Everyone knew I was the one who relentlessly pursued Julian.
To help him secure a deal, I drank until my stomach bled.
One word from him, and I’d drop everything to bring him his jacket.
Even when he continuously maintained ties with his ex, I didn’t care.
No one knew that what I truly cared about was the beating heart in his chest – the heart of the man I truly loved.
But I never imagined I’d gotten it all wrong.
**Chapter 1**
“Ms. Avery, we made a mistake. The recipient of your boyfriend’s heart wasn’t Sterling Corp’s CEO, Mr. Julian. It was someone else entirely. That person is currently in Silverport.”
The voice on the other end of the line was filled with apologies. I stayed silent for a long time before finally speaking, hearing the nervous thumping of their heart through the phone.
“I understand.”
As I pressed the hang-up button, my room door burst open. Julian stormed in, his face etched with anxiety. He grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the exit.
“You’re coming with me!”
Without a single explanation, Julian forcefully dragged me into the car. He sped through countless red lights, the only sounds were the roaring wind and the engine’s deafening drone. His fingers drummed incessantly on the steering wheel, a soft, repetitive tap that betrayed his undeniable agitation.
I felt a slight daze, my mind replaying every moment from our first meeting until now. I’d put all my effort into chasing Julian, relentlessly pursuing him until he finally agreed to marry me. But whether it was taking our wedding photos, exchanging rings, or even our first night together, he had always been distant, as if nothing truly mattered to him. He had never displayed such uncontrolled emotion before.
The only person who could evoke such raw emotion from him must be *her*.
Minutes later, the car finally screeched to a halt. I stepped out, realizing Julian had brought me to a hospital. Upon asking, I learned that Seraphina, his childhood sweetheart and the woman he’d always secretly loved and idealized, had been in a car accident and desperately needed blood. And my blood type happened to match hers.
Seeing that I had arrived, the nurse, equally anxious, grabbed my arm and began to pull me towards the blood donation room. But I suddenly stopped, turning to face Julian.
“Julian, I can donate this blood, but you have to answer one question for me.”
Julian, torn between urgency and impatience, instinctively assumed I was going to ask about Seraphina. “I’ll tell you about my relationship with Seraphina later.”
To his surprise, I shook my head.
“That’s not what I want to ask.”
I didn’t care about his relationship with Seraphina. After all, he was never the one I truly loved.
In my entire life, I had only loved one man. But that man had died in a multi-car pile-up, saving me. After his death, his heart was donated according to his wishes. To continue feeling my love’s heartbeat, I searched relentlessly, eventually finding my way to the recipient—Sterling Corp’s CEO, Julian.
From that moment on, I pursued him with a fiery passion. Everyone knew I was head over heels for him, and I earned the reputation of being a devoted and infatuated follower in our circle. Yet, he remained utterly unmoved.
Later, through my own investigation, I discovered he had a childhood sweetheart, a woman he had grown up with. She was the golden girl, blessed with talent and charm, and everyone expected them to end up together. Julian loved her, but when he tried to confess, Seraphina shut him down with a simple, “Let’s always be good friends.” Then, she moved abroad and had many boyfriends, but he never gave up hope of her returning to him. He rejected everyone for her, including me, who was madly chasing him.
It wasn’t until he saw a picture of her kissing her boyfriend on Ins that he, out of spite, finally accepted my confession and married me.
“I only have one question: Four years ago, you had a heart transplant. What was the donor’s name?”
Julian frowned, unsure of my intention, but perhaps worried about Seraphina’s condition, he chose to answer.
“I only know his last name was Kane.”
Kane. That was a completely different name from Liam. It seemed I truly had made a mistake.
“Understood. Thank you.” I nodded, not asking anything further, and turned to follow the nurse into the blood donation room. But for some reason, Julian, watching my retreating back, felt a sudden, inexplicable sense of panic.
Just as I fully stepped into the room, he couldn’t help but call out, “Why are you asking that?”
My expression remained neutral, as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world.
“Just confirming.”
Confirming that I no longer wanted him.
The needle pierced my vein, and blood flowed through the tube into the blood bag. As I donated blood, I used my free hand to pull out my phone and send a message to my lawyer.
**[Please draft a divorce agreement for me. I want a divorce!]**
**Chapter 2**
After donating blood, I felt lightheaded and dizzy. Leaning against the wall, I walked out to find Julian standing by the gurney where Seraphina had just been wheeled out of the operating room. He held her hand tightly, whispering something to her, his expression tender, his eyes filled with adoration.
