Lynette and I had been together for seven years now. Never had she felt more like a complete stranger to me than right this moment.

Just then, a voice came from her end of the call, "Let's grab something to eat, Lynnie."

As soon as I heard that, the call was dropped. Within seconds, I got a message from Lynette.

"Just deal with the engagement party yourself. I'll be back once I'm done with work."

At that very moment, my heart shattered for good.

I shouldn't have forgiven her time and time again. Once a person's heart had wavered, there was no turning back.

After calming myself down, I announced to all the guests present that Lynette and I were calling off our engagement. Neither of us had parents. My only living relative was my grandmother, and since she was ill, she wasn't here today.

Therefore, I could easily make the decision alone.

Everyone was stunned to hear what I said, but I also heard someone whisper, "No wonder the engagement was called off. Lynette has found herself another man, and she even gave him such an expensive suit!"

Lynette was a famous fashion designer. All of her designs were bestsellers.

As it was, the suit had caught the eye of a fashion house that wanted to mass-produce it, but she'd declined the offer.

"This suit means a lot to me," she stated haughtily. "I won't be selling it."

At the time, I was still deluded enough to think she'd give the suit to me. I'd imagined how envious everyone would be when they saw me wearing it during our engagement party.

But instead, I'd become a laughingstock.

Once I'd done what I needed to do, I left the ballroom.

On the way home, I checked my phone and saw that Lynette had posted on social media.

"I hope things will keep getting better for you. May you find every success in your career."

In the photo, Lynette and Zac were leaning toward each other, their heads extremely close together. She had a blissful smile on her face, and he was wearing that suit she'd designed.

They looked like such a perfect match.

Lynette didn't seem to care that we'd been together for seven years. I'd argued with her countless times because of Zac. The worst fight resulted from the fact that she'd spent the night at his place.

A friend of ours told me that, and when I found her, she was still lying in Zac's bed. Even though he wasn't lying beside her, I saw the hickeys all over her body. That was all the proof I needed.

I'd been furious then. I told her I wanted to end our relationship and leave Sallington for good.

But she held me tightly and kept apologizing to me, saying, "It's not what you think, Ev! It only happened because I was drunk. From now on, I'll keep my distance from him. Please don't leave me. I'll die without you!"

Lynette had been diagnosed with depression in the past. During the darkest period of her life, I was the one who stayed by her side to help her get through it.

She'd made a genuine attempt on her life before, so for the sake of ensuring that she didn't do it again, I chose to put up with her transgression.

After that incident, she did keep an appropriate distance from Zac, so I thought she'd truly learned from her mistake.

But now, she'd completely disappointed me. It was the final straw that broke the camel's back. Every single thing she'd done today was enough to turn my heart into stone.

I sent Lynette a message, informing her that I'd called off the engagement and that I was going to hire people to move out all her belongings from the house.

We were staying in the house she asked me to buy when we first got together. She said she'd always dreamed of having a house in Sallington, so I poured all my savings into buying the house.

Later on, once I finally managed to save up some money again, she invested all of it into her business. We became so poor that we could barely even put food on the table.

She kept apologizing to me then, but I didn't hold it against her. On the contrary, to help her succeed, I even worked myself to the bone to earn more money.

Back then, I had a day job, and I spent nights taking on part-time jobs to earn even more money. I never got more than four hours of sleep each day.

Eventually, Lynette found success and became a renowned fashion designer.

I'd heard before that when all was said and done, love came down to a person's conscience. My life was now proof of that.

The movers were halfway through taking Lynette's things out when she suddenly showed up with a garment bag in hand.

After angrily stopping the movers, she confronted me. "Evan Stewart! What's this supposed to mean, huh? You actually called off the engagement just because I was busy with work? And you're throwing my things out of the house?"

"Work, you say?"

I wanted to laugh at that. Staring her straight in the eye, I told her, "The story about you and Zac has already gone viral online, Lynette."

Despite hearing that, however, she didn't show the slightest trace of guilt. Instead, she snapped at me, "Do you even know why I did that? Why are you always so self-centered, Evan?

"You always act like whatever you think of me is the absolute truth, and you refuse to believe me, no matter how I try to explain myself!"

"Go on, then. Explain yourself. I'm listening."

I was curious to hear what kind of explanation she could give this time.

"Zac has cancer!" Lynette shrieked at me. "His dying wish is to own a suit I designed."

"So because he has cancer, he's more important than me now, and you'd readily skip out on our engagement party for his sake."

I eyed her coldly.

It hurt me to see her act this way. Honestly, it broke my heart. Even though we'd been together for so many years, that still meant nothing compared to Zac, who'd suddenly appeared in her life.

"Why are you stubbornly insisting on your twisted logic?" Lynette snapped, her teeth gritted from anger.

This was always the way she reacted. Whenever I brought up Zac, she'd lose her temper.

"You're almost 30 years old now, Evan! Don't you know how important it is to cherish every person's life? How can an engagement party be more important than someone who's about to die?" she continued screaming at me.

