His Breakdown After I Called Off the Engagement

When I was locked in the elevator, suffering from claustrophobia and difficulty breathing and then collapsed to the ground, Lucas was in the office, flirting and laughing with the new secretary.

Even when his assistant told him that I had been rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment, he still couldn't tear his gaze away from the secretary's face for even a second.

On the way home from the hospital, I saw a wedding photo of him and the secretary in the car.

Before I could ask, Lucas swatted my hand away and coldly scolded me, "Who allowed you to touch my things?"

I softly said sorry, my gaze fixed on the engagement ring on my middle finger.

Then, without a word, I opened the window and threw it out. If it didn't belong to me, then let it be given to someone else.

——

As soon as the driver parked the car, Lucas couldn't wait to slam the door and rush into the house.

He threw the medicine I got from the hospital at my face. "If you knew you had claustrophobia, why didn't you take the stairs? You're wasting my time."

Saying this, Lucas carefully put the wedding photo with Mary into his bag.

Earlier, in the office, Mary had seen the wedding photo of me and Lucas on my phone screen. After I left, she whispered in Lucas’s ear, begging him to take a photo with her before the wedding, treating it as a birthday gift for this year.

To my surprise, Lucas agreed and treasured that photo as if it were something precious. Just a moment ago, he coldly scolded me for accidentally brushing against him in the car.

Ever since the new secretary started working in Lucas’s office, I often found myself arguing with him because of her inappropriate behavior. But this time, I didn’t react at all and didn’t even ask a single question.

I withdrew my gaze and calmly said, "Sorry, but your office is on the twenty-third floor."

Hearing this, Lucas paused for a moment, his eyes filled with irritation as he looked at me. "You're really useless."

The next second, his phone rang. It was a ringtone unlike any other, recorded specifically by Mary.

On the other end, the girl was crying, pleading for Lucas’s help. She was scared because the power at her place was out and it was raining outside.

If someone could just go to her house and keep her company, she would be so touched that she would offer herself to him, never wanting to leave his side.

As expected, just after the call ended, Lucas walked straight past me toward the door.

Without a single word of explanation, he left.

Listening to the car engine start outside, I found a lighter in the drawer and, without hesitation, set fire to the half-written wedding invitations in the box.

In the middle of the night, as I was packing up my belongings from Lucas’s house, I received a text message.

[Zinnia, I drank too much.]

Every time Lucas went out for business dinners or gatherings with friends and drank, he would ask me to pick him up. I used to think it was his way of introducing me to his friends. But now, thinking about it carefully, it was just because I was always available—a free, dependable caretaker.

I tossed my phone back onto the sofa, acting as if I hadn’t seen the message at all.

When I lay down in bed, a photo Mary posted on social media caught my attention. In the photo, Lucas was looking at her with a slightly tipsy gaze, his eyes full of affection and flirtation.

She had captioned it. [In his eyes, there are not only stars but also love.]