Chapter 1The Last Lingerie Set Ends Ten Years

The night before I was set to sign the marriage license, the sales associate at Veridia told me my fiancée had purchased a limited-edition 'Midnight Reindeer' holiday lingerie set.

I froze for a few seconds, then my heart hammered against my ribs.

I thought, foolishly, that she was finally touched by my ten-year pursuit—that this was a special wedding surprise just for me.

But on the day of the wedding, I waited until the last guest had left and she still hadn't appeared.

The only thing I saw was a celebratory post on her intern's social media:

"My CEO Queen said she refuses to let an old, linked-up dude take her first kill, lol, so I got to put my stamp on it first."

"Who cares if someone used their family name to force a ten-year engagement? One tear from me, and she ditched the entire wedding."

"And she promised me that for every time she has to sleep with the old man in the future, she'll compensate me twice with me~"

The accompanying photo showed him, Spencer Reed, with a light, mocking finger hooked through the lacy strap of the lingerie set she had bought with my money. The hickey-covered skin visible on Genevieve's chest in his arms felt like a physical chill spreading through me.

Everyone was betting on what I'd do: Would I retaliate against the intern, or would I swallow the humiliation for the sake of Genevieve Sinclair?

No one expected that I, Ashton Pierce, who had chased her for a decade and never considered giving up, would go straight to the official media to announce: Engagement voided.

Genevieve’s call immediately came through, her tone icy:

"Ashton, why are you starting a fight with a kid like Spencer? He doesn't have any experience with… you know, relationship stuff. I was just worried he'd be at a disadvantage later, so I put it on as a demonstration. It wasn't like we actually did anything! The social media post was just a penalty for losing a round of Truth or Dare!"

"Besides, that outfit didn't show a single scandalous thing. Do you really need to make such a big spectacle? No wonder Spencer calls you an archaic Puritan!"

"Delete that post immediately before my parents see it! Do you have any idea how much capital is involved in our families' joint ventures? We're talking hundreds of millions; you can't just joke about that!"

"After you apologize to Spencer and get his forgiveness, we can reschedule the wedding and go to the courthouse."

I held the phone, my voice flat.

"It makes no difference."

"You're not the only alliance available to Pierce Holdings."

* * *

Genevieve clearly paused, the sheer annoyance in her voice practically spilling out of the receiver.

"Ashton Pierce, are you seriously making a federal case out of this?"

"Spencer and I drank too much at the bachelorette party last night and slept in; it's not like I deliberately stood you up. We can just have the wedding another day, can't we?"

"The alliance was settled by our parents years ago. Trying to leverage a non-existent slight like this, just to play the victim... how childish are you?"

Listening to her, I felt a burning rush of blood to my head, and I nearly shouted into the phone:

"A 'non-existent slight?' You call ditching the wedding a 'non-existent slight?' Our parents, the entire upper echelon of Westfield's business partners, and all our friends were waiting there, dressed up, for hours! You call that a 'non-existent slight?' Or how about the fact that you, a woman set to be married tomorrow, took pictures like that with Spencer Reed and posted them online? You call that a 'non-existent slight?'"

I inhaled deeply, forcing down the lump in my throat, the words catching as I demanded:

"Genevieve, what exactly counts as a big deal to you?"

Maybe Spencer Reed's slightest frown was the biggest deal in the world to her. Otherwise, she wouldn't have abandoned a few hundred people at the wedding venue just because of one of his crocodile tears.

I didn't give her a chance to argue, immediately hanging up.

My mother stood beside me, her eyes red, waiting for an answer.

I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, my voice was as calm as frozen water:

"Mom, please contact the other potential alliances."

"But you waited for Gen for ten years, maybe if you just wait for the next..."

"I'm done waiting," I cut her off, wiping away the last hint of dampness from my eye.

"She is not worth it."

I sat down, alone, on the day of my thirtieth Christmas Eve, and for the first time, I took a serious look back at my life.

The most golden decade of my life, from twenty to thirty, was spent waiting for Genevieve to turn around.

For her sake, I managed Pierce Holdings while constantly bailing out the Sinclair Group's crises. I once drank so much blocking drinks for her that I landed in the emergency room with a bleeding ulcer; I stayed up all night rewriting proposals, treating liver supplements like meals; and when her father fell critically ill, I stepped in to manage their operations.

I even personally led the team that took the Sinclair Group's overseas division public over three grueling years.

I worked so hard that some people suspected I was trying to stage a corporate takeover.

Only I knew the truth: I just wanted her to finally see me. That I was worthy of her, and strong enough to support her entire world.

A month ago, after the overseas division’s successful IPO, she finally accepted my proposal, scheduling the high-profile Christmas wedding everyone in the city was talking about.

I was ecstatic. I thought she had finally recognized my efforts. I oversaw every detail of the wedding myself and even rented all the city's outdoor billboards to broadcast the ceremony live.

I wanted the entire city to witness that I had finally won.

But in the end, the guests left, and my parents were humiliated.

Calls to Genevieve's parents went unanswered until the phones were practically melting.

I got nothing but a social media post from Spencer Reed, who displayed their intimate photos and scornfully mocked my ten years of waiting.

The moment I saw that photo, I expected to collapse, to go mad, or, as in the past, to make excuses for her, to live in denial.

But there was nothing.

Only an empty, desolate void in my heart.

The truth was, not all waiting yields a result. Some people will simply never turn back.

My phone vibrated again.

I assumed it was Genevieve, still relentless, and was about to turn it off.

But the text I saw made my eyes snap wide open.