To save her family from the predicament, she gave in to money and broke up with him. She held back the tearing pain in her chest and watched him leave away. Seven years later, when she met him again, there was no love for her in his eyes. He only came to see her for a deal. He needed her kidney to save another woman. However, she still had feelings for him and wanted to take this chance to come back to him.
Joyce Lu was dreaming. Her dream played a scene she thought she had completely forgotten.
On a street by the school, the sun was shining brightly. While a tree provided her with shade, she didn't feel any better. It just made her feel stuffy.
By noon, the sun was directly overhead, scorching the pavement. Two lone figures stood under the tree. One was Joyce herself, and the other was the mother of Braydon Huo, her boyfriend.
The lady pursed her lips disdainfully.
"Joyce, I can give you three million to help the Lu family get out of their current predicament. However, there's one condition: l want you to leave my son." The lady waved a check wedged between her two manicured fingers in front of Joyce's face. "Break up with him," she said in a low voice, carefully enunciating each word.
Perhaps it was because the sun was dazzlingly bright that Joyce's eyes stung. But she smiled at the lady sweetly. "No, Aunt. I love Braydon. I'm not in it for the money."
"Love?"
The lady scoffed. Such sentiment was useless.
"Let me put it this way. What's more important, the Lu family's future or your love?"
Her biting words made all the color drain from Joyce's face. The lady smiled at her condescendingly and gently touched her hair. "Your parents have been good to you ever since you were a child. Doesn't that mean anything to you?
Let me make this easy for you. You can protect your parents' lifetime efforts by abandoning a dispensable relationship. This deal is actually worth it."
Joyce wanted to refute her words, but in that moment, she felt as though her throat was choked with cotton.
Her parents' sighs had not gone unheard. She knew the difficulties they were going through. Closing her eyes to stop her tears from falling, Joyce said calmly, "Okay, I'll do it."
When she took the check, the picture in front of her suddenly wrinkled into distortion. The lady's face transformed into that of Braydon.
She was no longer on the street by the school. Instead, she was in a club, wearing a figure-hugging dress. Sitting calmly amidst the chaos in the bar, she lit a cigarette. Standing in front of her was a livid Braydon.
"What's going on, Joyce? Explain, now!" He jabbed a finger at the unconscious man on the floor, whom he had knocked out seconds earlier.
It was her first time to smoke, but somehow, she was a natural at it. She took a deep drag on the cigarette and breathed out the smoke slowly. "Nothing. I just almost had sex with someone behind your back. But you found me out before we even got around to it."
"You almost had sex with someone else?"
With a crazed look in his eyes, Braydon fixed his gaze on the hickey on Joyce's neck. Gritting his teeth, he said in a sharp tone, "Oh, you're so honest. It makes me sick."
The slender fingers holding the cigarette trembled slightly. Joyce flipped her hair and smiled charmingly. "Thank you for the compliment."
Braydon couldn't believe his ears. He wanted to vomit. "Joyce, we're over. Never show your face to me again. I can't bear seeing a bitch who has slept with countless men."
Then he turned around abruptly and left the club.
The sound of the door slamming shut was deafening. Joyce choked, and the pungent smell of smoke made her cough violently.
There was a searing pain in her chest. She curled up and a tear silently made its way down her cheek.
"I heard you're going to marry Marcelo. Is this perhaps your revenge against me? It's very laughable, Renee. That man can barely function." Her foster family, her cheating ex, everyone thought Renee was going to live in pure hell after getting married to a disabled and cruel man. She didn't know if anything good would ever come out of it after all, she had always thought it would be hard for anyone to love her but this cruel man with dark secrets is never going to grant her a divorce because she makes him forget how to breathe.
"I stood at the edge of my heart and watched him choose her. In the end, I was not the one he needed. I was simply the one he settled for." - Noelle ~~~~~~~ I thought I was the one he loved. But a few days before our wedding, I saw him in a way I never had before. His eyes softened as he spoke to her. His first love, and the very woman who had left him in pieces. Heartbreak was something I knew too well. And as I watched the love he still held for her in his eyes, I realized what I had to do. I couldn't marry a man who wasn't truly mine. With no means to cancel the wedding and lacking the courage to confront him, I made a desperate choice to leave. I painfully gave his first love my treasured engagement ring thinking it was for the best and the only way to free myself. But when he saw that ring on her finger, the fragile world I had tried to escape began to shatter. His obsession to find me and bring me back ignited a dangerous game of cat and mouse.
For three years, Shane and Yvonne were wed, sharing heated nights, while his devotion clung to his ex. Yvonne strove to be a dutiful wife, yet their marriage felt hollow, built on desire rather than real warmth. All changed when she became pregnant, only for Shane to thrust her onto the operating table, warning, “Either you or the baby survives!” Broken by his cruelty, she vanished in grief and later returned, radiantly accomplished, leaving everyone awestruck. Haunted by remorse, Shane begged for another chance, but Yvonne only smiled and replied, “I’m sorry, men no longer interest me.”
In order to fulfill her grandfather's last wish, Stella entered into a hasty marriage with an ordinary man she had never met before. However, even after becoming husband and wife on paper, they each led separate lives, barely crossing paths. A year later, Stella returned to Seamarsh City, hoping to finally meet her mysterious husband. To her astonishment, he sent her a text message, unexpectedly pleading for a divorce without ever having met her in person. Gritting her teeth, Stella replied, "So be it. Let’s get a divorce!" Following that, Stella made a bold move and joined the Prosperity Group, where she became a public relations officer that worked directly for the company’s CEO, Matthew. The handsome and enigmatic CEO was already bound in matrimony, and was known to be unwaveringly devoted to his wife in private. Unbeknownst to Stella, her mysterious husband was actually her boss, in his alternate identity! Determined to focus on her career, Stella deliberately kept her distance from the CEO, although she couldn't help but notice his deliberate attempts to get close to her. As time went on, her elusive husband had a change of heart. He suddenly refused to proceed with the divorce. When would his alternate identity be uncovered? Amidst a tumultuous blend of deception and profound love, what destiny awaited them?
Lucia Balstone thought she had chosen the right man to spend the rest of her life with, but he was the one who ended her life. Their ten-year marriage seemed like a joke when her husband stabbed her with a dagger. Fortunately, God is never blind to people's tears. Lucia got a second chance. She was reborn at the age of 22, before all the terrible things had happened. This time, she was determined to avenge herself and let those who hurt her pay! She made an elaborate list of her goals, and the first thing on her list was to marry her ex-husband's enemy, Alonso Callen!
Rachel used to think that her devotion would win Brian over one day, but she was proven wrong when his true love returned. Rachel had endured it all—from standing alone at the altar to dragging herself to the hospital for an emergency treatment. Everyone thought she was crazy to give up so much of herself for someone who didn’t return her feelings. But when Brian received news of Rachel’s terminal illness and realized she didn’t have long to live, he completely broke down. "I forbid you to die!" Rachel just smiled. She no longer needed him. "I will finally be free."