It was said that Murray Owen, the influential person in Belton City, loved me deeply but couldn't be with me.

He had been secretly in love with me for over 20 years, but I never responded to him. Finally, I was forced to go abroad to reject his proposal.

However, I didn't think that it was true.

All the rumor was just spread by my friends.

Three years later, as I returned to my country, Murray was accompanied by a woman. She named Julia Brown, who looked like me.

My friends were shocked, and so was I.

I couldn't believe that he would find a person as my stand-in.

1

It was said that Murray Owen, the influential person in Belton City, loved me deeply but couldn't be with me.

My friends said that Murray and I, with similar family backgrounds, grew up together. I had been learning piano and dancing since childhood, so I met all the requirements for being his beloved one.

I tried to clarify it initially, but later, I realized they didn't listen to my explanation, so I had to give up.

Later, the rumors became more and more intense. I was described as the true love in Murray's heart, to the point where he couldn't live without me.

I felt helpless but believed that after I went abroad, their rumors would stop.

However, a week before I planned to return to my country, my friend told me that a woman accompanied Murray, and that woman looked similar to me.

Oh my!

I was shocked when I heard it.

At this time, I couldn't imagine what would happen after returning home.

By then, those people would definitely spread rumors and stir up trouble in my circle of friends.

I still had three days before I returned home.

Some of my friends had already started to discuss in the chat group.

[There are still three days until Pola returns to the country, and we'll have something good to watch!]

[Whether Pola, Murray's childhood sweetheart, is better, or Julia can keep him, let us wait and see how things will play out.]

[I bet that Pola is invincible. She wins just by standing there!]

While seeing their messages, I was speechless.

I couldn't understand it.

They were talking nonsense.

I still could recall the first time I met Murray.

At that time, he was not as moody as today. In my view, he was just my indifferent neighbor.

At a young age, I had a bad habit.

The more he ignored me, the more I liked to provoke him.

As time passed, I began to know him.

"Murray, why don't you speak? Are you mute?

"Murray, Mommy doesn't allow me to eat candy, but I really want to eat it. Can you give it to me secretly?"

Unexpectedly, he didn't soften his heart and agree at this time.

It disappointed me very much.

Even when he and I were in a close relationship, he never complied with my requests. Instead, he used to stand on my mother's side to educate me.

I didn't feel anything when I was a kid.

But when I entered junior high school, I began to have rebellious thoughts. The more Murray disciplined me, the more I didn't want to talk to him.

"You don't have to wait for me to come home every day. My mother asked Kim to pick me up."

Murray had been waiting for me to finish school every day since elementary school. We were all young at that time, and my classmates envied me for having such a handsome boy to pick me up and drop me off every day.

After entering junior high school, everyone started to be aware of love. Thus, as they saw me and him walking home together after school, I kept hearing rumors about us.

Among them, the one who spread the news even more widely was our mutual friend.

"Hey, your boyfriend came to pick you up again today. Although Murray looked cool and noble, it turns out that he picks you up from school every day punctually."

"Yeah, I think you two are truly a perfect match. He's handsome, and you're beautiful. You are pleasing to the eye."

"Stop it now! He's just my neighbor, and we're not the kind of relationship you're talking about."

But no matter how I explained, they didn't believe it.

In a blink of an eye, they started to make a fuss, asking when Murray and I would have our wedding, and saying they wanted to sit at the head table.

It had a great shock on my mind at that time.

I really couldn't imagine if I were to be with a cold and introverted person like Murray for the rest of my life, what an anxious girl I would be!

The majority was spreading rumors, and in the end, I couldn't explain it clearly.

Later, Murray skipped grades. When I was in the first year of high school, he was already a sophomore.

I had never contacted him actively, but I would send him a blessing on some important holidays.

Due to poor performance in the college test, I wasn't admitted to my favorite university. Thus, my family found a good school for me abroad.

While studying abroad, I often heard people mention Murray and his business legends.

Young as he was, he had a unique vision, and none of his investment projects lost money. In just two years, he expanded the group tenfold, thus securing his position as the person in power.

It was said that Murray was invincible and ruthless in the business world. Everyone knew that whoever provoked him would suffer the consequences.

Since then, no one among the two families mentioned the uncertain childhood marriage between him and me.

It made sense.

In any case, we just didn't fit.

Time went back to the day before I returned to the country.

The moment I got off the plane, I felt so hungry, and countless dishes flashed through my mind.

"Look up and watch out."

Staring at my phone, I was obsessed with ordering takeout when suddenly startled by an unfamiliar voice above my head.

