My terminally ill boyfriend was the illegitimate son of a wealthy family in Starhaven City.
And I was just a food truck vendor, selling grilled skewers on the street.
Damon Blackwood was sickly and weak.
When I was taking care of him, I always gave him the best of everything.
But when twelve sleek black Escalades from the Blackwood family pulled up to my doorstep to take him home.
He left me, taking my roommate with him instead.
During an interview, a reporter pointed at me and asked him, “Who is this lady to you?”
Damon replied, “Just the nanny who looked after me during this time!”
Later, he became the billionaire everyone in Starhaven City looked up to, and I turned around and married his sworn rival.
On our wedding night, Damon Blackwood sent people to take me away. He asked me:
“Why did you marry an ugly freak?”
I said, “Because he never treated me like a nanny!”
The day the Blackwood family came for Damon, twelve Escalades lined up, blocking the alley I always took home.
Reporters, cameras on their shoulders, swarmed the building, making it impossible to pass.
My grill cart, packed up after closing, couldn’t get through, so I had to walk.
My neighbor, Chloe Davis, saw me and enthusiastically linked arms with me:
“Jade, you hit the jackpot! Your boyfriend is a Blackwood heir!”
While I stood there, stunned, Damon Blackwood descended from the building, surrounded by a large entourage.
I had never seen Damon like this.
He wore a perfectly tailored dark suit, his posture straight, his aura refined and distinguished.
Beside him was Serena Thorne, my roommate.
When Damon looked at me, his gaze was different from before, filled with the disdain of a high-status individual.
A sharp-eyed reporter asked him, “Mr. Blackwood, what’s your relationship with the lady in front of you?”
Damon’s eyes shifted from me, and he replied coldly:
“Just the nanny who looked after me during this time!”
The neighbors gasped.
They often saw me buying things for Damon, accompanying him to appointments.
Everyone knew he was my boyfriend.
In an instant, all sorts of gazessympathetic, mockingfell upon me.
I froze.
I looked down at my 0-00 T-shirt, my $20 canvas shoes, and the exhaustion that clung to me.
I did look a lot like a nanny.
But I had cared for Damon for five years. Even if he’d just said I was his neighbor, I wouldn’t have felt this pathetic!
I walked to the front of the lead car.
Damon had just opened the door for Serena to get in when he suddenly remembered something. He turned and asked me:
“You’ve taken care of me for so long. Is there anything you wish for? I can grant it, within reason!”
Chloe immediately urged me, “Quick, quick, this is your chance! Make him take you with him!”
But I didn’t budge. I just numbly shook the bag of medications in my hand:
“Since you don’t have a terminal illness, how about you settle up the money I spent on your medicine these past few years? Oh, and living expenses!”
“It all adds up to… one hundred thousand dollars!”
I pulled out my phone and quickly calculated, announcing the figure.
Those around me snickered, mocking my shortsightedness.
Damon frowned, looking at me with a complex expression. But then he told his assistant to hand me a check.
I glanced at it. It was for one hundred and two thousand dollars.
He’d given me an extra two thousand!
Serena, clinging to his arm, looked at me:
“Jade, Damon is really generous to you. You asked for it, and he paid up. But from now on, you two are from different worlds. I hope you won’t say anything bad about Damon to anyone!”
Damon also looked at me, pressing his lips together:
“I don’t want anyone to know you and I were ever involved!”
I understood. He was ashamed of me, afraid I’d tell the media he was my boyfriend.
Don’t worry, I won’t. After all, having such a heartless jerk for a boyfriend isn’t exactly something to brag about.
Damon left, and the curious crowd dispersed.
Only Chloe, who was usually closest to me, seethed with indignation:
“Jade, are you crazy? What can you do with 0-002,000? You can’t even buy a decent apartment!”
I looked at her, my face pale: “But that’s all he owes me…”
Loving him was my choice.
Caring for him was too!
I just loved the wrong person, and I’ll accept that.
Chloe sighed, poking my head with her finger, calling me foolish.
Back home.
All of Damon’s things had been cleared out.
Serena’s too.
I’d worked the grill all night and then stopped by the hospital early that morning to pick up Damon’s medication.
Now, I was so tired I just collapsed on the couch, not wanting to move.
“Meow…”
My little cat, Pumpkin, sat in front of me, tilting her head and meowing.
I’d found her as a stray on the street.
I dragged myself up to feed her and tidy up the house.
In the evening, I went to my food truck as usual.
Without Damon, my expenses were actually quite low. 0-002,000, at my spending level, would last me twenty years.
But I wanted to buy a house, to have a place of my own.
My grill cart was the busiest on the food truck street outside the university campus.
Young college students loved to frequent my business.
One day, a man in a sharp suit suddenly appeared in front of my stand:
“Vendor, I’ll take five lamb skewers, ten lamb kidneys…”
Accustomed to serving energetic college students, this was my first time waiting on a successful businessman who clearly oozed wealth.
I couldn’t help but steal a few extra glances at him.
He was tall, about six feet three, with a physique like an ancient Greek statue.
A silver Porsche Cayenne was parked at the end of the alley, its lights on, with a driver inside, presumably waiting for him.
Having watched too many rom-coms, my mind immediately concocted a cheesy plotline: an overbearing CEO buying grilled skewers for his college-student wife.
I asked him, “To go or eating here?”
I guessed ‘to go,’ so I already had the takeout boxes ready.
But he said, “Eating here!”
