Chapter 1

I was an orphan saved by Ethan Reed.

He cherished me, adored me, made me the most envied girl in the city---yet he never married me.

That day, I overheard him talking to his best friend about me.

His tone was indifferent.

"She's just an orphan with no status. How could I possibly marry her?"

At his grand wedding to a high-society woman, my uncle arranged for me to marry far away.

I got into the car leaving town.

That day, he abandoned everything and chased after me, just to tell me---he regretted it.

"Clara, I promise you. I'll marry him."

When I calmly made this decision, Clara froze.

She gripped my hand tightly.

"Sophia, are you sure about this?"

I nodded gently.

"It's what I want. I'm not planning to marry Ethan Reed anymore."

I understood why Clara was shocked.

I'd been frail and sickly since childhood.

William and Clara took pity on me and kept me by their side, never pressuring me about marriage.

But now I was almost twenty-five.

In this city, if I couldn't marry my childhood sweetheart Ethan Reed, everyone would see me as a spinster who'd aimed too high and ended up with nothing.

But after how he treated me publicly, not only would no one in the entire city dare marry me---I'd become a laughingstock behind closed doors.

Leaving this city was the only dignified way out.

I lowered my head, accidentally cutting my finger on a piece of fruit.

Blood dripped onto the floor, a dull ache spreading.

Clara sighed.

"If Ethan Reed isn't the right man, then we won't marry him."

My thoughts drifted.

Was Ethan Reed really not the right man?

No.

He just wasn't the right man for me.

That year, my father and brother died on duty.

My mother followed them in grief.

William and Clara took me in.

They never touched my family's death benefits or inheritance---they only hoped to find me a good future.

One day, I went out alone to choose a birthday gift for Clara.

A criminal dragged me into a dead-end alley.

At that critical moment, Ethan Reed happened to be on leave from the military.

He drove past the alley entrance and rescued me from the criminal just in time, subduing him.

"Miss, are you okay?"

I'll never forget that day.

The young man reached out his hand to my terrified self, a smile slowly spreading across his eyes.

Ethan Reed fixed my disheveled hair and personally took me home.

"Sophia, from now on, I'll be by your side. No one will dare bully you again."

He pitied me for losing both parents and being sickly.

From that day on, he often stayed by my side, bringing me all kinds of novel gifts, making me happy.

On my fourteenth birthday, he personally gave me a necklace he designed himself.

The pendant was engraved with both our names.

The seeds of young love quietly sprouted day by day.

I even took it for granted that Ethan Reed was my destined person.

I once tentatively asked him what would happen if I couldn't find the right person when I came of age.

He answered without hesitation.

"So what? I'll just marry you then."

I believed him.

I kept those words in my heart.

Under Ethan Reed's protection, he pampered me into the most enviable girl in the city.

After I came of age, I had plenty of suitors, but William politely declined them all.

At a family banquet, William turned away those who came asking about me.

"My Sophia is still young and doesn't understand anything. Please forgive us."

Ethan Reed, usually casual and easygoing, laughed heartily.

"Not at all. Didn't Sophia just make that kind of joke in front of me the other day?"

The whole table fell silent.

I gripped my fork tightly, my face burning.

That time when we were alone together, I'd blurted out something flirtatious without thinking.

That kind of private joke was now being aired publicly at the dinner table.

A girl from a scholarly family leaving such a frivolous impression---everyone assumed Ethan Reed would definitely marry me.

Gradually no one came asking anymore.

Even William almost tacitly approved of this marriage, allowing him in and out of the house like family.

I kept waiting.

The first year, he was new to the military.

He promised to propose to my parents once he achieved something.

The second year, he became an officer.

He promised to give me the best of everything once he was stable.

The third year, he received his military rank.

He said when he returned, he'd marry me as his only wife.

By the sixth year, that young man who once fixed my hair had grown into a valiant, distinguished soldier.

He was stationed at the border year-round on missions.

Each time he returned, he'd come see me first.

But after returning from the border that time, there was no word from him for ages.

I waited joyfully for him to fulfill his promise, but he never came.

Until Isabella Sullivan appeared.

On a bridge by the lake on a drizzly day, I witnessed Ethan Reed personally fastening a pendant to her bag.

The next moment, he took the woman's hand of his own accord.