After hanging up, Clara felt as if the last bit of strength had been drained from her.

Like a wandering ghost, she made her way back to the small apartment she shared with Adrian. The moment she stepped inside, her eyes fell on a photo of them at eighteen, standing beneath a blooming cherry blossom tree.

"I, Adrian, will only ever marry Clara in this lifetime. I will never break this promise."

The vow beneath the cherry blossoms still echoed in her ears, yet reality struck her across the face like a brutal slap.

Clara wiped away the tears on her face, a bitter smile tugging at her lips as she slipped off the silver ring on her finger.

They had made it together in a small workshop the year they graduated. Back then, knowing he had no money, she had deliberately chosen the cheapest silver ring.

And yet today, she had watched him place a massive diamond ring onto Sienna's finger.

It had never been about money. Only about whether he cared.

Without hesitation, she tossed the ring into the toilet. Just as she was about to flush it away, the front door opened.

Adrian was back.

The moment he saw her, he froze briefly before quickly stepping forward and wrapping his arms around her from behind.

"Clara, when did you get back? Are you hurt?"

His warm lips brushed against the back of her ear, filled with tender concern, as if she were something fragile.

For a moment, Clara felt disoriented.

It all felt like a dream—as if Adrian had never betrayed her, never proposed to Sienna.

But the next second, she caught the faint scent of perfume on him—citrus and rose. Sienna's favorite fragrance.

A wave of nausea hit her. The man behind her felt unbearably fake—disgusting.

For seven years, he had played both sides—juggling two women, making a fool out of her.

A surge of instinctive disgust rose within her, and she shoved Adrian away.

"What's wrong? You don't look happy." Adrian frowned, his gaze falling on her fingers. "Where's your ring? Why aren't you wearing it?"

Suppressing the nausea rising in her chest, Clara pressed her lips together. "I put it away. It gets in the way when I'm sketching."

His expression eased. As if recalling something, he took her hand and pressed a light kiss to the faint mark where the ring had been.

"I was actually looking for you. Clara, you should drop out of the jewelry design competition."

If it had been yesterday, she might have asked why. But now, she didn't need to.

He wanted her to give up because Sienna was competing too.

She didn't expose him. Lowering her gaze, she said quietly, "This has always been my dream. I won't give it up, no matter what."

"But you're a doctor." Adrian's tone turned flat. "You weren't trained in jewelry design. What you make is average at best. Why enter a competition just to embarrass yourself?"

Clara let out a cold laugh. "The results aren't even out yet. How do you know it'll be embarrassing?"

Her instructor at the design institute had once said that with her talent, she would shine brilliantly in the design world.

She was about to say more when Adrian's phone rang.

He glanced at it but didn't answer. "Babe, I'm telling you to quit for your own good. Think it over carefully. I've got things to handle at the lab. I'll come back tomorrow to be with you."

Without waiting for her response, he turned and walked out.

Clara watched his departing figure with a mocking gaze. The man felt like a complete stranger.

She had caught a glimpse of the caller ID earlier. It was Sienna.

One phone call was enough to pull him away—even though he knew she had just been beaten for refusing that marriage because of him.

She pulled out her phone. As expected, Sienna had just posted something.

In the photo, a man and a woman held hands. The silver ring on the man's ring finger gleamed under the light. The caption read, "Between her and me, I'll always be his first choice."

Clara glanced at the ring still lying in the toilet and let out a bitter laugh.

If Adrian had paid even a little attention, he would have noticed it—the ring she hadn't had time to flush away.

She pressed the flush without hesitation and watched it disappear down the drain.

Just like their eight years together—washed away without a trace.

She didn't sleep at all that night. The next morning, her phone rang by the bedside.

"Ms. Whitmore, hello. The design you submitted yesterday, Sunrise, has been reported for suspected plagiarism. Please come in and cooperate with the investigation."

By the time Clara arrived at the design institute, Adrian and Sienna were already waiting for her in the office.

Grant Holloway pulled two identical design drafts from his drawer and swept them with a sharp look.

"Your designs are exactly the same. One of you is suspected of plagiarism, and that person will be disqualified from the competition."

The moment Clara saw the two identical drafts, her face turned pale.

"Mr. Holloway, this is..."

"That's my design." Sienna cut her off and said timidly, "I created it myself. I don't know why it ended up looking exactly the same as Miss Whitmore's."

Clara froze. She had poured three months of blood and sweat into that design. Since when had it become Sienna's?

Forcing herself to stay calm, she swallowed her anger and said, "What nonsense are you talking about? I designed this myself, line by line. Since when did it become yours? I still have my original sketches."

She immediately pulled out the folder where she kept her drafts. But the moment she opened it, she found that every page inside had turned into blank paper.

Before she could even process what had happened, Adrian suddenly stepped forward.

"Mr. Holloway, I can testify that this design was indeed created by Sienna herself." He took out a stack of sketches and showed them to everyone. "These were all drawn by Sienna, line by line. I can vouch for that."

