Charles Jansen's true love returns to the country in my seventh year with him.

The first post on her social media after she lands is an intimate photo of them together. She captions it, "I'm glad we've come full circle."

Only then do I find out the ring hidden in the living room isn't for me. Charles' proposal isn't for me, either.

Suddenly, I feel exhausted.

When my boyfriend, Charles Jansen, came home, a gentle smile still lingered on his face.

But when he saw the ring box I was holding, he froze. "Who said you could touch my things?"

Three days ago, I found this diamond ring while I was cleaning the house.

At first, I thought that Charles had finally come to his senses and was planning to propose. Overjoyed, I had bragged about this to all my friends.

Charles was indeed planning to propose—just not to me.

If this had happened in the past, I would have cried and thrown a tantrum. I would've questioned why he still couldn't forget Yvonne Cross.

But now, I simply handed the box back to him, my expression calm. "I found this while cleaning. I thought it was for me."

My reaction stunned Charles. It took him a while to finally take the box. "I shouldn't have raised my voice earlier. Sorry about that," he said. "This is a custom order for a client. It's very important."

"I do remember your birthday," he continued gently, ruffling my hair. "Your gift is on the way. I promise it will be a nice surprise."

I watched as he turned and walked back into his room, my eyes stinging with tears.

My phone was vibrating incessantly in my pocket.

When I checked it, I found out that I had been added to a group chat containing about a hundred people. The group chat was named "Charles' Proposal Planning Committee".

I stared at the name of the group chat and couldn't help but laugh in disbelief. Charles was brainstorming ideas to propose to his first love, and he had had the gall to add me to the group chat.

"What kind of proposal would Yvonne want? What do you think, guys?"

Charles' message was the first to pop up, igniting a heated discussion from the other group members.

Fireworks, balloons, drones—countless romantic ideas poured in.

I slumped onto the couch, staring at the flurry of messages as pain formed in my heart.

After a while, someone finally remembered me.

"Uh, what about Cindy?"

The barrage of messages abruptly stopped.

Everyone knew that Charles had been dating me these past few years while Yvonne was aboard.

Charles brushed off the question with a simple sentence: "I was just playing around with her. Ignore her."

He was just playing around with me?

My fingers tightened around my phone. I could hardly breathe.

Laughter erupted in the group chat.

"Charles. It's been seven years. Aren't you tired of her yet? Maybe you should teach us your tricks."

"Yeah, you should. Cindy's devoted to you. Why don't you just marry both of them?"

Charles' response to that was to send an eye-rolling emoji. "I only kept her around because she stuck with me for a long time. She's not wife material. She doesn't deserve to be married to me."

I stared at his reply. I recognized every word, yet when read together, they made me dizzy. At that moment, seven years' worth of memories surged into my mind.

Seven years ago, Charles had saved me from being harrassed by some men. At the time, he had appeared to me like a guardian angel. I had fallen for him at first sight.

I'd always known that he had a first love who had gone abroad. Nevertheless, I threw myself, heart and soul, into loving him.

Charles did not reject my advances. In fact, he allowed me to stay by his side.

He brought me to his gatherings and introduced me to his parents, but he had never publicly admitted that I was his girlfriend.

My friends had told me, more than once, that he wasn't worth it. They told me that staying by his side like this, without him ever acknowledging me, was humiliating.

But they had never seen how anxious Charles had been when I got sick. They'd never known the warmth he hid beneath his icy facade.

"You won't understand. Charles is just shy. He loves me!" I told them confidently. I had been so sure that he would marry me one day. I had been so stubborn that it was almost laughable.

But now, I was tired.

I quietly turned off the notifications for the group chat and turned off my phone. Then, I stared blankly at the ring box.

Just then, Charles' mother, Nora Glover, called, saying that she would be dropping by tomorrow on a business trip and wanted to see us.

I was certain that Nora would ask if we were going to get married again. I told Charles about this and mentioned that I had work tomorrow, so I couldn't take time off.

When he heard that, he frowned. "Work? How is work more important than my mother? You used to love going out with us. My mom rarely comes over. As her future daughter-in-law, you can't leave her hanging."

If this were before, I would've been overjoyed hearing this subtle hint. But now, all I could think of was that text in the group chat that read, "She's not wife material."

How laughable.

Then again, Nora had always been kind to me. She treated me like I was her own daughter. After thinking it over, I decided to ask my boss for some time off.

This time, Charles, who had always been particular about his car, surprisingly offered to give me a ride.

But as soon as I opened the car door, I saw a mess of cosmetics on the passenger seat, along with a conspicuous label reading "Reserved For Yvonne".

"Oh, uh, Cindy, I can explain. This is—"

Before Charles could finish, I interrupted him. "I'll sit in the back and keep Nora company."

With that, I closed the door expressionlessly.

Charles stared at me in surprise for a moment. He only started the car after I quietly told him to.

On the way, he kept trying to make conversation with me. He spoke more in one trip than he usually would in a whole week.

I responded to him half-heartedly as I forced myself not to look at the label on the passenger seat.

…

As soon as Nora saw us, she immediately took my hand and asked me how I was doing. Charles stood beside us, his gaze gentle. The entire scene was an illusion of a peaceful, happy life.

Just then, a sharp ringtone sounded, ruining the peace.

I could hear Yvonne sobbing on the other end of the call. She said that she had lost her passport right after getting off her plane and didn't know what to do.

After hanging up, Charles told us that he had an urgent matter at work and rushed off.