Then, ignoring my surprised expression, he found a seat and sat down.
He ordered about three hundred dollars worth of food.
I grilled and served him skewer by skewer.
By the time I finished grilling everything, dripping with sweat, he had eaten it all.
“Your grilling is excellent. How are your other cooking skills?”
I paused, pointing at myself: “Are you asking me?”
“I’m a decent cook. I even studied culinary arts before I started this food truck!”
The CEO’s eyes lit up. He immediately pulled a business card from his suit pocket and handed it to me:
“Interested in becoming my private chef?”
I took the card. HD Group CEO, Caleb Thorne.
My expression grew strange: “Mr. Thorne, you…”
“$20,000 a month!”
At that salary, I didn’t hesitate. I accepted immediately.
To buy a house in Starhaven City, where real estate costs a fortune, my food truck income would barely be enough even if I worked until I died!
The next day, I went to the Thorne family mansion for the interview, clutching the business card.
Caleb himself opened the door.
The young man, dressed in a gray tracksuit, had just returned from a run.
Seeing me standing at the ornate iron gate, he personally unlocked it and led me inside.
The Thorne estate was huge. It took seven or eight minutes to walk from the gate to the living room.
As I walked, I cautiously observed my surroundings, wary that he might have ulterior motives…
Then, boom, I walked right into his broad back, hitting it so hard I saw stars.
“I’m so sorry, Mr. Thorne! I… I didn’t mean to!”
I apologized, clutching my throbbing nose.
Caleb, exasperated, turned around and looked at me:
“Do you seriously think I’d try something with you?”
I looked disappointed: “You wouldn’t?”
Caleb let out a sarcastic laugh. He raised a hand as if to hit me, but stopped himself, only saying:
“Stop calling me ‘Mr. Thorne.’ Take a good look, who do you think I am?”
I leaned in, shook my head: “Don’t recognize you!”
“Tsk…”
“Seriously, I don’t. I’m just a grill girl; how would I know a big shot like you? Maybe you’ve got the wrong person!”
I knew it. Why would such a high-paying job just fall into my lap?
Turns out the CEO was just mistaken, seeing me as someone else!
Caleb gritted his teeth, a sinister smile on his face: “Jade, if you dare say you don’t know me again!”
When the CEO got angry, a chill radiated from him.
I instinctively hunched my shoulders, my gaze fixed on the man’s deep, handsome face.
A scarred face, ravaged by fire, flashed through my mind.
If those scars were removed from that face…
I was startled, almost immediately recalling his identity, and then I took off running.
The next moment, my wrist was seized, yanked backward with force.
My back slammed against the wall, Caleb’s face magnified before my eyes.
He pinned my wrists above my head, looking down at me:
“Jade, go ahead and run if you dare!”
I couldn’t run.
The disparity in strength between a man and a woman was too great!
I was no match for him at all.
Actually, before Damon, I had another boyfriend.
In the summer when I was seventeen, a transfer student joined our class.
His name was Caleb, and a large portion of his face was covered in scars from a fire.
The other students were afraid of him, ostracizing him at every turn. No one even dared to sit with him at lunch in the cafeteria.
Behind his back, everyone called him the ‘ugly freak.’
His desk partner demanded a new seat, claiming that looking at his face would give her nightmares.
Our teacher, helpless, asked if anyone was willing to sit with him.
His long fingers picked at the edge of the desk, betraying his inner tension.
Just as everyone remained silent, not wanting to be his desk partner, I timidly raised my hand.
At that moment, the class erupted in laughter:
“Let Jade sit with him!”
“The trash girl and the monsterthey’re a perfect match!”
Back then, my grandmother, who adopted me, was still alive. She raised me by collecting recyclables.
And to help ease her burden, I would also collect scrap after school to sell.
My classmates looked down on me, saying I smelled bad.
Since freshman year, I had always sat alone at a separate desk.
Our teacher knew my situation and sternly scolded the students not to mock me like that.
But while a bottle can be stoppered, human hearts are not so easily sealed.
Behind my back, they still called me ‘the trash girl.’
Now, ignoring their jeers, I clutched the hem of my shirt and nervously asked Caleb:
“Caleb, would you mind if I was your desk partner?”
I was afraid he’d also be repulsed by my smell.
But Caleb nodded emphatically: “As long as you’re not scared, I’d be glad to!”
Later, our interactions grew more frequent.
I discovered Caleb was incredibly smart; his test scores were always the best in our grade.
He tutored me.
When I didn’t have money for food, he’d share half of his allowance with me.
In our senior year, he suddenly confessed his feelings and asked me to apply to the same top-tier university as him.
I accepted his confession and put down an Ivy League school as my first choice.
But on the night the application deadline closed, I was working at a five-star hotel.
I ran into Caleb and his family eating there.
There was also a very beautiful girl sitting with Caleb.
When both sets of parents went to the restroom, they discussed having the girl accompany Caleb abroad for treatment over the summer.
And then, when they returned, they would announce their engagement.
I admit I felt insecure.
When I went back, I changed my university application and sent Caleb a message saying I had fallen in love with someone else and wanted to break up.
Then I blocked all his contact information.
No one knew which university I went to.
And I never heard anything from Caleb again.
“If Damon hadn’t gone home that day, and reporters hadn’t caught you on camera, I might never have known you were back in Starhaven City!”
Caleb’s voice was laced with fury. “You broke up with me because of Damon?”
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