Looking at those painfully familiar sketches, Clara's fingers went numb as she stood frozen in place.

It was Adrian. He had taken her drafts…

For Sienna's sake, he was actually framing her for plagiarism. He knew perfectly well that design was her dream. He also knew that the word plagiarism could destroy a designer completely.

It felt as if a sharp blade had pierced straight through her heart, leaving nothing but cold emptiness behind.

Grant looked at her with disappointment, his tone turning colder. "Do you have anything else to say for yourself?"

Clara bit down hard on her lip and forced herself to stay steady.

"I still have proof. I saved my design process and concept notes, but I need to go back and get them."

Thank God. She had saved her design concepts onto a flash drive earlier. As long as she could retrieve those files, she could prove her innocence.

Grant nodded. "If you can't prove yourself within three hours, we'll revoke your eligibility to compete."

Three hours was more than enough for a round trip.

Clara rushed home at once. The moment she grabbed the flash drive, she hurried back toward the institute.

But the moment she reached the building entrance, someone suddenly rushed at her and drove a knife hard into her lower abdomen.

"It was you! You heartless doctor! You killed my dad, and I'm making you pay for it!"

Her lips parted. She wanted to tell him he had the wrong person. But the next second, blinding pain hit her, and she blacked out completely.

When Clara woke again, she found herself lying in a hospital bed.

Adrian was holding her hand, his face drawn with exhaustion. "Babe, you're finally awake. I almost lost you."

Clara pulled her hand away coldly and said with bitter mockery, "Adrian, is this act fun for you? You gave my design to Sienna. What else are you trying to take from me now?"

He paused, then explained softly, "I know you're angry, but you're a doctor. You're the Whitmore family's daughter. You already have everything. You even have me. Even if you never work another day in your life, I'd still take care of you. But Sienna is different. She graduated in design. If she doesn't place well in this competition, her career will be ruined. You already took her parents and her life as a rich lady. Don't take her future too."

Clara thought she had misheard him.

"What does that have to do with me? Those things were mine to begin with! Why should I be the one to give them up?"

She was shaking with rage, unable to believe that the man she had loved for so many years could say something so shameless.

A flicker of irritation crossed Adrian's face, followed by disappointment. "When did you become this petty? It's just one design. So what if Sienna gets it? And the deadline has already passed. You've already been disqualified from the competition, so stay here and recover."

His tone was indifferent, as though he were not talking about the dream she had carried for years, but some trivial thing that meant nothing at all.

Clara closed her eyes in despair. A self-mocking smile tugged at her lips. "Adrian, let's break up. I don't want to see you again."

"You want to break up over something this small?"

But Adrian did not get angry. Instead, he coaxed her the way one might soothe a pet cat. "You're not thinking clearly right now, so I'm not taking that seriously. Just calm down first."

With that, he turned and left, leaving Clara alone in the hospital room.

Some time later, Clara felt thirsty. Enduring the pain in her abdomen, she got up to pour herself some water. But as she passed the nurses' station, she overheard two nurses talking.

"What happened with that hospital incident? Dr. Whitmore wasn't the one whose surgery went wrong and led to the patient's death, was she?"

"It was Dr. Whitmore's boyfriend. He said she had a duty to protect her colleague, so he deliberately misled the patient's family into thinking it was Dr. Whitmore's fault."

With a sharp crack, the cup slipped from her hand and hit the floor.

Clara's mind went completely blank. She could not even feel the pain of the hot water splashing onto her hand.

Tears rolled down her face in heavy drops. Adrian had already disappointed her beyond words, yet hearing this still made every breath feel painful.

She had come so close. So close to dying.

Just so Sienna could steal her design, he had personally pushed her to the edge of death.

Darkness blurred her vision, and in her daze, she saw Adrian as he had been seven years ago.

The teenage boy had been covered in injuries as he carried her out of the fire. His voice shook, yet it was filled with the joy of getting her back alive. "Clara, I won't let anyone take you away from me. Not even death."

But now, for Sienna's sake, he had personally shoved her toward death.

It turned out that Adrian had long forgotten the promise he once made.

Never wanting to see that hypocritical man again, Clara checked herself out of the hospital that very night and returned to her own home.

There was no saving the design competition now. She drifted through three days in a daze, until an urgent call from Tessa finally broke the silence.

"Clara, was that thing online posted by you?"

She froze. "What thing?"

A moment later, Tessa sent over a slide deck more than a dozen pages long and said furiously, "Adrian is such a disgusting bastard! Why did you never tell me? Next time I see him, I swear I'm going to crack his skull open."

Clara didn't even have time to reply. The moment she opened it, she went completely still.

The deck, more than a dozen pages long, was written as if in her own voice, accusing Adrian of cheating with Sienna. The timeline was clear, the photos were all there, and some of the details were things even she hadn't known.

