Everyone knows that I've been pursuing Ciara Hudson for several years now. For her sake, I reject a marriage alliance with the Langstons and invest ten billion dollars into saving the Hudsons from the brink of collapse.

But on the night before our wedding, while attempting to appease her adopted brother, Carl Hudson, Ciara allows him to take her to bed, right in our marital home.

After their steamy, sordid night together, Carl emerges from the bedroom dressed in my bathrobe, showing off the bite marks on his chest.

Ciara simply brushes it off with a smile, saying that Carl was merely throwing a tantrum and that I shouldn't take it to heart. She even uses the marriage to threaten me, demanding that I give Carl a house and some of my company's shares to ensure he never wants for anything in life.

She even says she'll make sure my family's lineage ends with me, all for Carl's sake.

The disgruntled Carl runs off with my car and even crashes into me on purpose. Even as I slump on the ground, covered in injuries, Ciara runs straight to Carl, who has nothing more than a few scratches, without sparing me so much as a glance.

As I lie on the hospital bed, my head finally clears. It occurs to me that my sacrifices have moved no one but myself, and how pointless it'll be to persist in them.

I call up Serena Langston, my business rival, and tell her I'll go through with the proposed marriage alliance between our families.

Since Ciara has betrayed me, I don't want her anymore.

It was the night before my wedding to my fiancee, Ciara Hudson. Out of nowhere, her adopted younger brother, Carl Hudson, locked her in our marital home and threatened to set her wedding gown on fire.

"Ciara, if you dare put this on to marry that old bastard, I'll burn this place to the ground!" Carl declared.

Ciara lunged for the lighter in his hand, only for him to press her against the wall.

"I waited for you for ten years. I've been waiting since the day we became a family! If you marry him, I'll kill myself right in front of you!"

I kicked the door open and stormed into the house, but Ciara swiftly shielded Carl and glared at me, her eyes red.

"Julian! Haven't you kicked up enough of a fuss? He's only 19 years old! Can't you just cut him some slack?"

At the very next moment, she unzipped her clothes and said decisively, "I'll give you what you want, Carl. I'll be yours tonight, but you must promise me you won't try to end your life ever again."

After watching as she led Carl into the bedroom and locked the door behind her, I pulled out my phone, my expression neutral.

"Inform all the guests that the wedding will proceed as planned. I will abide by my grandpa's wishes and marry you."

…

When the bedroom door opened, Ciara came out in Carl's shirt. The collar hung crooked, revealing the dark hickeys along her exposed collarbone.

She walked right past me and headed straight for the fridge, her steps a little unsteady. Her voice was curt and indifferent as she said, "Don't make things difficult for Carl, Julian. He's just throwing a tantrum because he's used to being closest to me. That's all."

"That's all?" I repeated with a snort. "You'd do something this shameless just to coax him, huh?"

Ciara slammed the water glass down on the table and snapped, "That's enough! You know damn well how important Carl is to me!"

Hearing the commotion, Carl finally emerged from the room, dressed in a bathrobe that was embroidered with my initials.

"Ever since we were little, Ciara has always given me anything I wanted, Julian," he remarked, chuckling as he tugged aside the collar of the bathrobe to reveal the scratches on his chest.

"She said I did so well in bed just now and even promised that if I behave myself, in the future, we'll—"

"Carl!" Ciara interrupted, her face scarlet. She grabbed a throw pillow from the couch and threw it at him, saying, "Don't you dare say another word!"

Carl picked up the pillow before shooting me a taunting look. "See that, Julian? She can't even bear to truly get mad at me."

My stomach churned at the sight of them flaunting their shamelessness after their illicit act.

Everyone around us knew that I spent three long years pursuing Ciara. If she so much as frowned, I'd spend almost the entire day trying to figure out why.

On the day she agreed to be my girlfriend, I was so overwhelmed with joy that I rented out an entire island and put on a fireworks show that lasted all night long.

For her sake, I rebelled against my grandfather and endured his wrath, just to call off the marriage alliance that had been arranged between my family, the Spencers, and the Langstons.

