Chapter 2The Ice King's Downfall: How I Destroyed My Cheating Fiancé

Right at that exact moment, the bronze medalist walked past us, his medal hanging heavily around his neck.

He flashed Liam a respectful, albeit confused, salute and spoke in heavily accented English.

"Man, you really are a god. Before the race, when you said you were going to 'gift' me the bronze, I thought you were just trash-talking! I didn't expect you to actually yield an entire body length at the finish line!"

The self-righteous fury on Liam's face instantly shattered, freezing into sheer, suffocating panic.

Meeting my dead, icy stare, he stammered, desperately trying to backtrack.

"No, that's not... I didn't let him..."

But I was entirely done listening to his garbage.

I turned on my heel and walked away. Liam tried to chase after me, but Mia suddenly let out a dramatic, high-pitched gasp.

"Liam! Look, the press is swarming! We just lost the race, let's go out the back and lay low for a bit!"

The second I got into a cab, my phone buzzed with a text from Liam.

[Go home and wait for me. We need to talk.]

I sat in our shared apartment for three agonizing hours. But he never showed up.

Instead, I saw the #1 trending topic on Twitter that had dropped just seven minutes ago:

[Ice God Liam Sterling Suffers Crushing Defeat, Seeks Comfort in the Arms of Mystery Beauty.]

The attached paparazzi photos showed him and Mia with their fingers tightly interlocked, completely unbothered by the cameras, sharing a single boba tea with two straws.

I turned off my phone, walked into the bedroom, and started packing my suitcases.

While emptying the closet, I found the custom engagement contract his family had drafted for us.

His father had commissioned a master jeweler to engrave our vows onto a solid sheet of 24-karat gold, symbolizing that our marriage would be unbreakable.

But now? It was completely worthless.

I placed the heavy, solid gold plaque back into its velvet-lined mahogany box.

A gift this expensive needed to be returned in person.

When I arrived at the front gates of the Sterling family estate, I suddenly heard the sound of shattering porcelain and Liam's father roaring in apocalyptic fury.

"THIS IS ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT!"

"Evelyn is the only daughter-in-law this family will ever recognize! If you want to break off this engagement, you'll have to wait until I'm dead!"

His mother was frantic, her voice echoing into the courtyard.

"Exactly, Liam! I told you years ago you were too arrogant, promising a Grand Slam on national television! Now that you've lost, Evelyn is obviously devastated. Just go buy her some flowers and coax her a bit, she'll get over it. She gave up her own career to be your assistant coach for five years! What other woman would sacrifice that much for you?! Stop acting like a spoiled brat!"

Listening to his parents desperately try to salvage the situation, I felt a complex, hollow numbness in my chest.

Five years ago, I declined a highly coveted, six-figure head coaching position with the International Skating Union just to stay by Liam's side as a low-level assistant.

I waited five years for a promise he made to the cameras.

We hadn't signed the marriage license yet, but everyone in our social and professional circles already viewed us as husband and wife.

But you can't keep a man whose heart has already rotted.

I was just about to walk through the front doors when I heard Liam's voice slice through the tension.

"Mia is pregnant."

"Mom, Dad. Mia is carrying my child. We already did the genetic testing. It's a boy."

"So in this lifetime, she is the only woman I am going to marry!"

The massive, opulent living room plunged into a suffocating, dead silence.

His mother was the first to recover from the shock. Her tone completely, instantly shifted.

"Evelyn doesn't know about this yet, right? You absolutely must keep this a secret."

"Even if we have to cancel the engagement, we need to strategize. We have to spin the narrative so that the breakup looks like it was Evelyn's fault, otherwise, this scandal will completely destroy your post-retirement branding."

Liam's father, who had just been screaming that he would only recognize me as his daughter-in-law, was completely, hypocritally silent.

I lowered my eyes, gently placing the mahogany box on the stone patio table in the courtyard.

I was just about to leave quietly when I bumped directly into Mrs. Higgins, the next-door neighbor, who was coming over to borrow a lawn tool.

"Oh, Evelyn! Visiting the in-laws again?"

The heavy oak front doors violently swung open. Liam and his parents stood in the doorway, their faces masks of absolute, petrified horror.

"Evelyn... how long have you been standing there?"