meant. Before anyone in the stunned crowd could react, Carter spoke again. "Chloe, is one bastard child enough to make you finally give up on me?" "If it's not, give me a year. I'll have another one for you." I can't even describe what I felt in that moment. It was as if every emotion had been drained out of my body. I felt like a marionette with its strings brutally severed. I just stood there, completely numb. Until the sharp, echoing crack of a slap shattered the deafening silence of the ballroom. Chapter 3 Muffled groans of pain seeped through the heavy oak doors of the study. Two solid wooden canes had already been broken across his back. But Carter refused to lower his head or admit he was wrong. When I knocked and pushed the door open, Carter was kneeling on the floor, his back perfectly straight. He shot me a look of pure, chilling indifference. As if he were making sure I heard him clearly, his lips parted. "I won't marry Chloe. I'd rather die." "If you try to force me down the aisle with her again, I'll father an entire army of bastards for her to raise." Grandpa Sterling's eyes bulged with fury. He raised his heavy walking cane high into the air, ready to strike again. "How is Chloe inferior to any of those trashy women you parade around?! What exactly do you dislike about her?!" Carter turned his head. His detached, apathetic gaze landed heavily on me. Just that one look made my blood run freezing cold. We had been by each other's sides for over a decade, yet he hadn't developed even a microscopic shred of affection for me. In that moment, I knew with absolute certainty that there was no future for us. We were a dead end. "Grandpa Sterling, please cancel the engagement." I looked up, meeting the old man's heartbroken, pitying eyes, and slowly slid the heirloom jade bangle off my wrist. "I don't believe I'm inferior to anyone. If he doesn't love me, someone else will." Under my unwavering insistence, we formally returned our engagement tokens. The engagement that had tied us together for over ten years was finally, exactly as he wanted, severed. It would no longer chain him down. Carter slowly, painfully pushed himself up from the floor. A flicker of genuine shock flashed through his eyes. He never expected me to give up on him, and he definitely didn't expect me to do it so decisively. "Chloe, can you really stop yourself from clinging to me?" I nodded. Carter's gaze lingered on me, seemingly still doubting the weight of my promise. I let out a bitter, hollow laugh. "Carter... I don't love you anymore." His eyelashes fluttered. He stood in silence for a long moment before letting out a soft, almost imperceptible, "Mm." When the nanny rushed in holding the screaming, crying newborn, Carter didn't even spare his son a single glance. Instead, he closed the distance between us, destroying any path of retreat. He reached out, his touch intoxicatingly gentle, and brushed his fingers through my hair. "Chloe, it doesn't matter who you fall for next. Your Carter will help you win his heart." I didn't answer him that day. Because starting from that exact moment, I had permanently evicted him from my universe. Chapter 4 The day I moved out of the Sterling estate, I didn't take a single thing that had to do with Carter. I politely refused Grandpa Sterling's desperate pleas for me to stay. Carrying nothing but a single, medium-sized suitcase, I walked away from the house I had lived in for over ten years. But just as I reached the front gates, a young woman sprinted toward me, blocking my path. The second she looked up, I recognized her. She was the woman who had stayed by Carter's side the longest. She was the biological mother of his son. She recognized me too. She bit her bottom lip hard, helpless tears spilling over her cheeks. "Miss Davis... please, I'm begging you, don't take my baby away." She took a deep, shuddering breath, painting a perfect picture of maternal agony. "I know you hate that I'm with Carter. As long as you give my baby back... I swear I'll leave him." My heart gave a sharp, painful throb. After all the years I spent chasing Carter, in the eyes of his women, I was just the vicious, manipulative, desperate fiancée who wouldn't let go. I let out a self-deprecating laugh and was just about to speak. But Carter stepped out of a sleek black car that had just pulled into the driveway. "Don't worry. No one is taking our child." With his long strides, he closed the distance and was at the woman's side in seconds. It was as if she had instantly found her savior. She leaned weakly against his chest, tears streaming continuously down her face. Carter wrapped his arm securely around her waist and shot me a dark, warning glare. "Chloe, don't forget the promise you made." I tapped the handle of my suitcase. "Don't worry. I haven't forgotten." Carter's eyes drifted down. When they landed on my suitcase, his expression turned noticeably colder. "Hmph. Moving out the exact second the engagement is broken. People are going to think the Sterling Corporation went bankrupt and we can't afford to feed you." "Chloe, I forbid you to leave." Chapter 5 My grip on the suitcase handle tightened slightly as I met Carter's icy, hostile stare. "The engagement is over. If I stay here, that's when people will really start gossiping." With that, I stepped toward the edge of the stairs to leave. But Carter's hand shot out, wrapping around my arm in a vice grip. "I said, I forbid you to leave." To my memory, this was the first time Carter had ever truly lost his temper with me. When you don't care about someone, even giving them a passing glance feels like a waste of energy. Right now, I found myself completely unable to read the man standing in front of me. But it didn't matter what he said. I wasn't staying. I violently wrenched my arm out of his grasp and looked pointedly at the young woman behind him, who had miraculously stopped crying. "Miss Vance is right here. You should really start paying attention to boundaries, Carter." "Once you marry Miss Vance, it would be highly inappropriate for me to be living under your roof." That hit a nerve. Carter was genuinely furious now. He shoved my suitcase backward. It tumbled down the concrete steps with a loud clatter, cracking the hard shell. His jaw was clenched tight, his eyes dark and