Although my parents and others in the family rebuked me for my foolishness, all that mattered to me was keeping Ciara happy.

Even when she wanted me to buy Carl a villa in the suburbs, I signed the purchase agreement without even reading it.

In all honesty, I believed I'd already been more than generous with the two of them.

"What's with the long face, Julian?" Ciara questioned.

She came over to touch my face, but I instinctively jerked my head aside to avoid her. With her hand hanging stiffly in the air, she snapped sharply, "The wedding ceremony's tomorrow. Must you insist on making things ugly between us?"

"I'm the one making things ugly between us?"

Eyeing the oversized shirt on her, I retorted, "What do you call sleeping with Carl in our marital home then?"

"I was just—"

"Save it," I cut her off heatedly. "You're just going to say that you two are close—so close that you'd even get naked and roll in the sheets with him."

Ciara was just about to argue when the sound of high heels approaching the door interrupted us.

Her bridesmaids had arrived.

Grace Morris, the maid of honor, spotted the hickeys on Ciara's neck and said with a teasing grin, "Oh, my! You two aren't even married yet. I guess you couldn't wait, huh?"

"Hah! Like he had anything to do with those!" Carl fumed with a scowl on his face.

He marched over and threw his arm around Ciara's waist to stake his claim. "I'm the only one who can be Ciara's first."

The atmosphere tensed at once as the smiles on the faces of all of Ciara's friends stiffened. After a long pause, Grace made a feeble attempt to smooth things over.

"He's just a kid who likes to crack jokes. The two of them are just fooling around. Don't take it seriously, Mr. Spencer."

"Who said I'm joking?" Carl scoffed, his eyebrows raised in contempt. Raising his voice, he declared, "Ciara belongs to me! If you don't believe me, feel free to check the bedroom! Her blood is still on the sheets!"

"Carl!"

Ciara was so mad that she slapped him.

Clutching his cheek, Carl stared at her in disbelief. "I can't believe you'd hit me for that old bastard!"

"That's enough."

I turned to leave, afraid that if I stayed even for a second longer, I wouldn't be able to resist beating him up as well.

"You stop right there, Julian!" Ciara cried out as she ran up to me and grabbed me. "Where do you think you're going? You can't leave, not when Carl is still upset!"

Grace and the rest of Ciara's friends also tried to reason with me.

"Ciara's right, Mr. Spencer. She's going to become your wife tomorrow, and she only agreed to marry you after you proposed three times. You must cherish her!"

"Exactly. It's not like we're still living in the olden days. Who cares about a woman's first time anyway? It's not like Ciara has been fooling around with other men. She was just trying to appease her own brother."

"Carl is just young and immature. You should just cut him some slack. After all, you'll all be part of the same family soon enough."

"Who said I'm young and immature?" Carl snapped. His eyes were bloodshot as he wagged his finger at me and declared, "Do you think you're so great just because you've got money, Julian? I'm the one Ciara loves, right from the very start!"

He grabbed his jacket off the couch and marched out of the house, slamming the door behind him.

No sooner had Carl slammed the door than Ciara lunged at me, her eyes red as well.

"Are you happy now, Julian? It took me two hours to appease him, and now you've driven him off with just a few words!"

Two hours, huh?

I couldn't believe she could be shameless enough to bring that up.

My throat tightened at the sight of her blatantly accusatory gaze. All of the sincerity I'd shown her in the past several years seemed to be nothing compared to a single one of Carl's tantrums.

Grabbing her handbag in frustration, Ciara threatened, "If anything happens to him, I'll make sure you have hell to pay!"

As soon as she opened the door, however, she was halted by the people who emerged from the elevator.

After seeing the marks on Ciara's neck and noticing the mess in the house, Mr. and Mrs. Hudson both turned pale.

"Why are you two arguing in the middle of the night? Tomorrow, you'll be—"

"Mr. and Mrs. Hudson," I interrupted while jerking down my necktie. "It's just as well that you're here. I won't beat around the bush. Let's call off the wedding."

