Chapter 1

On the eve of our wedding, my parents flew in from out of town. My fiancée, Chloe Bennett, personally prepared a batch of her signature passion fruit iced tea to welcome them.

My parents and I took a single sip.

Beside Chloe, her personal bodyguard burst out laughing.

"You guys truly are a family," Garrett Briggs sneered. "Drinking toad eggs like they're passion fruit and loving every drop."

Nausea hit us instantly, and my parents and I began dry-heaving uncontrollably. Enraged, I swung my fist straight at Garrett's smug face.

Chloe shoved me back violently.

"You called Garrett a dirty toad first!" she screamed. "I'm just helping him get even!"

Garrett grinned with pure arrogance.

"Aren't your parents famous biologists?" he mocked. "You should be thanking me for giving them a live tasting experiment with real toad eggs."

I grabbed a bowl of scalding hot soup from the table and hurled it directly at Garrett. Chloe shrieked in horror and ordered the other bodyguards to pin me down and snap my arm.

"Caleb Mercer! You insulted Garrett first, and he was only defending himself!" she raged. "What right do you have to lay a finger on him?"

"If anything permanent happens to Garrett, I swear I will destroy you!"

I watched her frantically help Garrett out the door.

I turned to my pale, trembling parents.

"Help me ask her," I said quietly. "Does she still plan on marrying me?"

1

The boiling soup soaked Garrett's chest and neck, instantly turning his skin angry and red.

His eyes widened in shock, but then a gleam of calculated malice crossed his face.

Chloe loved Garrett more than her own life. Anyone who dared touch a single hair on his head would face her wrath.

Even as her fiancé, I was nothing compared to him.

Garrett gripped the edge of the dining table, his eyes brimming with fake tears.

"It was just a few toad eggs," he whimpered. "It's not like I tried to kill you and your parents."

"Chloe... am I going to be disfigured?"

Chloe turned toward the rest of her security team and roared, "Break his arm!"

Before I could react, three heavy bodyguards tackled me to the floor. One of them grabbed a solid dining chair and smashed it down onto my left arm with sickening force.

A loud crack echoed through the room.

Agony tore through my body, leaving me gasping for air and shaking violently.

Chloe walked over and kicked me hard in the ribs, her face twisted with fury.

"Listen to me, Caleb!" she hissed. "Even if Garrett told your whole family to get on your knees and lick his boots, you'd do it!"

The slimy, rancid texture of the toad eggs still coated the roof of my mouth, making me gag.

Behind me, my elderly parents were clutching the table, pale and vomiting into napkins.

Seeing them suffer such absolute humiliation broke something inside me.

Chloe glanced at my parents with a sneer.

"Don't blame me for being harsh, Mr. and Mrs. Mercer," she scoffed. "Blame your precious son for humiliating Garrett first!"

"Garrett was just helping me organize my lingerie drawer, and Caleb called him a dirty toad lusting after a swan!"

I let out a bitter, choked laugh.

Organizing her lingerie? Garrett had been caught rubbing her underwear against his face!

Garrett chimed in with a soft, pathetic tone, pouring fuel on the fire.

"Miss Bennett, I'm just a lowly bodyguard," he sighed. "I have no right to compare myself to your wealthy fiancé, and I don't deserve any dignity."

"I overstepped today. I'll apologize to him right now."

He didn't move an inch, but his words worked like magic on Chloe.

Her heart completely melted for him.

"They should be the ones apologizing to you!" she snapped. "Making such a huge scene over a few harmless toad eggs!"

I forced my head up from the floor, my vision blurring with rage.

"My parents took time off their research to celebrate our wedding," I rasped. "You fed them garbage, broke my arm, and now you demand they apologize to your dog?"

"Chloe, are you even human?"

Chloe froze for a second, a flicker of guilt crossing her eyes.

Garrett immediately groaned in pain, clutching his neck.

"Chloe, my skin feels numb... are you going to hate me if I have scars?"

Chloe's hesitation vanished, replaced by explosive rage.

"Caleb, I'm done being nice to you!" she yelled. "You love ruining people's faces? Guards, slice his face open!"

My parents panicked and threw themselves forward, begging desperately.

"Chloe, please!" my mother cried. "We'll apologize to him! Just let Caleb go!"

Chloe remained stone-faced.

Tears of humiliation burned in my eyes.

Ever since we got engaged, Chloe had trampled on my pride countless times for Garrett's sake.

Now, she was dragging my parents into the dirt alongside me.

She had never respected me, let alone considered my parents as future family.

Garrett suddenly spoke up with a wounded look.

"Mr. and Mrs. Mercer... were the eggs really that bad?"

Chloe narrowed her eyes at my parents.

"I'll spare Caleb's face," she said coldly. "On one condition. You two drink the rest of the pitcher."

A bodyguard pressed a blade against my cheek, drawing a thin line of blood.

My father frantically grabbed the remaining pitcher of murky liquid.

"Don't hurt him! We'll drink it!"

I thrashed against the heavy boots pinning me down, screaming at them to stop.

But I was completely powerless.

I could only watch in agony as my dignified parents forced down every drop of that vile, slimy liquid to protect me.

They swallowed through their tears, suppressing their gags so Chloe wouldn't change her mind.

Chloe smirked.

"See? It wasn't that hard. Always making a drama out of nothing."

"Make sure your parents transfer all their biotech patents to Garrett as compensation," she added arrogantly. "Otherwise, don't expect me at the altar in three days."

She turned to support Garrett and walked toward the door.

"Then don't bother coming," I said, my voice hoarse and dead. "The wedding is off."

Chloe stopped dead in her tracks.