menacing. He stared at me for a long time. And then, he suddenly laughed. "Right. I almost forgot. Mia and my son are moving in today. Having you around would definitely be an eyesore." "In fact, your old bedroom will make the perfect nursery for my boy. Even if you begged to stay today, I'd throw you out. Get lost, Chloe." With that, he didn't spare me a second glance. He grabbed the hand of a visibly thrilled Mia Vance, and without looking back, walked into the mansion. SLAM. The heavy front doors shut firmly behind them. I stood alone in the driveway and slowly walked down the steps to pick up my broken suitcase. I didn't feel heartbroken. Instead, I felt a profound sense of relief. Relief that after seven years of loving Carter Sterling, I had finally, completely stopped. I straightened my spine and walked out of the gates, my steps steady, resolute, and unwavering. Chapter 6 Living on my own wasn't nearly as lonely or cold as I had imagined. My childhood friends—my core group of girls—found out I had moved out of the Sterling estate. They started making up wildly creative excuses to crash at my new place every single night. In the dead of night, the apartment was quiet. Two of my friends were sharing the bed with me, while two others were sprawled out on makeshift pallets on the floor. I don't remember who asked the question first. "Chloe... are you really, truly done with Carter?" I lay with my hands behind my head, staring blankly at the ceiling, my voice perfectly calm. "Yeah. I'm done." "My brother told me that ever since you moved out, Carter has been a dark, brooding mess. He hasn't even cracked a smile around his frat brothers." "Do you think he just realized he actually loves you, and now he's regretting everything?" I burst out laughing, sitting straight up in bed. That was easily the funniest joke I had heard all year. Realizing he loved me after over a decade? Carter's emotional processing speed would have to be slower than dial-up internet. When I finally stopped laughing, I lay back down and closed my eyes. "A daydream is more realistic than him actually loving me. Go to sleep!" One of the girls, feeling suffocated after being cooped up in my apartment for days, suggested we go out and blow off some steam. She picked the ultra-exclusive VIP club Carter frequented. I had only been there once, and I was brutally thrown out halfway through the night. Carter had literally dragged me by the collar to the club manager, forcing him to assemble the entire staff just so they could memorize my face. "This person right here. Never let her through these doors again." That night, under the scorching, judgmental stares of dozens of strangers, I was so humiliated I couldn't even lift my head. In front of outsiders, Carter had never, ever protected my dignity as his fiancée. After that incident, whenever I knew Carter was going to be somewhere, I subconsciously avoided it. But now? I wasn't living under his roof anymore. I wasn't his fiancée anymore. And most importantly, he no longer occupied any space in my heart. I could go wherever I wanted and do whatever I pleased. Seeing me nod in agreement, my friends exchanged excited glances and immediately dragged me to the vanity to do my makeup. Chapter 7 I looked at the stranger staring back at me in the mirror. She was wearing a sleek, strapless black dress and heavy, dramatic makeup. It felt incredibly foreign. For the past seven years, to get Carter to look at me for even a second longer... I had constantly, meticulously modeled myself after the girls he dated. Every single one of Carter's exes fit the "pure, innocent, and fragile" archetype. Mia Vance, the woman who had lasted the longest, was the textbook definition of it. We breezed past the bouncers and walked right into the VIP suite. But halfway through the party, the heavy doors were pushed open without warning, and a group of men swaggered in. The man walking at the very back, his face a mask of dark thunder, was Carter Sterling. The second he walked in, his eyes locked onto me like radar. His dark gaze swept over every inch of my body, taking in the dress and the makeup. Then, radiating an intense, suffocating pressure, he marched straight up to me. "Who gave you permission to be here?" This time, I didn't drop my head. I stood up, tall and confident. I wasn't afraid of him anymore. "We don't have any ties to each other anymore. Why can't I be here?" "Carter, you're stepping way out of your jurisdiction." Carter clearly hadn't expected the girl who had always been as meek and obedient as a bunny to suddenly bare her claws at him. For some inexplicable reason, it felt like something had lightly scratched at his heart. The dark, brooding anger instantly dissipated. He let out a low scoff, physically shoved the guy sitting next to me out of the way, and claimed the seat right beside me. But barely a few minutes after sitting down, Carter's leg kept "accidentally" brushing against mine. Every time I shifted away, the corner of his mouth would curl up into a smirk, and he'd close the gap again. Finally, I hit my breaking point. I practically shot up from the sofa. While the entire room watched in dead silence, I marched straight to an empty seat in the far corner of the massive booth. But the second I sat down, one of my friends leaned in and frantically whispered in my ear. "Look to your left. That's Julian Vance!" Julian Vance was the eldest son of the Vance dynasty. He finished his Ivy League degrees by age twenty and returned home to take absolute control of the Vance conglomerate. He was ruthless, cold-blooded, and entirely devoid of human empathy. And above all else, he was a massive germaphobe. No one was allowed within a three-foot radius of him. And I had just blindly thrown myself directly into his restricted zone. From across the room, Carter let out a sharp, mocking laugh, clearly anticipating my brutal, imminent humiliation. The laugh dripped with pure schadenfreude. I gingerly started to stand up, my back not even fully straightened yet. But the man sitting next to me slowly opened his closed eyes. His gaze landed on my awkward, half-standing posture. His voice was like crushed ice, yet carried a trace of lazy indifference. "You don't need to leave. Sit down."
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