She had just opened her mouth to say she wasn't the one who posted it, when Adrian kicked the front door open and stormed inside.

He yanked her straight off the bed and demanded furiously, "Clara, have you lost your mind? Posting something like that? Do you have any idea you could ruin Sienna this way?"

Her knees slammed hard against the floor, tearing open the wound in her abdomen. Blood began spilling out at once.

Clara's face turned ashen as she said in a trembling voice, "I wasn't the one who posted any of it."

"Then who else could it have been?"

Adrian looked at her coldly, his eyes full of suspicion.

Clara closed her eyes for a moment, then said with biting mockery, "Maybe someone got sick of you two shameless pieces of trash and decided to do the public a favor."

His face darkened. "I don't care whether you admit it or not. You're going to clear this up right now. Tell everyone it was just a joke and that you deliberately framed Sienna."

"Why should I?"

Adrian answered, "Because you stole her life as the rich young lady of the family. You owe her all of this."

The shameless things the two of them had done somehow became someone else's scheme.

Clara almost wanted to laugh. "Leaving aside the fact that I didn't post any of it, even if I had, I still wouldn't say a word for two trashy people like you. And Adrian, I don't owe anyone a damn thing."

She had expected Adrian to explode, but he only went silent for a moment before leaving her with a single sentence. "You'd better not regret this."

With that, he turned and walked out.

Clara didn't take his warning to heart. Soon enough, she would be leaving this place, and leaving Adrian with it.

Then that night, an explicit video of her suddenly spread across the internet like wildfire.

The woman in the video was completely naked, flushed all over, moving in front of the camera in a way that left nothing to the imagination.

The instant Clara saw the woman's face, all the blood in her body seemed to run cold. She felt as if she'd been struck by lightning.

The woman in the video was her. And the only person who could possibly have had footage like that was Adrian.

Sure enough, the moment the video was released, no one cared about the cheating exposé anymore. Every accusation turned toward her instead.

The comment section filled with filth. Countless people called her cheap and disgusting, slandered her as a homewrecker who seduced other women's men, and some revolting creeps even dug up her personal information and asked how much she charged for a night.

Clara's hands shook as she unlocked her phone, about to call the police, when a message from Sienna popped up.

"Clara, you really are filthy. Eleanor saw your disgusting video, and the shock was too much for her. She's in the hospital being resuscitated right now."

Something had happened to Eleanor Mercer.

Clara's mind went blank. Never in her life had she regretted meeting Adrian more than she did at that moment.

From the time she was little, her adoptive parents had beaten and scolded her. Eleanor had been the only one who protected her, the only one who gave her a piece of candy when she was sad, the only one who bought her gifts when she made progress.

Even after she and Sienna were returned to their rightful identities, even after Clara was taken back by her biological parents, Eleanor still saved every good thing for her.

A grandmother that kind had seen something so vile, and it had put her in the hospital.

Clara's limbs felt weak, but a terror deeper than anything she had ever known drove her to the hospital like a madwoman.

The operating room light was still on, yet Sienna sat off to the side, lazily scrolling through short videos on her phone.

Clara rushed at her and demanded through tears, "It was you, wasn't it? You showed that to Grandma on purpose. Otherwise how could she have seen something like that?"

"So what if I did?" Sienna curled her lips into a smile, her voice dripping with malice. "You're still the real reason this happened."

Clara shook with rage, unable to believe what she was hearing. "She's your grandmother too. Your own grandmother. How could you do this to her?"

Sienna only shrugged, utterly unconcerned. "I'm the one who's actually her biological granddaughter, but that old hag only ever cared about you. She should've died a long time ago. So? How does it feel to be the one who killed your grandma?"

The moment those words left her mouth, Clara raised her hand and slapped her hard across the face.

But in the very next second, a powerful force yanked her away and shoved her violently to the floor.

At some point, Adrian had arrived. He dragged Sienna behind him and shielded her completely.

"Clara! What the hell are you doing?"

Sienna immediately hid herself in his arms. "Adrian, don't be mad. Clara only hit me because she's upset that you always protect me. She just got emotional."

As she spoke, she sniffled softly and shot Clara a look full of contempt.

Her wound had torn open again and again. Clara sat collapsed on the floor, cold sweat beading across her forehead, unable to say a word.

She had never imagined Adrian could be this cruel. He knew perfectly well she still had a wound in her abdomen.

Just then, the doors to the operating room flew open and a doctor hurried out.

"Which one of you is family? The patient's condition is critical. We need a family member to sign the surgical consent form before we can begin."

Sienna was the only one there who could legally sign. Clara immediately turned to look at her.

"Wait."

Adrian caught Sienna's hand before she could move. Then he looked at Clara, his expression tense but controlled. "If you want Sienna to sign, then go make a public statement. Say that you deliberately seduced me, interfered in my relationship with Sienna, and framed her."

He paused, then lowered his voice. "Babe, be good. Once you clear things up, Sienna will sign."