I made my way to the hotel entrance. I was just about to contact a family member to pick me up when I heard the sounds of hurried footsteps behind me.

"Colin!"

Sabrina had chased after me. Matthew was hot on her heels. His face was as white as a sheet, and he looked quite upset.

"What do you want?" I asked, frowning.

"You crossed the line tonight," Sabrina said. "How dare you reject me so many times! I know that you're still angry, but I might actually believe your lies if you keep rejecting me."

I rolled my eyes. I took a deep breath before saying, "I was being serious. I won't accept your proposal, Sabrina. I stopped loving you three years ago. Besides, I'm already married."

I didn't expect Sabrina to scoff upon hearing my words. "Drop the act. I'm going to get angry."

"She's right, Colin," Matthew chimed in. "Everyone knows that you love Sabrina. How could you possibly marry someone else? Sabrina loves you too. That's why I'm willing to give the two of you my blessing…"

Tears welled up in his eyes as he spoke.

"That's impossible," Sabrina mumbled. "There's simply no way that you're married. You wore my favorite red shirt today. You even used my favorite cologne. You knew that I was going to propose to you today, didn't you?"

I didn't understand why, but I was suddenly struck with the realization that it was pointless to talk to them.

"I'm married," I repeated. "Our relationship ended three years ago, Sabrina. I'm a married man now, so stop bothering me. My reputation will be affected if someone snaps a picture of us together. My wife loves me very much, and we're very happy together.

"As for the red shirt and cologne—I'm sorry, but I forgot your preferences a long time ago."

"Why do you insist on lying to us, Colin?" Matthew suddenly demanded. "Why are you hurting Sabrina this way? If you're married, why did you return to the country alone?"

Sabrina's eyes lit up. Anticipation flickered in her eyes when she looked at me.

I could tell that she was under the assumption that I was madly in love with her.

I couldn't deny that Sabrina and I were childhood sweethearts in the past. Our families were also a good match, so it had only been a matter of time before we got together.

As the scion of my family, I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, but I was willing to work hard for her sake. I forgave her countless times after Matthew appeared in our lives. I had even covered for her in front of our families.

Unfortunately, Sabrina responded to my love for her by lying to me repeatedly.

She claimed that she only treated Matthew as if he were her younger brother, but would a sister share a bed with her brother to take care of him?

I realized that I had truly been blinded by love in the past as I took a trip down memory lane.

However, at that moment, I felt nothing but disdain when I looked at Sabrina.

"Say whatever you want," I said as I started walking away, ignoring the hint of hurt that flickered in Sabrina's eyes. "Just leave me alone. I never want to see the two of you ever again."

I thought that Sabrina would understand that it was impossible for us to rekindle our relationship after I made my stance blatantly clear.

However, I woke up to a barrage of messages the next day.

"Are you and Sabrina getting engaged, Colin?"

I had no idea what was going on. I tapped on the trending topics link that my friend sent me and frowned when I read the headline.

"Is Marriage on the Table for the Lawrence and Monroe Families? The Romance of a Pair of Childhood Sweethearts Is About to Become a Reality!"

The comments section was filled with clueless netizens expressing their envy for our love.

"I love them as a couple so much!"

"I didn't think that a romance between a prince and princess could actually happen in real life."

"It turns out that I'm just an NPC in this world."

I was about to contact the media to remove the trending topic when I received a call from Sabrina.

"Have you looked at the trending topics chart? Are you happy? I know that you care a lot about your reputation. You're not angry with me anymore, right?" Sabrina asked smugly.

"Are you the one who did this?" I asked coldly.

"Watch your tone. Our engagement was inevitable from the start," Sabrina replied haughtily. "You should feel honored that I'm willing to be your fiancee. Monroe Group is about to break into the international market. We're going to become the top company in the country."

Sabrina was clearly talking nonsense.

Monroe Group had been struggling financially for the last few years. In fact, I returned to the country to acquire the company.

I pretended to be clueless and said, "I had no idea that Monroe Group has been doing so well. But, I heard from Dad that Monroe Group's financial situation has been looking a little precarious recently."