He never once thought to ask about his own wife, about how I was feeling or if I was okay. Naturally, he didn’t notice that I had already returned home by myself.
Back at the villa, I went straight to the kitchen. Already anemic, and having given so much blood today, my face was still pale. I wanted to make a warm drink to ease my discomfort, but just as I finished pouring it into a bowl, my strength gave out. With a crash, the bowl shattered into a million pieces.
In that instant, I, who had remained expressionless through countless insults and humiliations over the years, suddenly felt my eyes well up.
“Liam,” I whispered, “without you, I really can’t do anything right.”
The spilled tea flowed to my feet. I looked up at the dark liquid, and suddenly, memories of the past flooded my mind.
Back then, I had the best love of my life. Back then, my love wasn’t dead.
I was always cold, and my periods brought unbearable cramps. Liam would always be so thoughtful, brewing me a warm ginger tea, blowing on it until it was the perfect temperature before gently feeding it to me. Sometimes, I’d be stubborn and pout, and he’d pull me into his arms, using his warm hands to soothe my stomach, telling me it would make the pain go away. When I was irritable and everything annoyed me, he’d quietly sit by my side, letting me hit him, letting me scold him. Afterward, he’d still tenderly rub my hands, asking if I’d hurt myself.
I crouched down, picking up the broken shards one by one. Suddenly, a sharp sting shot through my fingertip. I looked up and saw a cut, a trail of blood appearing. Whether it was the pain, or something else entirely, tears streamed down my face, splashing onto the floor.
“How could I not have noticed something was wrong? You loved me so much, but Julian was always distant, that heart never beat passionately for me.”
I gathered all the fragments and threw them into the trash bin, then smiled. “But it doesn’t matter. We’ll be together again soon.”
Julian still didn’t come home the next day. After freshening up, I left to meet my lawyer. Sitting across the table, a drafted divorce agreement lay before me.
“Ms. Avery, once both spouses sign this divorce agreement and a one-month waiting period passes, the divorce will be final.”
Hearing the lawyer’s words, I thought of Julian, who hadn’t even returned home today, and asked, “Can I sign on his behalf?”
“Ms. Avery, that’s absolutely not allowed!” The lawyer immediately shook his head.
Seeing his firm refusal, I quickly said, “My husband wants a divorce too, he just doesn’t have time to come. I’m just signing on his behalf. If you don’t believe me, I’ll call him.”
With that, I pulled out my phone, found Julian’s number, and dialed. After a long series of beeps, he finally answered. I spoke without even a greeting.
“I need to discuss something with you…”
My words were cut off by his cool, emotionless voice on the other end. “I’m busy. Just do whatever you need to. No discussion necessary.”
Then, I heard another female voice. Without a moment’s hesitation, I recognized Seraphina’s sweet, slightly whiny tone. “Julian, the medicine is so bitter… Do I have to drink it?”
As the call disconnected, I faintly heard Julian’s response, a tenderness in his voice he had never once shown me. “No, you have to drink it if you want to get better quickly.”
I looked at the lawyer. Hearing Julian’s indifferent attitude, the lawyer finally conceded, nodding his agreement to allow me to sign on Julian’s behalf.
With permission granted, I let out a silent sigh of relief and then signed Julian’s name on the divorce agreement. Leaving the law firm, I tapped my phone, booking a flight to Silverport for one month from now.
Julian didn’t return home until a week later. It was late at night when he finally came back to the room, covered in dust and a chill. I was half-asleep and didn’t react much to his return. It wasn’t until the bed beside me dipped slightly, and he naturally pulled me into his arms, that I fully woke up. I pushed him away and shifted to the other side of the bed.
Julian, rejected for the first time, looked momentarily stunned. The next second, he frowned. “Don’t you usually need to hear my heartbeat to fall asleep?”
In our three years of marriage, I rarely made demands of Julian, but even so, the only thing he ever agreed to was this. We had just gotten married then; besides a marriage certificate, he had given me nothing. But I didn’t care. Afterward, I would simply lean into his arms, pressing my ear close to his heart.
He asked me why I liked to lean on him like that. I looked up, my eyes shining with affection and love in the moonlight. “Because I love hearing your heartbeat. Can I always fall asleep listening to your heart from now on?”
Perhaps the intensity of love in my eyes when I made that request made it impossible for him to refuse. For some reason, he actually agreed. And that habit had continued until now. Whenever he was present, I would instinctively snuggle into his arms, resting my head near his heart.
But now, after a moment of stunned silence, I shook my head and said, “No, it’s fine.”
