For ten years, I've served as the lover supporting Catherine Sanders from the shadows. With my help, she's able to save her company from the brink of bankruptcy and eventually gets it listed.

On the day before we're about to ring the bell, just as I'm about to propose to Catherine, she introduces her childhood sweetheart, Benedict Shaw. Apparently, he is to take over my position in her life.

She thanks me for my contributions throughout the decade, but her company is about to embark on a new journey. That means I'm no longer suitable to stay by her side.

As I watch the woman I spent the last ten years loving and sacrificing everything for using a bank card to dismiss me, I feel as though my heart has plunged into the icy abyss.

"I spent ten years devoting everything I have to you. In the end, it's nothing but a huge mistake."

But Catherine remains blind to the truth.

Once I quit my job, her company will cease to exist, just like my love for her.

The conference room was packed with executives, yet deathly silent.

My longtime colleagues watched me with undisguised anger and pity. I froze upon entering and instinctively turned toward the head of the table, where Catherine Sanders was seated.

At that instant, my eyes widened in surprise.

"Cate, who is this?"

I frowned and pointed at the man sitting beside Catherine at the head of the table.

That seat was supposed to be mine.

Ten years ago, Catherine's father died suddenly, leaving her a company buried in debt and on the brink of collapse. Just to be closer to the woman I admired, I gave up a high-paying overseas job and joined her without hesitation.

Back then, the company was buried in debt. Employees fled one after another. I was her only remaining staff member.

I wasn't just her secretary or her driver. I handled the company's workload, her logistics, and even the basic details of her daily living.

It was no exaggeration to say that without me, there would be no Sanders Technology today, and there certainly would not be the glamorous Catherine everyone admired.

Now the company was about to go public. I had planned to propose to her on the day of the listing. Yet here she was, with another man by her side, sitting in the position that should have been mine.

What did this mean?

As soon as my words fell, more than a dozen pairs of eyes in the room turned toward Catherine. The atmosphere became unnaturally still and tense.

Catherine's expression was calm but distant. She deliberately avoided my gaze and introduced him lightly, as if it were nothing.

"William Hayes, this is Benedict Shaw, our new assistant director. After the meeting, take him to HR to complete his onboarding. As for offices, you will have to make do and give up yours to him. His office will be closer to mine, which will make communication easier."

I stood there, feeling as if the ground had vanished beneath my feet.

He was Catherine's new assistant director, and I was expected to give up my office for him.

I had stayed with her when everyone else had abandoned the company. On paper, I was just the marketing manager, but in truth, I had been doing an assistant director's work all along.

For ten years, I had given everything I had, bringing the company back from near bankruptcy to the brink of its IPO.

However, I had never once been formally appointed assistant director. That position had always been left vacant.

Right when it mattered most, someone was suddenly parachuted in, given the title, and I was told to hand over my office.

What did that make me?

Even if I took a step back and told myself I didn't care about the title, she knew exactly how much I loved her over these ten years.

It was that love that had built Sanders Technology into what it was today, and now she had done this without even a word to me.

What was I in her eyes? A rag to be used and discarded, or worse, someone who had never mattered at all?

Thinking of everything I had given over the past decade, I felt deeply unwilling to accept it, or perhaps I was still clinging to a trace of hope. I asked softly, "Can you give me a reason?"

I stared straight into Catherine's eyes. I could give up a position in the company, but I couldn't give up my place in her heart.

Whether out of guilt or weakness, she dared not meet my gaze. She sidestepped the truth and said, "The company is preparing to go public. We need a bigger strategy and broader opportunities. Benedict is simply more suitable as the assistant director."

In that instant, my heart plunged into an icy abyss.

It was a cold so deep, it felt like the world was closing in on me.

"Ms. Sanders, William has done more for this company than anyone else. He's officially the marketing manager, but he's been handling assistant director duties all along. And now, just as we're about to go public, you bring someone else in for that role. Isn't that too much?"

"Exactly. Without William, there wouldn't be Sanders Technology today. If you don't appoint him Assistant Director, I'll be the first to object!"

Several colleagues who had worked alongside me for years couldn't hold back their frustration and spoke up in my defense.

Catherine's expression darkened instantly. She swept her gaze across the room and said coldly, "Am I the boss, or are you the boss? Do I need your approval to make decisions?"

Her gaze softened as they landed on me.

"I know this seems unfair, but Benedict is a returnee with a PhD in Economics. He understands public company management and is more qualified in every way. This isn't personal—it's for the company's future. After ten years by my side, you should be able to see that."

I lost my patience and snapped, "Stop with the fancy excuses. Isn't this really because he's your childhood sweetheart?"

In college, Catherine had been my senior. She was striking, from a respected family, and admired by every guy at school.

It was rumored she had a childhood love. They had a passionate romance, but for some reason, he left the country after high school.

After she had been drinking one night, I walked her home, and she kept muttering Benedict's name.

When I heard the name just now, I knew exactly what was going on.

Catherine's face flickered with unease at my blunt revelation, then quickly shifted to disdain.

"That's right. He is my first love, but am I wrong for saying so? Let me be honest. The company is about to go public, and based on your skills and qualifications, you're not suited for the assistant director role. The reason I've kept the position vacant all these years was to reserve it for him."