Mr. Hudson's knees buckled, and Mrs. Hudson had to hold him steady, all the while staring at me in terror.

"D-Don't scare us like that, Mr. Spencer. This joke isn't funny at all!"

"I'm not joking."

Looking right at Ciara, I continued with a sarcastic smirk, "Since you two found yourself a suitable son-in-law and raised him with your family all along, why did you bother making a show of begging me and my family?"

Mr. and Mrs. Hudson looked even more panicked. "What are you talking about? You're the only son-in-law we accept!"

Scoffing, I retorted, "Since there seems to be no limit to certain people's shamelessness, I don't mind being more blunt.

"The two Hudson siblings share such an intimate bond that they'll even get in bed together. Since Ciara adores Carl so much, and you two know all there is to know about him, what's the harm in letting your adopted son become your son-in-law instead? After all, you're already a family."

Ciara's face drained of color. Clutching her handbag even more tightly, she growled, "Don't be ridiculous, Julian!"

"I'm the one being ridiculous?"

Three years ago, it was Mr. Hudson who came to my office, got on his knees, and begged me to save the Hudson family.

Ciara, who'd always been a proud and standoffish woman, compromised for the first time, saying, "As long as you agree to help us, Julian, I'll be your girlfriend."

At the time, her gaze had been stubborn and defiant. There was no affection in her eyes, only the hardened numbness of being backed into a corner with no other options left.

After the Hudsons left us alone in my office, she refused to even stand near me, stiffly declaring, "I'm only going to date you out of obligation, Julian. This is nothing more than a business deal."

I was a fool to think that with enough earnestness, a person's heart could be thawed. Now, I finally understood that no amount of effort made a difference if one didn't have a place in the other's heart.

Over the years, I'd invested ten billion dollars into the Hudson family's business. I bought out three of their competitors and even ceded the export opportunities I had to them.

With the help of my family, in just three years, the Hudsons managed to turn their near-bankrupt factory into a well-known company.

I thought I'd given them enough, but in Ciara's eyes, none of this mattered more than Carl.

Falling to his knees, Mr. Hudson cried out, "We're the ones who failed to raise our daughter well, Mr. Spencer! Please, on account of how we've done everything you told us to in the last few years, do give Ciara another chance!"

"Ciara simply had a momentary lapse of judgment, Mr. Spencer!" Mrs. Hudson cried out tearfully as well. "You're the only one she wants to marry."

Standing to the side, Ciara had turned bright red, but her lips were pressed tightly together. Through it all, she didn't say a single word.

It was only after her friends had managed to talk her parents into leaving that she finally vented all of her displeasure.

"My parents aren't young anymore, Julian! Must you threaten them with the company?"

"Threaten them?" I repeated with a snort.

Ciara sure knew how to twist things around.

"They're the ones who begged me for help back then. If you truly cared about your parents, you'd know what the consequences are for betraying me."

After Ciara stumbled backward, her phone abruptly started ringing.

"Carl! Where are you?"

I didn't know what he said, but her face turned pale, and her lips trembled as she cried out, "Don't do anything rash! I didn't say I'd marry him. Just stop the car first…"

Once the call ended, Ciara glared at me. "Carl's drunk, and he's driving on the highway right now. He said that if I marry you, he'll crash the car."

Taking a step closer, she snarled, "If you have even the slightest bit of conscience left, Julian, you'd stop pressuring us like that!"

As I stared at the blatant threat in Ciara's eyes, I found the entire situation laughable. She was the woman I'd loved and cherished with all my heart for three years—a woman who'd use our marriage to coerce me for the sake of Carl, her adopted brother, whose sole desire was to sleep with her.

"So?" I questioned. "Are you now begging me to help him?"

"Why, you!"

Ciara was shaking with rage, but after thinking of something, she said with a sneer, "Don't think I don't know what's going through your head, Julian. You're just acting like this to make me beg you, right? Fine, then. I'm begging you. Happy now?

"Go out there and bring him back right this minute!"

