I was a painter, but a car accident took my eyesight. When I was at my lowest, it was my childhood friend, Connor Pitt, who stayed by my side the whole time. He became the only light left in my life.

Later, we got married. However, two years into our marriage, I accidentally discovered a recording on the computer.

“Connor, thank you for saving me. But you hid the truth from Faye and took her corneas for me. When she wakes up, how are you going to explain it to her? What if she calls the police?”

“She won’t find out the truth. I won’t let her. She’s blind anyway. I’ll marry her and keep her under my control, right by my side. June, for you, I’d do anything.”

I was stunned, and a shiver ran down my spine. The salvation I thought I had found had been a lie from the very beginning.

After sending a copy of the recording to my phone, I scheduled an abortion at the hospital. If that was the case, then it was time for us to go our separate ways.

Seeing that I was blind and that I had come alone for an abortion, the doctor stated with concern, “An abortion isn’t a minor procedure. Where’s your family? Should I call them to be with you?”

I shook my head. “I don’t have a family.”

My parents died in a car accident ten years ago, and after that, the Pitt family took me in. My parents and the Pitts had been close friends for years, so Connor and I grew up together like childhood sweethearts. Back then, he promised he would always take care of me. However, everything changed after June Austen appeared.

June had a bold, vibrant personality, and Connor was drawn to her without even realizing it. From that moment on, he became her constant protector. Even after June got married, he still loved her.

During that car accident, both June and I were in the same car. We had been on our way to an international painting competition. I had always believed the accident was what took my eyesight, but it turned out that the one whose eyes were injured was June.

To cure her, Connor took my sight. All these years, the kindness he showed me was nothing more than guilt and compensation. And yet, I mistook it for the salvation of my life, thinking it was love. How ironic.

Lowering my head, I signed my name on the surgery consent form. Half an hour later, the procedure was over. I lay in the hospital room under observation when my phone suddenly rang. The caller was Connor.

“Faye, where are you? Why didn’t you bring a servant with you? I’ll send someone to pick you up. You can’t see. It’s not safe for you to be wandering around alone. I’m worried about you.”

His voice was full of urgency, but I could no longer feel any sincerity behind it.

Suppressing the emotions rising in my chest, I replied calmly, “I felt a little cooped up at home, so I came out for a walk. I’m heading back now.”

After hanging up, I got up, got changed, and left the room.

While handling the discharge procedures, I accidentally walked straight into someone. Just as I was about to fall, a pair of hands quickly caught me.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize you were blind,” the man apologized hurriedly.

I shook my head in his direction, signaling that it was fine. However, he didn’t let go of me. Instead, he gently opened my eyelids and examined my eyes, muttering to himself.

“Your condition is actually very treatable. All you need is a cornea transplant, and you’ll be able to see again. Why has it been delayed for so long?”

My breathing hitched for a moment.

Worried, I asked, “Are you saying I’d be able to see again?”

“Yes,” he replied. “I’m a new ophthalmologist at this hospital. Your eyes can definitely be treated.”

My mind buzzed, and my thoughts drifted back to two years ago.

During the six months after the accident, Connor took me to hospitals all over the country and even abroad, trying to cure my eyes. Every doctor we saw said the same thing: my eyes were too severely damaged, and my vision would never return. Yet now, someone was telling me that my condition could be treated.

A bold thought slowly formed in my mind. Could it be… that Connor had been preventing me from restoring my eyesight all along?

When I returned home, I pretended nothing was wrong. The moment I stepped inside, Connor pulled me into his arms.

His deep voice was filled with concern. “It’s freezing outside, and with your condition, you shouldn’t be going out alone. Next time, take the driver and a servant along with you. Otherwise, I’ll worry.

“You must be hungry, right? Let’s eat first. I had the cook make your favorite grilled branzino.”

Before I could respond, he scooped me up in his arms and carried me toward the dining room.

At the dinner table, Connor carefully removed the fish bones from my portion the entire time. Only after I set down my utensils did he begin eating. However, his attentiveness no longer felt the same to me.

After dinner, he claimed he had a company meeting and left in a hurry. I took out my phone and searched for the name of Connor’s company before reading the latest news.

I couldn’t see the screen, so I relied on the phone’s voice reader to read the text aloud.

