Chapter 2

2.

I looked back and saw my beautiful fiancée, Elena, walking gracefully toward me.

The moment I saw her, the anger in my heart vanished entirely. I smiled brightly and opened my arms to her.

Elena naturally wrapped her arms around my waist.

Then, she greeted my friends, who were all staring at us. "I'm so sorry, traffic was terrible on the way here, so I'm a bit late."

My friends all smiled and replied, "No worries at all! Holden, aren't you going to introduce us?"

I looked at her with soft eyes and a warm smile. "This is my fiancée, Elena."

Everyone politely said hello to her.

Brody looked at her, then at me, looking a bit surprised.

"Wow, these two are the ones actually wearing matching outfits."

Elena smiled and explained, "Holden designed them. When you put the cuffs together, it makes a complete heart."

Saying that, she took my hand and pressed our cuffs together to show everyone.

Right then, a highly inappropriate voice ruined the moment.

Chloe mocked us coldly.

"Holden, do you really think you can trigger me by paying some random woman? Keep dreaming!"

I didn't want to waste my breath on her, so I directly leaned in and kissed Elena to prove it was real.

Chloe's face instantly turned pale, but she continued to glare at us furiously.

She gritted her teeth and yelled, "Holden, you deliberately hired an actress to kiss you just to force me to change my mind? You are totally despicable!"

I pulled away from Elena, who playfully punched my chest with flushed cheeks.

I lovingly tapped her nose before turning to Chloe with a freezing gaze. "Chloe, you really think too highly of yourself. You are ancient history to me."

But it was like Chloe couldn't understand human language.

She firmly believed that this entire scene today was just an act I put on to force her into marriage.

However, our friends didn't see it that way.

With our childhood bond and an objective viewpoint, they could clearly tell that my feelings for Elena were genuine.

Maybe it was out of pity for my seven-year relationship with Chloe.

Or maybe it was because Chloe was still a girl they grew up with.

Brody hesitated for a moment before saying, "Chloe, stop throwing a fit. Holden is..."

He paused, then turned to me. "Holden, you and Chloe were together for seven years. Let's just drop this, or things are going to get really ugly."

Chloe sneered, "Let him act! I want to see what other cheap tricks he can pull out of his ass!"

My face instantly dropped.

"Elena is my fiancée, and you guys are my friends. I don't ever want to hear those kinds of words from your mouths again, or this friendship is over!"

Before Chloe could throw another fit, I decided to just rip the band-aid off. "Chloe, since you won't let this go, don't blame me for humiliating you!"

I took out my phone, pulled up a photo from a year ago, and showed it to everyone.

In the photo, Chloe was half-naked, straddling a man.

She was holding his head with both hands while he was working hard between her soft thighs.

My friends were all utterly shocked.

Chloe's expression shifted drastically. She desperately tried to snatch my phone. "Delete it! Delete it right now!"

I easily dodged her and said loudly, "You are the one who cheated first, and we broke up a long time ago! What the hell are you screaming about now?"

Wyatt suddenly spoke up. "I remember now. I hosted a party at the club that night. Holden wasn't going to come, but I begged him to."

"I went to the door to greet him, and as soon as we walked in, we saw Chloe..."

Wyatt couldn't finish his sentence, but his testimony proved I wasn't lying.

Chloe cheating on me was real, and our breakup was real too.

I still remembered that day vividly. I had just signed a massive business deal with a five-figure commission.

I was trying to figure out the best way to celebrate with Chloe when Wyatt invited me to his party.

I hadn't seen the guys in a while, so I agreed right away and asked Chloe well in advance if she was free.

Chloe promised me she would go with me.

But when the time came, I couldn't reach her no matter how hard I tried.

I completely lost my mood and just canceled on the guys.

If Wyatt hadn't kept calling me a terrible friend for ditching them, I wouldn't have gone at all.

But if I hadn't shown up that night, I would never have caught Chloe cheating red-handed.

And I wouldn't have been able to climb out of that toxic abyss in time.

At the end of the day, I was truly grateful.

Even though the withdrawal process of losing her was absolute agony at first.

But now, it was all in the past.

After that night, I unilaterally broke up with her.

I blocked her on every single platform and moved out of the apartment we shared.

And Chloe never once reached out to me over the past year.

Once, I was on a business trip and bumped into her at a hotel.

She treated me like a total stranger and just walked right past me.

I thought the breakup was a mutual, unspoken understanding.

I never expected Chloe to be this relentless today.