The Untouchable Golden Canary

On Valentine’s Day, Michael didn’t have time to accompany me.

Instead, he spent lavishly to propose to someone else under a grand fireworks display that the whole city knew about.

We had been together for three years and I had done everything a wife would for him.

Yet he never once agreed to make our relationship public.

I once jokingly asked him if he was being so cautious because he was afraid of breaking another woman’s heart.

It wasn’t until the enormous diamond ring slipped onto her finger and others congratulated him on his seven-year long-distance relationship finally reaching its happy ending, that I realized I was the “other woman” all along.

For three years, I had been with the Crown Prince of Altheris’s elite circle, hiding my identity as the Princess of Zeroth City, indulging him in a whirlwind of role-playing games in our so-called passionate love.

Yet, he never once agreed to make our relationship public.

One night, when he didn’t come home again, my best friend joked, asking if he had another woman outside.

He didn’t answer and I refused to believe it.

It wasn’t until, under the grandest fireworks display in the city, he knelt on one knee to propose to someone else.

Only then did I realize—I was the other woman.

——

The year I ran away from home and was bullied in the workplace, I was drenched in alcohol when Michael, the Crown Prince of Altheris’s elite circle, saved me. He took me back to his villa and kept me hidden like a treasured canary for three years.

He gave me endless money, boundless indulgence and a life of enviable luxury.

Night after night, he would collapse from exhaustion on our shared bed, calling me “honey” as he drifted off to sleep.

Yet in public, Michael always pretended not to know me.

Even when we brushed past each other, he avoided meeting my eyes as if even the slightest acknowledgment was taboo.

But under the same table, he would shamelessly hook my long legs as if no one else existed.

One night, when he didn’t come home again, my best friend teased, asking if he had another woman outside.

Michael smiled faintly, his slender fingers casually twirling a strand of my hair by my ear.

“My kidneys aren’t strong enough to handle two women.”

“Whether there’s another woman or not, she’ll find out tonight.”

I blushed furiously and amidst our playful banter, the topic was brushed aside.

Until this Valentine’s Day, when he canceled on me due to work obligations. Feeling disappointed, I went to the seaside with my best friend to watch the fireworks.

But on a luxurious yacht, I saw Michael holding a girl in a flowing white dress. He knelt on one knee and flamboyantly pressed a button on the device in his hand.

The sudden burst of dazzling fireworks lit up the sky, forming a giant heart and the words “Love You” above us—a deliberate and grand gesture of affection from Michael to that girl.

It wasn’t until that girl, her eyes brimming with tears, threw herself into Michael’s arms and the onlookers screamed their congratulations for the Crown Prince’s seven-year relationship finally reaching its happy ending, that I realized—I was the other woman all along.

Tears fell into the smoke filled with love and I stood there like a poisoned fool, incapable of doing anything but cry.

“You’re moved too, aren’t you? Seven years of perseverance, four years of long-distance love and over three hundred flights spanning twenty-one hours roundtrip—how difficult it must have been for them.”

The young girl looked at the golden couple on the yacht with admiration and kindly shoved a glow stick into my hand.

“The Crown Prince is generous, spending 4 million dollars to set up this proposal. If you wave this glow stick with me for two hours, you’ll earn 70 dollars. My friend couldn’t make it, so the chance to make money is yours.”

My best friend couldn’t stand it and quickly grabbed my hand, stopping me from accepting the glow stick.

“My friend has a jinx and I’m afraid they won’t end up together. Let’s forget about it.”

Pulling me to the side of the road, she scolded me. “It’s just a man, what’s so great about him? If you don’t have him, there are thousands more. I’ll get you some options right now.”

She dragged me to the biggest nightclub in the city. Surrounded by male models pouring drink after drink into me, I ended up vomiting uncontrollably.