“Tonight, Pitt Group spent a huge sum at auction to purchase painter June Austen’s latest work…”

There was also a photo from the news article. I could only imagine how happy Connor must have looked in that group picture.

I walked to the room at the end of the second-floor corridor. It was Connor’s collection room, and he often spent an entire day in there. Because I couldn’t see, he had never been guarded around me.

I pushed the door open. Then, I took out my phone and carefully photographed the entire room. After that, I uploaded the pictures online and asked netizens what they were.

Very quickly, comments began appearing under the post.

“Isn’t this painter June Austen’s artwork? It looks like the poster is a huge fan of June.”

“If you ask me, aside from the few paintings that won awards, the rest of June’s works look like a different person painted them. They’re not worth collecting at all.”

“Wow, that’s a lot of paintings. I counted. There are exactly one hundred and twenty of them.”

After reading the comments, I searched for information about June online.

Over the past two years, she had won quite a number of domestic and international awards for her work. And every time she received an award, Connor would personally attend to congratulate her.

To raise June’s reputation, Connor had even spent enormous sums of money bidding her paintings up to sky-high prices at auctions. There was even news about how June’s husband’s company had once fallen into crisis, and Pitt Group stepped in with financing to resolve it.

He truly loved June so much that he couldn’t bear to see her suffer. He was even willing to help his own romantic rival. His love for June was so pure, and I was so “moved”.

Early the next morning, I went to three different hospitals to get my eyes examined. All of them reached the same conclusion: if I underwent a cornea transplant, there was a very high chance I could regain my sight.

In fact, Connor had taken me to these same three hospitals over the past two years. However, back then, every doctor had said my condition was untreatable. Now I was certain that Connor simply didn’t want my eyesight restored.

As soon as I walked out of the hospital, I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I crouched down by the roadside and burst into tears. Injustice, confusion, and pain filled me. I had endured two years of lies, and I was done with it.

After calming down, I went to a law firm and obtained two copies of the divorce papers. I placed the documents into my bag and stood by the roadside to hail a taxi.

A moment later, a car stopped in front of me, and the driver rolled down the window.

“Faye? Why are you here alone? I’m heading to Connor’s company right now. Get in. I’ll take you with me.”

It was June’s voice.

Before I could refuse, she got out of the car, grabbed my arm, and pushed me into the vehicle. The entire ride there, she didn’t stop humiliating me.

“I remember our mentor telling the whole class that you’d become a great painter someday. What a pity fate had other plans. Now that you can’t even see, how are you supposed to paint? And honestly, you should thank me. If I hadn’t rejected Connor, would you have ever had the chance to marry him? With you being blind, you’d probably struggle just to support yourself.”

The hand resting on my lap slowly clenched into a tight fist. June had taken my eyes and destroyed my life, yet she still had the nerve to say that. She and Connor were so perfectly matched.

After getting out of the car, we had barely stepped into the company building when I heard the employees whispering.

“That’s Mr. Pitt’s wife, isn’t it? Seeing her standing next to Ms. Austen… the contrast is honestly heartbreaking. One is a blind woman with a cane, and the other is a powerful career woman who walks like she owns the place.”

“No wonder Mr. Pitt always invites Ms. Austen to accompany him to events. Who would want to take a blind woman out?”

“But I heard Mr. Pitt and his wife were childhood sweethearts. Maybe he just doesn’t take her out often because he wants to protect her.”

When we stepped into the elevator, June suddenly laughed. “Oh, poor Faye. I’m starting to feel sorry for you. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure to enjoy seeing this world for you.”

The anger I had been holding in for so long exploded in an instant. I threw away my cane and raised my hand, swinging it toward her face. She easily dodged the slap, but the moment the elevator doors opened, she suddenly let out a piercing scream.

“Faye! Why did you hit me?”

A second later, someone rushed into the elevator and slammed into me, knocking me to the floor. Then, they helped June up.

Connor’s voice rang out, filled with anger. “Faye, why would you attack Junie? She ran into you on the road and kindly brought you here to the company for me. Why are you acting like a lunatic?”

I collapsed onto the floor. A sharp pain twisted through my abdomen, making it hard to breathe. I had just undergone an abortion yesterday. There was no way my body could handle the force of Connor shoving me like that.

I reached out, found my cane on the ground, and forced myself to stand.

