Chapter 1
[Oplicoville Big Shot Goes All Out, Charters a Private Jet for His Sweetheart!]
Trending on X, the woman looked bright and confident, grinning as she waved to the reporters from afar.
The man held her like she was his whole world. Even with a mask covering his face, you could see the love overflowing from his eyes.
On his well-defined fingers, he wore a matching diamond ring with Caroline Adkins.
The post was quickly shared by tons of users and shot straight to the top trending topics on X.
[Oh my god, these two are such a perfect match!]
[Come on, that old hag, just let my idol go already!]
Fans started polls, and tens of thousands were shipping this couple.
Caroline sat on the couch, obsessively scrolling and zooming in on the pics, not wanting to miss a single thing.
The living room was dim, with only the faint glow of the cake candles casting soft shadows across the room.
"Mom, when can we eat?" Chloe piped up with her innocent voice.
Caroline finally lifted her head, staring blankly at the cake before her.
Today was Chloe's birthday and also her wedding anniversary.
It should've been a warm family moment, all three of them cutting the cake together. But now, it was just Caroline and Chloe, gripping cold silverware in their hands.
The whole table was loaded with food, but everything had gone cold, with a shiny layer of grease on top.
The family portrait on the greeting card now just seemed like a cruel joke.
If Caroline's eyes weren't playing tricks on her, Frederick was holding a Black Swan cake worth a few hundred.
But the one sitting in front of her was just some almost-expired supermarket cake.
When it arrived, the frosting was already starting to slide off, and the 3-dollar sticker was still stuck to the box.
So it wasn't that he was reluctant to spend money.
He just couldn't bring himself to spend it on her.
She put her phone down and forced a smile. "Chloe, are you hungry? Let's eat now."
As she slowly sliced into the cake, yellow mango juice seeped out. Caroline's brow twitched almost imperceptibly, but she still cut a piece and gently handed it to Chloe.
She took another slice, the one loaded with mango, and placed it on her own plate.
Frederick was crazy about mangoes. Caroline couldn't stand them.
Ten years of marriage, she'd brought it up a million times, and they'd argued about it just as much.
He'd always promise to remember, but it'd slip his mind right after.
She cut herself a slice overflowing with mango chunks and set it on her plate.
The sharp tang of mango hit her tongue, making her stomach twist, but she forced it down, jaw tight.
Just like her marriage all these years, it was bitter, but she swallowed it and kept going.
Her parents always talked up how wonderful having a daughter was, but in reality, they favored her brother just because he was a boy and bled her dry to bankroll him.
Back then, Caroline was hustling nonstop, chasing deals and clients day and night. But every cent she made was taken from her before she could even count it, thanks to her parents and their endless excuses. In the end, she couldn't even afford sanitary pads.
Whenever she asked for money, her parents would throw themselves on the floor, sobbing and putting on a show, crying about how hard life had been for them all these years.
She'd thought about checking out for good more than once, until Frederick came along and finally gave her a reason to hope.
Back then, Frederick was just a broke guy, but he treated her like she was the most important person in the world. He'd run all over town just to get her a box of chocolates, and he'd stay up all night planning surprise parties for her.
After all those days of him chasing after her, Caroline finally fell for him.
She thought she'd finally found someone she could spend her whole life with, so she married him without a second thought.
He gave her a dream wedding, making her feel like the most dazzling princess in the world.
After they got married, Caroline gave up her career to be a full-time housewife, looking after everything for Frederick, down to the smallest detail.
Caroline was hands-on with everything, whether it was his socks or his business deals.
She thought she'd done everything she possibly could, but all she got was Frederick brushing it off with a single line.
He said, "You're too controlling. I married a wife, not a maid. If you weren't like this, maybe we could've been happy."
It wasn't until much later that Caroline finally understood that Frederick's heart had never truly been hers. All along, he'd been hung up on his unattainable ideal, his so-called "childhood sweetheart," Kirsten Castillo.
Even the reason he married her was laughable. He only chose her because she loved him so fiercely that she forgot who she was.
But that passionate love, under Frederick's constant indifference and neglect, was ground down bit by bit, until there was nothing left at all.
"Mom, why are you crying?" Chloe asked, her voice full of concern.
Caroline blinked, suddenly realizing she'd let her emotions show. She quickly wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes and forced a smile, gently patting Chloe's head.
"I'm not crying. The cake's just so good," she said, trying to sound cheerful.
Watching Chloe's eyes crinkle with joy as she ate the cake, Caroline finally felt a little less weighed down inside.
Her phone buzzed. It was Frederick's message: [Did you get the cake? Do you like it?]