After a pause, she added fiercely, "Otherwise, even if we get married tomorrow, I won't ever let you touch me! Once we're married, I'll get an IUD—I'll even tie my tubes to see to it that the Spencer family bloodline ends with you!"

Staring at her vengeful expression, I let out an abrupt chuckle.

She wanted to end my family bloodline, huh? She sure thought highly of herself.

Just as I turned to leave, however, I noticed that the keys to my limited-edition Maybach were now missing from the counter in the hallway.

Carl must've stolen them.

Noticing that I'd paused, Ciara realized what had happened, and her face took on a look of triumphant smugness.

"If I recall correctly, you can track the GPS location of that car, right? Even if you don't care about Carl, you should think about that precious car of yours, the one you spent over six months waiting for."

My heart clenched. In all honesty, no matter how expensive a car was, it was nothing more than a car to me. However, the emerald locket that my deceased grandmother gave me was hanging in that car. It was the last token of hers I had to remember her by.

"Why are you still standing there?" Ciara snapped impatiently. "I'm warning you. If Carl does anything rash—"

"Shut up."

Cutting her off, I called up my assistant, Henry Verne. "Bring over a car for me, and send me the location of my car."

I turned back around and eyed Ciara coldly. "Stop bothering me with asinine threats."

…

When Henry brought the car over, I got in, buckled my seatbelt, and drove straight to the GPS location of my car.

My phone started ringing. I wanted to reject the call, but after seeing who the caller was, I took a deep breath and answered it.

Serena Langston's voice was as crisp as ever. "Julian, about tomorrow, are you sure this decision you've made isn't just a whim of yours in the heat of the moment?"

Rubbing my forehead, I replied, "Do I look like the type of person who'd be this impulsive with a marriage alliance?"

"Nope," Serena admitted with a laugh. "But you do look like a fool who's lost his mind because of another woman."

"That's why I need a partner who's clear-headed," I replied.

I checked the location of the Maybach. It was racing toward a mountainous area on the outskirts of the city.

Frowning, I continued, "Langston Group wants to claim the renewable energy market in Eudorea, and my family's business channels are your easiest way in. Our marriage will be a mutually beneficial one."

After a moment of silence, Serena said, "But I won't want to marry a man who's in love with another woman."

"From tonight onward, that's no longer the case," I said, still staring at the GPS tracker on my screen. "See you at the wedding ceremony tomorrow."

I ended the call and floored the accelerator. At the end of the mountain road, I finally spotted the familiar car. However, it suddenly turned around and sped straight toward me.

The headlights blinded me. I couldn't react in time.

The impact of the crash made me lose control of the car. My forehead bashed against the steering wheel, and blood immediately trickled down my face.

As the pain ripped through my body, my vision began to dim. Through the shattered window, I saw the door of the Maybach opening.

Carl stumbled out of the car, clutching a glinting item in his hand—the emerald locket Grandma left to me!

"This is probably worth quite a bit of money, huh?"

I tried my best to crawl toward him, but a few of my ribs seemed to have broken. Even the slightest movement made me tremble from the pain.

"Let go of it…"

"Let go of it, you say?" Carl repeated as he kicked my car door aside. "You've been pestering Ciara for years now! I don't see you doing me a favor and letting her go."

Carl raised his hand and flung the emerald locket heavily onto the ground. Even though it cracked with a crisp sound, it wasn't enough for him. He even stomped on it for good measure.

"Carl!" I bellowed, my throat raw. "That belonged to my grandma!"

"Who the hell cares about your grandma!" Carl roared back at me before clutching me by my bloodied shirt and dragging me out of the car.

Pointing at the hickeys on his neck, he declared, "Ciara gave these to me. I'm the only one who gets to touch her. Do you think she actually likes you? She simply treats you like a personal ATM!"

The more he spoke, the more exhilarated he became.

"As for all the properties, shares, and sports car she demands from you, haven't they all been for me?"

Carl stared at me for a moment before letting out a maniacal laugh, saying, "You think you're so great, don't you, Julian? Since you stole Ciara from me, I'm going to kill you for it!"

With that, he grabbed my collar and started hauling me toward the cliff.