I Thought He Was My Prince, But I Was His Villain

I’m rich, I’m pretty, and I have a handsome, domineering CEO as my childhood sweetheart.

With this setup, I should’ve been the heroine of a sweet, fluffy romance.

But on my twenty-second birthday, I finally realized—I was nothing more than the vicious supporting character in his CEO love story.

…

My name is Chloe Sterling.

The man standing in front of me now is Alexander Vance.

The woman he’s shielding behind him is Isabella Reed.

Today is my twenty-second birthday party. Isabella came as Alexander’s assistant, accompanying him to the event.

She was supposed to hand me the birthday gift Alexander had prepared, but somehow she lost her balance and bumped into me. My hand jerked, and the red wine I was holding splashed straight onto Isabella’s dress.

Our parents are business partners. Alexander and I grew up together. He’s three years older than me, and ever since I was little, I loved trailing after him. He could never shake me off.

When we were kids, Mrs. Vance once laughed and asked if I’d like to be her daughter-in-law.

I asked her what “daughter-in-law” meant.

She told me it meant marrying Alexander, always being together, spending a lifetime side by side.

I didn’t know what marriage really was back then, or what it meant to spend a lifetime with someone. I only knew that I wanted to be with Alexander, always.

Because he was good-looking—the best-looking little boy I knew.

My dad laughed and said I’d inherited my mom’s lovestruck tendencies.

When I was seventeen, mimicking the dramas I’d seen on TV, I wrote Alexander a love letter and confessed to him.

He looked at me with a cold, indifferent expression and told me I should focus on my studies. He said he only saw me as a little sister, then rejected me.

But I still refused to give up. I believed that as long as I persisted, he would fall for me someday. I had at least a little confidence in my looks.

So I threw myself into studying, working hard for one goal—to get into his university.

The moment I received my admission letter, I couldn’t wait to share the news with him. But that was when he told me he was going abroad.

I spent four years of college without Alexander. Whenever I walked through campus, I’d tell myself I was walking the same paths he once did, and somehow, that made it all a little less lonely.

He came back when I graduated, but as soon as he returned to the country, he took over Vance Corporation. He was busy around the clock, and I could barely see him.

So I started going to his company every day, bringing him food and drinks, fussing over him. Everyone in the building knew I was hopelessly, shamelessly in love with Alexander.

Our parents arranged an engagement between us. I was over the moon, and he didn’t object.

I knew, deep down, that he didn’t actually like me. To him, it was just a business alliance. But I thought that was good enough. As long as we got married, we’d be together forever. One day, he would love me.

Then Isabella appeared, and for the first time, I felt threatened.

“Chloe! Why did you splash red wine on Izzy?” Alexander demanded furiously.

I didn’t answer. Just a moment ago, a wave of dizziness had washed over me—and I suddenly awakened.

The world I was living in was actually a novel.

The male lead was Alexander.

The female lead was Isabella.

And me? I was the vicious supporting character.

The stumbling block and catalyst for their romance, the one whose entire existence was meant to show just how great their love was.

The story went like this: after graduating from college, Isabella, through relentless effort, managed to get an offer from Vance Corporation. Because she was just a graduate from an ordinary university, her colleagues looked down on her and ostracized her, dumping all the menial tasks on her.

One night, Alexander went back to the office late to retrieve some documents and ran into Isabella, who was still working overtime. In her, he saw a stubborn refusal to give up, a tenacity that caught his eye. From then on, he started paying attention to her, and found that no matter what she did, she was always optimistic and full of energy.

And just like that… he slowly began to fall for her.