“I may be blind,” I said coldly, “but my heart isn’t. Connor, you and June both know what you have done to betray me.”

His voice immediately turned flustered. “What are you talking about? What have we done? Junie and I are innocent. If you had any misunderstandings, you could’ve asked me. Instead, you chose to hit someone. Acting in front of everyone like that, how do you think the employees at the company will see me now? How will they see you?”

Before I could say another word, June suddenly burst into tears.

“This is all my fault,” she sobbed. “I shouldn’t have brought Faye to the company without asking. That’s what caused this misunderstanding. In the future, I’ll keep my distance from both of you. This won’t happen again. I should leave.”

With that, June ran out, and Connor rushed after her.

Listening to their footsteps fading farther and farther away, I finally lost the strength to stay upright. My body gave out, and before I slumped down, I whispered, “Connor, we’re over.”

When I woke up again, I was lying in a hospital bed. Only then did Connor call me.

“Faye, about what happened today… I hope you won’t take it to heart,” he said. “I didn’t mean those things I said to you. There were so many employees watching. I had to say something to protect you. Otherwise, how would people see you in the future?

“Just get some rest at the hospital. Don’t get upset again. I’m on my way there now, and I’ll accompany you for another checkup. Don’t be mad, okay? For your birthday this year, how about I take you abroad for a vacation?”

What a liar. When he yelled at me earlier, the anger in his voice had been unmistakable. He had truly been furious. All those sweet talks earlier were just to keep me stable—to make sure I stayed under his control and didn’t discover the truth. He was afraid I would retaliate against the woman he truly loved, June.

Well, unfortunately for him, I didn’t want to be part of this charade anymore. Giving Connor my sight could be considered repayment for the years the Pitt family raised me. From this moment on, Connor and I were even. When he arrived at the hospital, I would ask for a divorce.

About fifteen minutes later, the door was pushed open. However, the person who walked in wasn’t Connor; it was his assistant.

There was a trace of sympathy in the assistant’s voice. “Madam, Mr. Pitt had an urgent project meeting overseas, so he told me to come take care of you. If you need anything, please let me know. Oh, and he bought you a strawberry cake. He said he hopes you won’t be upset.”

My face remained expressionless as I replied, “Alright. I understand.”

I held the still-warm phone tightly in my hand, yet my heart felt ice cold.

Just moments ago, the news had reported that June’s husband had been caught meeting a female celebrity at a hotel overseas. Connor’s sudden trip abroad was probably to deal with that situation. He had gone to support June, and he had been in such a hurry that he couldn’t even call to explain it himself. Instead, he casually sent an assistant to brush me off.

Besides, he had forgotten something: I hated strawberry cake. I hated it because my parents had died in a car accident while going out to buy one for me. However, Connor’s mind was filled only with June now. Nothing else mattered to him anymore.

Early the next morning, I called him. I believed that a matter like divorce should at least be said in person.

The call connected, but the voice on the other end wasn’t Connor’s. It was June’s.

“Faye,” she said mockingly, “do you really think Connor married you because he likes you?”

Then, I heard Connor’s sleepy voice in the background.

“Junie… who’s calling?”

“It’s just a spam call, some sales advertisement.”

With a click, the call ended, leaving only the busy tone in my ear. I didn’t call again. There was no point anyway.

After getting dressed, I returned to Connor’s villa and packed my luggage. I only took the things I had first brought with me into that house.

When the butler asked with concern, I simply said that Connor and I were going on vacation. I left the signed divorce papers on his desk and placed a USB drive containing the recording beside it. Then, I carried my luggage and got into the car heading for the airport.

When I arrived at the airport, I received a message from him.

[Faye, I’ll be home tomorrow morning. I bought you a special gift overseas.]

I didn’t reply. Instead, I pulled the SIM card out of my phone and threw it into the trash.

When the plane landed in the Southern Banks, I took a car straight to an ophthalmology hospital. As I was pushed into the operating room, I felt strangely calm. Once the surgery was over, I’d be able to see again.

That afternoon, Connor felt his eyelids twitching nonstop. An inexplicable sense of unease crept over him. When he checked his phone and realized that I still hadn’t replied to his messages, he called the butler immediately.

“Mr. Pitt,” the butler said in confusion, “isn’t Madam on vacation with you?”