Her words hit me like a punch to the chest. I swayed on my feet, and in that instant, the last thread of hope inside me snapped.

Back then, she said she kept me from the assistant director role so I wouldn't create distance with the team. I had trusted her blindly.

When I finally heard the truth from her, it dawned on me that ten years of my life had been wasted and that I had never mattered to her at all.

Rage, sorrow, and resentment surged through me all at once.

If giving the assistant director role to her childhood love without talking to me was a rejection of my ten years of effort, then keeping the position empty for ten years just for him was an insult to the love I had devoted to her.

Back in my office, I couldn't make sense of it. For ten years, I had given everything to her and to the company. I had sacrificed countless opportunities, and she had known my feelings, even enjoyed the love I gave her.

I couldn't understand why she would suddenly treat me like this. After ten years of pouring my heart and soul into the company and loving her so deeply, could it really be that all of it didn't compare to a childhood sweetheart who had suddenly returned?

"William, everyone knows how much you care for Catherine. They've all been rooting for you, and now she brings her first love into the company to take the assistant director role that should have been yours. It's outrageous. You should quit and take the team with you," Lucas Grant said, storming into my office.

He was the angriest about her betrayal this time, and to protest, he even suggested the entire team walk out and go on strike.

I said nothing.

Through the glass, I saw Catherine standing outside, wrapped in a pearl-white gown that accentuated her poised, cold elegance.

Benedict stood beside her, and the two of them laughed together. A tightness gripped my chest.

For Catherine, I had fought for ten full years. I went from a naive young man charging forward for love to a middle-aged man still holding the line for it. Along the way, I missed and lost far too much.

I turned down high-paying overseas offers, rejected several women who pursued me, and pinned my entire heart on her. I even missed the chance to see my mother one last time.

After everything we had experienced, I truly thought she understood my feelings. I was sure we were meant to be together, and yet…

"William, stop hesitating," Lucas urged, jolting me out of my trance.

After a brief silence, I said softly, "You joined Sanders Technology straight out of your internship. Are you really willing to leave?""

He stiffened at my words, then said nothing.

From the brink of bankruptcy to the point we had reached now, Sanders Technology had been a child we had nurtured ourselves. Lucas couldn't bring himself to leave, and neither could I.

Above all, I couldn't bear losing Catherine, whom I had loved for ten years and nurtured to the heights she now stood at.

To be precise, I was unwilling to accept this, and I refused to give up.

Most of the company's employees had been hired and trained by me. They were deeply unhappy with how the company was treating me and protested in their own ways.

Whenever Benedict gave orders, they either pretended to follow or simply stalled. They looked busy, but nothing got done, and the materials he needed never arrived on time. When he attempted to win them over with dinner, everyone found excuses not to attend. In the end, no one came.

Catherine called meeting after meeting over this. She even lost her temper during them, but everyone continued to do as they pleased.

After half a month of this stalemate, she had no choice but to come to me.

"What do you mean by this?"

I stared at the check Catherine extended before me, then looked up at her with a frown.

Catherine said, "You've put in years of hard work. Without you, the company wouldn't exist as it does now. But for it to grow…"

I cut her short, looking at her with a blank expression. "If you have something to say, just say it."

My bluntness clearly annoyed her. Still, she forced herself to hold back her anger, let out a sigh, and said, "William, you can see for yourself. Because of you, Ben can barely get any work done…"

"William? Ben?" I interrupted her, smiling bitterly.

A profound, chilling sorrow filled my heart.

All these years, she had always called me Will when we were alone, and I called her Cate. Now, she used my full name while addressing him with such an intimate nickname.

It seemed my ten years of devotion were no match for the return of her childhood sweetheart.

Something in my smile or expression must have struck a nerve. Catherine's face flushed with a mix of anger and humiliation as she glared at me.

"Your presence is already disrupting the company's operations. I've decided to ask you to leave. To compensate for your contributions, you may write a check for any amount up to 100 million dollars."

I had already guessed the outcome, but hearing her say it aloud still made me stagger. I stared at her, unable to believe my ears.

"What did you just say?"

She seemed to assume I thought the amount was too small and bristled immediately.

"William, I acknowledge that the company owes its success to you, but you mustn't go too far. For a struggling student like you, trading ten years of your life for 100 million dollars is already an incredible return."

"An incredible gain, my foot!" I raged silently.

To hear that from the woman I had loved for ten years made my heart ache so sharply I could hardly breathe. And yet, I refused to accept them.

"I gave up a high-paying overseas job to join your company on the brink of collapse. I spent ten years devoted to this, giving my youth and everything I had, enduring endless hardships, and even coming close to losing my life—and you think I did it all for money?"

Catherine leaned back in her executive chair, looking at me coldly with a sneer.

"Isn't that the case? People from humble backgrounds like yours are always trying to seize a chance and gamble on a brilliant future. You won the bet. 100 million dollars is more than enough. I hope you know your place."

Only then did I realize that this was how she had seen me all along. No wonder she had always refused to appoint me as the assistant director. It wasn't a matter of ability. I simply wasn't worthy of her.

It seemed I had spent ten years of my life on the wrong person.