**Chapter 3**
I rolled over, facing away from him. Julian looked at my curled-up silhouette in the moonlight, a strange feeling stirring within him. This was the first time I hadn’t depended on him so completely. He didn’t like me, so he should have been happy that I was no longer clinging to him. Yet, he felt no joy at all, only an inexplicable emptiness deep inside.
*He’s just used to me leaning into his arms, completely dependent on him,* he told himself, trying to rationalize the feeling.
The next day, I woke up quite late. When I went downstairs after freshening up, I was surprised to find Julian hadn’t left yet. I blurted out, “Aren’t you going to the hospital to be with Ms. Seraphina today?”
Normally, he might have been impatient at such a question, but at that moment, he secretly felt a sigh of relief. *Her behavior yesterday was clearly jealousy over Seraphina.*
“Seraphina is just a friend. She had an accident right after coming back to the country, so I just took extra care of her. She’s been discharged now.”
He explained patiently, a rare occurrence. He paused, then added, “Didn’t you want me to take you to see the sunset? I haven’t been able to spend time with you these past few days, so as compensation, I’ll take you today.”
“No, it’s fine.”
Having realized my mistake and now on the verge of divorce, I naturally had no intention of continuing to do these meaningless things with him. I instinctively refused, but he, believing his plan was perfectly reasonable, simply had the car brought around.
Dragged along and settled into the car, I stopped arguing and just sat there quietly.
The car drove towards the outskirts, quickly reaching its destination. But just as we arrived at the mountaintop, Julian’s phone rang. He picked it up, and the screen flashed, clearly displaying “Seraphina.” After a brief conversation, he hesitated for a moment after hanging up, then got back into the car. He left me with only a short sentence, “I’ll be back to pick you up later.”
Despite his words, I waited for a long time. The sun began to set, the twilight faded, and he still didn’t return. There were no taxis on the mountain, and I didn’t bother calling Julian to ask if he was still coming. I simply started walking down the mountain alone.
The mountain was high, and the path was steep. Even though it wasn’t a muddy trail, by the time I reached the bottom, my feet were covered in blisters. I pulled out my phone to call for a taxi back to the villa, but then I received a message from one of Julian’s friends from his social circle.
**[Urgent. Come to The Obsidian Club.]**
Most of Julian’s friends looked down on me, “Mrs. Avery,” who had supposedly chased him for two years before finally marrying him. They rarely contacted me directly, so when I saw the message, I didn’t hesitate. I hailed a taxi and headed straight for The Obsidian Club. It wasn’t that I was particularly worried about Julian; I just feared that if anything happened to him during this time, it might complicate the divorce.
But when I found the private room based on the address they sent, I pushed the door open to step inside, and suddenly, a rope appeared beneath my feet. Caught off guard, I tripped and fell, my head hitting the nearby stool with a heavy thud. The pain made me instantly dizzy. My hand flew to my head, and I felt something sticky and warm.
The group in the room watched my embarrassment unfold, yet they showed no signs of letting up. The next second, the door slammed shut, and a bucket of water tipped over.
*Splash!*
A cascade of cold water poured over my head, soaking me completely.
“Hahahaha, look at her, all drenched! Doesn’t she look like a dog?”
“Hey, don’t say that, Jax, your description is actually pretty spot on!”
The room erupted in laughter, their words filled with derision and mockery.
The air conditioning in the room was blasting. My damp clothes clung to my skin, and a cold gust of wind made me shiver. Water droplets dripping from my hair blurred my vision. Finally realizing it was nothing more than a cruel prank, my expression didn’t change. I simply wiped my face casually amidst their jeers.
Seeing my lack of reaction, some found it boring, while others decided it wasn’t provocative enough. They pulled out a phone and played a surveillance video for me.
“Hey, pathetic stalker, we called you here to tell you that Julian’s white moonlight is back.”
I looked up. The content on the phone screen was playing right then. It appeared to be in another room. Julian was half-kneeling, massaging Seraphina’s ankle, his face filled with tender affection.
“See that? Julian ditched you today to throw a welcome party for Seraphina. She just twisted her ankle a little, and he immediately scooped her up, so worried! Have you ever gotten that kind of treatment in all these years? Don’t hog the space here. Be sensible and give up your spot, or else being kicked out won’t look good.”
The friends kept on with their relentless taunts. I struggled to my feet, doing my best to ignore the pain in my foot. My eyes were deep as I looked at them, my voice calm and steady.
“Don’t worry, I’ll give up my spot. Because I don’t like him either.”
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