Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"For men, the most important thing is that the size should be just right."

My fiancée, Serena Whitmore, said this to her childhood friend Chase Holloway as she slid onto his finger the wedding ring we were supposed to buy today.

I stood off to one side, gripping the silver ring she had just fished out of the trash can and handed to me.

Half an hour earlier, the two of them had strolled in late.

Serena pinched Chase's cheek and urged him on with a laugh. "So what if it costs a million dollars? Didn't you say it was pretty? That's the only reason I'm buying it. Try it on or don't!"

Chase caught her hand and begged for mercy with exaggerated drama. "Okay, okay, I'll try it on!"

A customer nearby watched them enviously. "Miss Whitmore is so good to her fiancé."

I looked at Serena.

She didn't correct anyone. She just picked up the diamond ring, slipped it onto Chase's ring finger, and bent her head to adjust it for him.

Then Chase dug a silver ring out of her open purse.

"Why are you still keeping something this ugly?"

He tossed it carelessly, and the ring dropped into the trash can at his feet.

Before I could step forward, Serena had already bent down and picked it up.

For a moment, I thought she still remembered.

She only wiped it off with a tissue and held it out to me.

"Perfect timing. Haven't you always complained that wedding rings are too expensive? You can wear this one."

It was the silver promise ring I had given her seven years ago.

She had once held me and sworn that no matter how much jewelry she had in the future, she would treasure it for the rest of her life.

I had also told her it was a precious gift from Lionel Messi.

Now, she had forgotten all of it.

Chase wiggled his finger and deliberately made "all that matters is the fit" sound suggestive. She laughed and swatted him. "Shut up, you pervert!"

Dodging her, Chase pulled out a tryout invitation from River Plate in Argentina. "Don't kick my legs! Next month, these are taking me to play professionally abroad!"

Serena stopped at once and pulled him close, asking about every detail of his schedule abroad.

No one asked me whether the ring fit.

No one remembered that today was the day she and I had come to choose our wedding rings.

For seven years, I had taken a knife for her, paid off her debts, and set my own future aside again and again.

All it had earned me was the sight of another man wearing the groom's diamond ring.

I put the silver ring away, turned, and walked out of the jewelry store.

My phone lit up. It was a message from Leo.

"Have you thought it over? The team is still holding your spot. Report in seven days."

I looked down and typed my reply.

"I’ve thought it over. I’m in."

……

Seven days later, I was supposed to marry Serena.

I had just gotten into a taxi when an Instagram notification popped up on my phone. Chase had posted.

The photo showed two hands wearing matching diamond rings.

The caption read: "Romance is forever."

As if I wanted to hurt myself, I stared at their tightly clasped fingers until my eyes stung.

Serena had once been the most unwanted child in the Whitmore family, an illegitimate daughter.

Seven years ago, we were crammed into a rented room in a run-down part of London. I trained while working odd jobs to pay for her college.

No matter how late I finished at the training ground, she would always be waiting for me outside the door.

On one bitterly cold winter night, she pressed snow into a ring and carefully slid it onto my middle finger.

"Ethan, once I have money, I'm going to buy you the most expensive diamond ring there is and build you the best soccer club in the world."

Later, just as she'd promised, she landed a ten-billion-pound contract, and Mr. Whitmore chose her to succeed him at the family-controlled Whitmore Group.

Her eldest brother, red-eyed with rage, came at her with a knife.

I threw myself in front of her without a second's hesitation. The blade sank into my body, and the blood that sprayed out seemed to stain the sky red.

When I woke up, Serena was keeping watch at my bedside after seven days and nights without rest. Her eyes were swollen, and she clutched my hand, trembling.

"The doctor said you almost didn't wake up. If you had died, I would have followed you to hell."

Back then, I had believed in forever too. That was also the day I made up my mind to give up everything to protect her.

Then, three years ago, Chase came back from studying abroad, and everything changed.

She had promised me time and again that she and Chase were like brother and sister. Yet two days ago, when I got back from a business trip, I picked up a pair of worn men's underwear from the corner of the room.

The taxi jolted. I came back to myself and hit like on the post.

A moment later, the post disappeared from my feed.

At the law firm, I instructed my lawyer to sell my shares in the Whitmore Group to a competitor inside the Whitmore family.

The lawyer's eyes went wide with surprise.

"Mr. Lawson, you're not joking? This 11% stake could sell for an astronomical sum, but if it ends up in the hands of Miss Whitmore's rival, her influence among the shareholders will take a serious hit."

"You and Miss Whitmore are so much in love. Do you really want to do this?"

I answered without hesitation.

"I'm not joking. Don't let Serena find out, and please try to have it done within seven days."

Outside the law firm, while I waited for a ride by the curb, a middle-aged man called out to me in delighted surprise.

"Oh my God, it's you! Ethan Lawson from the Elite Football League! My whole family are fans of yours. Could you sign something for me?"

"Sure." I took the pen and paper and bent my head to sign for him.

The man sighed. "With skills like yours, it's a real shame you're not playing in a pro league. Twenty-six is the age to go all out."

For years, I had spent all my free time training hard and kept my touch almost as sharp as it used to be. I had won quite a few MVP awards in amateur tournament finals.

Leading clubs overseas even reached out to me every year. To keep Serena from overthinking it, I had never told her.

I took a deep breath and smiled. "I'll take that as a good omen."

The moment I stepped through the front door, I saw Serena and Chase lounging together on the living room sofa while a renovation crew repainted the walls of the house we were going to live in after the wedding.

"Chase is about to play professionally abroad, and green is his lucky color. Change it, quickly."

Chase laughed without restraint.

"Besides, gray walls? God, it's like living in a graveyard."

I froze in the doorway.

Serena knew that bare concrete was my favorite style, yet she didn't argue with Chase.

Instead, she fondly discussed which patterns to paint with him, their foreheads pressed intimately together.

"But if the walls are too busy, they might not look very good." The crew foreman looked troubled. Then he spotted me, as if he'd found a lifeline. "Mr. Lawson, what do you think of this..."

Before I could speak, Chase turned to me with a smile and spread his hands.

"Ethan, you don't mind, do you? I never expected Serena to get this worked up the second she heard I'm going to play professionally abroad next month. Too bad you can only kick a ball around with amateur teams these days."

I ignored his smug provocation and looked at Serena.

She kept scrolling through designs on her phone without even looking up.

"What's he got to mind? I paid for this house."

Bitterness spread through my chest.

For her, I had given up the pitch. I had worked through the night until I came down with pneumonia, and drunk with clients until I suffered a stomach perforation, all to help her land that ten-billion-pound contract.

All it had earned me was our future home painted in Chase's lucky color, just to bless his glorious future.

If everything I had given and every step back I had taken only made me a spineless freeloader in her eyes, then I would simply walk away from this rotten relationship.

"I don't mind." I headed straight for the stairs without looking back. "I don't mind him replacing me as your groom, either."