"He's always in so much hurry," Nora said, shaking her head in exasperation. "So careless. When you two get married, you must keep him in check."

I simply laughed awkwardly.

Nora's smile grew wider when I didn't object. "Cindy, you've been with Charles for a long time. When are you two planning to get married?"

She looked so expectant that I didn't have the heart to tell her the truth. "There's no rush, Nora," I said instead, dodging the question. "We're both still young."

I spent the entire day with Nora. Charles only appeared when it was finally time to see her off. He did not look happy. I figured that Nora must have also spoken to him about our marriage.

"Cindy Fischer, what did you say to my mom? Why is she pressuring me about marriage again?" he demanded. "Listen. If you keep scheming behind my back, I will never marry you!"

I looked at him sadly. It turned out that my hopes of marrying him were nothing but a delusion, a form of manipulation to him.

Realizing that he had spoken too harshly, Charles softened his tone. "I didn't mean that, Cindy. It's just… I was just annoyed by my mom's nagging. Don't take it to heart.

"You know I'm at the most crucial stage of my career now. Let's just delay the wedding a little…"

When I remained silent, he sighed. "Come on. Stop sulking."

He leaned in to kiss me. There was an unfamiliar scent coming from him. It was a woman's perfume.

I turned away, avoiding his kiss.

"What's wrong?" He sounded unusually concerned.

"I just spent the whole day shopping with Nora. I'm tired," I said quietly.

My lie was probably weak because Charles immediately caught on to my indifference. His tone changed to one of detachment. "What exactly do you want from me, Cindy?"

I didn't answer. I just closed my eyes, refusing to look at him. This was the first time I had rejected Charles' affection.

He let out a cold snort and stood up abruptly. On his way out, he slammed the door behind him.

He did not come home that night.

Just as I was getting ready for bed, my phone's screen lit up.

Charles had posted on his social media. "Some sceneries are better admired alone. Cheers to being single tonight."

His meaning couldn't have been more obvious.

In the past, seeing him say he was single would've kept me up all night. I would've called him in tears, admitted that I was in the wrong, and begged for his forgiveness.

But now, all I did was turn my notifications off and go to sleep.

I slept great that night—until his friend's call woke me up.

"Cindy, Charles drank too much. Come pick him up. I heard that he has something important to do tomorrow."

Right after that, I heard a familiar voice on the other end of the phone call out the name Yvonne. His friend told me to come quickly before hanging up abruptly.

I rubbed my temples and pulled up Charles' proposal group chat.

I scrolled up, reading through the thousands of messages, until I found what I was looking for. Charles was planning to propose to Yvonne tomorrow.

Everything would be over by tomorrow.

With that in mind, I decided to take a cab to the bar. I just wanted a proper closure to my seven-year relationship.

At the entrance of the private room, I saw Charles and Yvonne surrounded by a group of their friends. They looked like the perfect match, especially with how intimate they were acting with each other.

Their friends were cheering, offering their blessings. Deafening music filled my ears, yet I heard nothing.

Taking a deep breath, I pushed the door open. The noise abruptly stopped.

Everyone stopped and stared at me in unison.

Charles' hazy gaze focused on me. When he finally realized who he was looking at, he smiled mockingly. "I knew you would come, Cindy! You were so indifferent this afternoon, but deep down, you can't let me go, can you?"

He deliberately tightened his arms around Yvonne as he spoke, as if making some sort of declaration.

"You're drunk, Charles. Stop messing around," Yvonne said, patting his arm. Then, she turned to me. "He drank a little too much tonight, Cindy. Could you take him home? We have something important tomorrow, and he can't be late."

I went up to Charles and reached out to pull him up. "Come on."

But he shook my hand off like a sulking child and turned to hug Yvonne instead, mumbling incoherently.

Yvonne smiled gently when she saw this. "Cindy will take care of you, Charles. Be good. I'll be waiting for you to propose to me tomorrow."

Ignoring the strange looks around me, I pulled Charles to his feet and called a cab.

On the way home, Yvonne kept calling Charles to check if we had arrived home. Her contact was saved as "Darling" on his phone. I stared at the word dazedly.

It was no wonder he'd never given me any affectionate nicknames during our seven years together. Even in bed, he would just call me by my name with cold detachment.

My hand trembled uncontrollably.

Unintentionally, I opened their chat history from a week ago.

"Why didn't you tell me you were back, Yvonne?"

"What's the use of telling you? You already have a girlfriend."

"Yvonne, don't be like this. I only treated her as your substitute. Now that you're back, we can get married immediately, okay?"

The tears I had been holding back finally fell, landing right on the word "substitute". My heart felt like it had shattered into pieces right then.

…

Charles slept until noon the next day, still hungover.

When he opened his eyes, he saw me bustling around, cleaning the room. Under his breath, he muttered, "Always wasting time on useless things."

Then, he got out of bed to help me, only to see the matching mugs in the trash bin. He paused.

"Didn't you make these mugs yourself at the pottery studio? Why did you throw them away?"

"They're leaking. I don't want them anymore."

Charles grabbed my hand. "What are you trying to say, Cindy?"

"Nothing." I wrest my hand out of his and said expressionlessly, "I thought you had an important event today. If you don't leave now, you'll be late."

Charles glanced at the clock on the wall. His expression darkened with anger. "Why didn't you wake me up earlier? Do you have any idea how important today is for me? Just wait. I'll deal with you when I get back!"

Panicked, he scrambled to gather his things and headed out.

"Wait, you forgot something." I stopped him and handed him the ring. "How will you propose to Yvonne without the ring?"