"Zac has cancer! He doesn't have much longer to live. Every day that passes is one less day I'll get to see him."

Lynette's principles had long since fallen out of alignment with mine. At that moment, it finally hit me that she and I could never go back to what we had before.

With a self-deprecating chuckle, I replied, "Let's just assume I don't know any of that, Lynette. Either way, I'm breaking up with you. Let's not keep in touch anymore."

A loud crash rang out. Lynette had grabbed the vase off the coffee table and thrown it to the floor, her eyes alarmingly bloodshot.

"Can you stop throwing a tantrum?" Lynette fired at me. "I've already rushed back overnight because of you. I know you're upset about the suit because I'd promised to give it to you, but it was an emergency. Besides, it's just a suit. I can just give you another one."

She tossed the garment bag she'd brought with her at me.

"I designed this suit, too. Now stop causing a scene. I'm tired. I want to get some sleep."

The garment bag came flying at me, but I didn't catch it. It fell to the floor, and the suit slipped out.

I saw the label. It belonged to a small brand that sold good-quality items at a pretty affordable price. Many people were loyal customers of that brand.

Why did I know about it?

Well, I bought from the same brand, too, and I'd seen that suit before. It cost 600 dollars.

I looked into Lynette's eyes once more and still saw no flicker of guilt in them. For the life of me, I couldn't understand how she had no qualms pulling such a sickening stunt.

She'd clearly bought the suit off the rack, yet she claimed she'd designed it herself.

Reminded of all those years of my life I'd wasted on her, I could no longer hold back my emotions.

"Lynette Gibson!" I shouted at Lynette, stopping her just as she was about to walk into the bedroom.

This was probably the first time I had ever lost my temper like this.

As it was, if she'd openly admitted to cheating and told me she'd fallen in love with someone else, I'd get out of her life and never bother her again. I couldn't understand why she chose to hook up with Zac while pretending to still be in love with me.

It truly disgusted me.

"I know this brand, Lynette. The suit costs 600 dollars to buy. I've been with you for seven years, but you gave the suit you designed to another man and bought a random suit off the rack for me instead. How I wish I could dig out your heart and see what it's made of."

As soon as I said that, Lynette finally had a flicker of panic in her eyes. However, it soon vanished, and she retorted in annoyance, "Why else do you think I lied to you? It's only because I knew you'd kick up a fuss for no reason.

"Besides, I've already decided that I'll design a new suit for you later on."

"I only want the suit you previously designed. As long as you get it back and give it to me, I'll drop this matter," I declared.

I kept my eyes fixed on her, hoping to see even a flicker of hesitation in her expression.

Alas, there was none to be found. She looked just as angered as ever.

"I know you hate Zac and want to snatch away everything that I give him. I'm going to make myself clear to you right here, right now," Lynette declared. "I won't take back what I've already given away. If you keep causing a scene over this, I'm going to break up with you."

"Sure. Let's break up," I swiftly replied, my tone icy.

In the past, she always threatened me with a breakup, and it would always be enough to alarm me. I didn't want to leave her. We'd been together for so many years and had braved through far too many storms as a couple.

But now, being in a relationship with her felt more like a shackle than anything else.

Lynette flew at me and slapped me hard. That wasn't enough for her, so she even bit down on my arm with so much force that I could feel her teeth tearing through my skin.

In the past, whenever she had a depressive episode, she would do this to me as well. Every single time, I'd bear through the pain and hold her close as I comforted her.

But this time, I shoved her away with all my strength. After crashing onto the floor, she stared at me in shock.

"Y-You're seriously upset?" Lynette exclaimed.

Only then did I realize that all along, she'd assumed I wasn't actually upset about the situation.

Well, that wasn't a surprise. In the past, whenever she did something with Zac that displeased me, I would end up forgiving her soon after. I'd never meant it when I said I wanted to break up with her, either.

"Lynette, I've already announced to our friends that we're no longer engaged. I've made up my mind to break up with you. I bought this house with my own money, and you never contributed a single cent toward it, so you have no claim over it. Kindly leave at once."

Lynette's eyes went wide. It seemed hard for her to believe that I had just uttered those words.

I couldn't be bothered to entertain her any longer, so I hauled her out of the house. Just as I was about to close the door in her face, she flew into a frenzy and started hitting me.

"Evan! It's just Zac! Why are you so upset when nothing happened between us?"

But I simply shoved her off and slammed the door shut.

She continued ranting outside for a while, but soon, the noise subsided. Through the peephole, I saw her take a knife out of her bag and hold it to her throat.

"I'm giving you one last chance, Evan! Open up right this minute, or I'll kill myself!"

Lynette always used this method to force me into giving in to her demands, but now, we weren't a couple anymore.

Without opening the door, I said coldly, "We no longer have anything to do with each other, Lynette. That means it's none of my business whether you choose to kill yourself."