The person in front of me turned out to be Murray, who my friends had been gossiping about for a while yesterday and who was in the headlines of entertainment news these days.

Wearing a slim grey windbreaker, he looked like a male model from a distance. No wonder so many girls had been chasing after him since he was a kid.

Then I was confused.

How come he came to pick me up?

"Why are you the one picking me up? Where's Kim?" My mother clearly told me that she would send Kim to pick me up.

"When I was chatting with your mother yesterday, she happened to mention it and asked me for help. I had nothing to do today so I agreed. You just got off the plane. What do you want to eat?"

He changed the topic to food so quickly that I didn't react for a moment.

"Oh, I see. Thank you for your help then."

It seemed that Murray hadn't been doing very well in recent years.

He was all free enough to pick up an insignificant role like me.

"I want to eat everything!"

"Be serious!"

"Of course, I'm serious! You know what? The food abroad is very terrible! I even suspect that no normal people would eat those dishes..."

I trailed off, afraid that Murray would just abandon me on the roadside and leave me alone with my luggage.

We hadn't seen each other for a long time, but he was still as cold and expressionless as before. He didn't respond no matter what I said.

"I thought you were going to stay abroad for the rest of your life."

He said in a sarcastic tone, so I didn't want to answer.

"What did it mean to stay abroad for a lifetime?

I clearly told him about it when I was going abroad, but he didn't even want to see me off, so what right does he have to criticize me?" I thought to myself.

Finally, Murray took me to a restaurant near our junior high school for dinner.

The place had changed so much that I could hardly remember what it was like before.

"Why did you bring me here? Mr. Owen, your worth should have risen sharply now, why did you still bring me to this place?"

"Didn't you like it before?"

He was confused.

I wondered how he knew this was my favorite restaurant. After all, I had never eaten here with him before.

As I was about to ask the reason, he interrupted me by handing me the menu.

Although the restaurant looked small, it was very clean inside, with a rich variety of dishes, all of which were sweet and spicy.

Yet, I remembered that Murray couldn't eat spicy food. He actually chose to bring me here to eat food like that.

"I want this, that, and..." I ordered most of the dishes on the menu like crazy. When I looked up, I found that Murray and the waiter were staring at me in amazement.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked, thinking it was weird because I ordered normal portions.

As a person just returning from a country without much delicious food, I dreamed of eating food in my country, such as pasta with cheese and fish dishes.

In my view, the two people shouldn't be as surprised as if they had never seen it before.

"If I remember correctly, there were only two of us for dinner." What he meant was that I ordered too much and two people couldn't finish it.

"Mr. Owen, are you poor lately? You invited me to dinner and didn't even let me order the dishes."

He was speechless for a while.

Murray looked at me for a few seconds, then compromised and returned the menu to the waiter.

"Just do what she ordered."

When the dishes came, I ate them like crazy. Murray didn't eat anything but looked at me silently, just as he had been silent before.

Having finished eating, I looked up at him.

"Well, my dad is going to hold a welcoming party for me in a few days. Do you want to come? I heard that you recently dated a woman who looks very much like me. You can also bring her along."

If my friends saw the two, then it could dispel the rumors.

In the past few years, Murray and I contacted each other not exceeding five times. I had no idea why they thought that we would date.

Some bored people even wrote fan fiction for us.

"What woman?"

"They all sent me the news. Don't keep it a secret. I know she looks like me. Don't worry, I won't overthink. It's normal for many people to look like me, given my average face."

I wouldn't flatter myself to think Murray found that woman because he liked me.

Murray frowned. "Stop reading those meaningless passages. I don't know that person."

"Well."

I wouldn't believe that.

It had been on the gossip headlines for a few days.

"I'll let my assistant handle this."

After he finished speaking, we looked at each other in silence. He was still as unsociable as before.

"Are you full?

"People who don't know the fact would think you haven't eaten for many years."

I forced a smile and replied through gritted teeth.

"Well, you are quite humorous."

In fact, what he said was annoying.

If he went abroad for three to five years, he might come back and eat more than me.

As expected, I had indigestion after the meal, and at the same time, I received a sullen look from him.

"I told you not to eat so much, and I said you couldn't finish it."

During these years abroad when I worried about the language barrier, I was used to this kind of teasing, so his words wouldn't hurt me at all.

"Can't you just pack it up? I want to continue eating when I get home."

Murray took one look at my belly and decisively rejected my proposal.

"Sometimes, you have to do things within your means."

I was disappointed.

He had completely lost the favor of me.