Chapter 2

2

I let out a cold laugh. "Lyra, don't forget who built your career."

On screen, Lyra's shoulders slumped instantly, and she lowered her gaze with clear guilt.

Years ago, her parents died in a car crash, and her greedy relatives seized their family business.

Desperate to stay by Curtis's side, she had used her own savings to fund his master's degree abroad.

Yet, the moment she hit rock bottom, Curtis scammed the rest of her inheritance and abandoned her overseas without a second thought.

She hadn't even had enough money left to fly home and arrange her parents' funeral.

When she was at her most broken and destitute, I gave up an elite fellowship overseas to support her.

I even had a massive falling out with my parents over it.

She wanted to continue medical school, but the astronomical tuition and living costs were impossible to cover on part-time wages, no matter how many brutal shifts I pulled until my stomach gave out.

For her sake, I abandoned my dream of being an artist. I swallowed my pride and begged my parents for help, agreeing to take over the family firm in exchange for them funding every cent of her medical education.

While she studied abroad, I worked around the clock.

I fought tooth and nail to reclaim her family's company and preserve her majority shares so she would have a secure future.

After we married, I leveraged my own corporate connections to bring steady clients to her firm.

Because I loved her, I was willing to sacrifice everything.

When she hated Curtis, I systematically bought out and dismantled the startup Curtis had launched using her stolen money.

I didn't want the woman I loved to get her hands dirty with such filth.

Her hands were meant for saving lives in operating rooms.

Yet, at the very final step, she backed out.

Curtis had tracked her down and staged a dramatic suicide threat. "Lyra, I'm so sorry. I was blinded back then. Loan sharks tricked me into a high-stakes poker game, and they threatened to kidnap you if I didn't pay.

"I took the money and ran as far as possible just to draw their heat away from you. They even smashed my toes trying to get your location! I only built that company so I could hand it back to you once I found you again."

Curtis poured out rehearsed, tearful memories of their past.

"I love you. If there's an afterlife, I'll spend it making it up to you as your servant."

Then, Curtis drove a blade straight toward himself without hesitation.

Moved by the resurrected nostalgia and the sight of blood dripping from his wound, Lyra's hatred evaporated completely.

Curtis had smiled weakly at her. "I failed you in this life. I only hope we can be together in the next."

Lyra had wept uncontrollably, completely swayed by his performance.