Sabrina scoffed. "I'll have you know that I've been in contact with an internationally-renowned investor. She has already agreed to work with our company."

I was surprised to hear that Sabrina had managed to convince someone to invest in Monroe Group. If she succeeded, my plans of acquiring the company would go up in smoke.

My heart skipped a beat, but I swiftly regained my composure. "Is that so? Monroe Group will be elevated to an even higher level if that's the case. Will I get a chance to meet this investor of yours?"

"Of course," Sabrina answered without any hesitation. "I've already released the news about our engagement, which in turn stabilized Monroe Group's stock market value. In fact, the investor just sent me a message. She'll be attending our engagement party that's taking place in three days' time."

She lowered her voice before she continued, "That's why you must attend the engagement party. I can't guarantee that your company will remain unharmed if you don't. After all, the investor isn't someone that you can afford to cross."

It was easy to pick out the threat in Sabrina's words.

The seed of an idea was planted in my mind as I mulled over my thoughts. A few moments later, I said in a low voice, "Alright, Sabrina. I'll be there for the engagement party."

Sabrina invited hundreds of media outlets to cover the engagement party to generate buzz for the event. She also wanted to prove to the investor that the Monroe family was a force to be reckoned with.

During the party, Sabrina fixed an adoring expression on her face as she chattered endlessly to the reporters about how we were madly in love.

Meanwhile, I stood by her side emotionlessly.

Soon, it was time to show off the photos that were taken when she proposed to me. Her face twisted when the pictures appeared on the screen.

Instead of showing Sabrina and me being in love, the photos were of Sabrina and Matthew—irrefutable proof that she had cheated on me.

The photos showed Sabrina and Matthew celebrating the holidays together. There were also screenshots of their sweet conversations. A few borderline explicit photos of them being intimate with each other were also in the mix.

I grabbed the microphone from her and looked at the cameras, wiping away nonexistent tears.

"The truth is, Sabrina cheated on me three years ago. She lied to me, telling me she was going to propose on New Year's Eve. But in the end, she stood me up to spend time with her kept lover instead.

"Our relationship ended that day. Sabrina was the one who released the fake news about our engagement. She just wanted to use Lawrence Group's reputation to stabilize Monroe Group's stock market value."

Chaos erupted among the crowd the moment the words left my lips.

The camera flashes went off endlessly as the reporters eagerly bombarded us with questions.

"Is Mr. Lawrence telling the truth? Did you cheat on him?"

"Did you call off the engagement three years ago? Did this incident affect the relationship between the Lawrence and Monroe families?"

"Is Monroe Group's current circumstances as abysmal as Mr. Lawrence claims? Is the company's stock market value so low that the president has to resort to leaking fake news about getting engaged to stabilize the prices?"

The netizens also had plenty to say. Their envy for our perfect relationship morphed into hatred toward Sabrina.

Sabrina was totally helpless against the reporters' barrage of questions. She had no choice but to order the security guards to send them away.

The engagement party ultimately ended with nothing being accomplished.

Since I had exposed her ruse, Sabrina couldn't keep up the adoring act any longer either.

The moment the reporters left, she whirled on me and began interrogating me.

"How dare you, Colin Lawrence!" she gritted out. "You've ruined everything!"

I pointed at my phone and smiled. "Monroe Group's stock market value just plummeted. Your plans have fallen through."

"So what?" Sabrina exclaimed, her eyes wide. "You ungrateful fool! The investor will be arriving any minute now. Once I secure our partnership, Monroe Group's stock market value will rise again! The first company I'm going to tear down is Lawrence Group when that happens!"

Matthew chimed in, "She's right, Colin. You should apologize to Sabrina as soon as possible. I'm sure that she'll be willing to give you another chance if you admit your wrongdoing."

I chuckled. I was just about to speak when a familiar voice resounded toward us.

"Did I come at a bad time?"

Sabrina eagerly approached the woman and began fawning over her. She was just about to say something when the woman suddenly asked an incomprehensible question.

"I heard that you want to ruin my husband's company."