Chapter 1

It took me five grueling years to finally stand by Natalie Henson's side, to become the fiancé she publicly acknowledged.

Everyone envied me. They said I was the miracle worker who had finally melted the iceberg.

But one month before the wedding, I chose to leave.

The friend helping me with my visa stared at me, jaw slack.

"Liam Simmons, are you out of your mind? You really want to go abroad?"

He slammed the paperwork down. "You gave up *everything* to chase Natalie Henson for five years. You crawled through glass to get her to say yes. You're weeks away from the altar, and now you're running away? Is this a joke?"

The bitter lump in my throat made it hard to swallow. But my voice came out steady, devoid of the desperation that had defined me for so long.

"There won't be a wedding."

I met his eyes. "She will never see me again."

1.

My circle knew the price I had paid for Natalie.

A seed-funding offer from a top angel investor—turned down. A headhunting offer from a Fortune 500 giant—rejected. A brilliant future—incinerated. All to be near her. I had willingly reduced myself to an obscure assistant in her shadow.

Natalie Henson was a woman carved from frost.

For five years, I handled every mundane detail of her life with obsessive precision. I anticipated her needs before she knew them herself. Only then did she tolerate my existence.

To my friends, the iceberg had melted.

She treated me differently than the rest of the world, they argued. She couldn't remember her own birthday, yet she could recite mine. When I looked like a walking corpse from exhaustion, she would tell me to go home and rest.

For a woman known for her taciturn, icy demeanor, that was practically a love sonnet.

But only I knew the truth.

She had never celebrated a single birthday with me. Every year, a cold bank transfer notification appeared on my phone:

*【I hate the hassle. Buy yourself something.】*

And that "concern" for my health? She only sent me home because I had stayed awake for seventy-two hours straight organizing her negotiation documents, resulting in a fever so high I was delirious.

During those three days of sick leave, my phone remained silent. She never asked how I was.

Not once.

As for how I became the fiancé she acknowledged? It wasn't love.

It was guilt.

Six months ago, Natalie's parents were kidnapped.

The woman who never flinched felt the sky collapse. Panic stripped her of her logic. She followed the kidnappers' demands blindly, walking alone into the trap to deliver the ransom.

Predictably, they planned to kill her too.

I didn't think. I drove into the chaos, disregarding my own life to negotiate, buying just enough time for the police to breach the perimeter.

The kidnappers didn't go easy on me. They beat me within an inch of my life.

When I woke up in the ICU, Natalie and her parents were at my bedside.

Her mother smiled, though her eyes were wet. "Liam, I heard you gave up your career, your future, everything... just for our Wanshin. We've been watching you."

She took my hand. "And now, you've almost died for us. This is a debt we can never repay. We approve. You and Wanshin should be together."

When her mother said those words, Natalie's face went pale.

But she didn't argue. She nodded, accepting her fate.

If Dominic Gilbert hadn't appeared, perhaps I would have continued to delude myself. I might have believed that I had actually chipped away the ice around her heart.

Back at the company, the large LED screen in the lobby was broadcasting highlights from the Wuzhen Internet Conference.

A cluster of colleagues stood beneath it, gossiping.

"Look, it's CEO Henson and Director Gilbert."

"Damn, they look good together. Like a power couple."

The words landed like a fist to my sternum.

Most people in the group thought Natalie and Dominic were a perfect match.

Almost no one knew I was her fiancé.

The camera cut to a new angle.

Natalie and Dominic, standing side by side.