Chapter 4

In an instant, all the menace drained from Nathan. He loosened his grip and couldn't even stand up straight in front of me.

"Nathan, are you leaving me again?" Vivian suddenly appeared. She wore a white dress, her cheeks flushed with color, looking nothing like someone with a heart condition.

The next second, she cried, stubborn and restrained. "The butler told me you took your mother's keepsake out of the safe. You said you'd give it to your future wife—to me."

What? The ring from earlier was his mother's keepsake? And he had used it to propose to me—to the woman he despised the most.

Nathan lowered his gaze. "Vivian, we were young. Those words didn't mean anything."

"It didn't mean anything?" she shot back. "You put this ring on my ring finger countless times and said no one in the world deserved it more than I did, and now you tell me it didn't mean anything? Is it really that hard for you to admit you love me?"

Her words felt like a slap. I shoved Nathan away. "Enough. How long are you two going to keep this up in front of me? I've seen more than enough."

I turned on Vivian. "Are you obsessed or what? All you do is chase after him, begging for love. If you put half that effort into acting, people wouldn't be calling you talentless behind your back."

Vivian froze, stunned. "Y-you... don't you like Nathan?"

My heart felt sealed shut, like it had been taped over.

It was true. The foolish Summer had said countless times that Nathan was the one she liked most—liked enough to want forever with him.

"And you," Vivian pressed, "are you saying you don't like Nathan anymore?"

I shot Nathan a quick, casual glance. He was looking at me too, pretending to stay calm, yet an anticipation flickered in his eyes.

What was he expecting? He must've been out of his mind. I mocked myself silently, then said, "Back then, I was just a fool. I didn't have a clue what love even was."

The color drained from his refined face.

I took the red diary from my backpack and placed it back in Nathan's hand. "A fool was never worthy of you. No one knows that better than I do."

This time, Nathan didn't stop me.

He was right. Our encounter had already spread all over the internet, and people had begun digging into my past.

[Who is she? He literally carried her to the car while Vivian couldn't even stand straight.]

[She looks so average. Those legs are tragic.]

[Could she be Mr. Rivers' secret girlfriend or fiancée? I knew all the hype with Vivian was just for show.]

Most of the comments came from Vivian's fans, tearing apart my looks and body without mercy. Compared to the scorn I'd grown up with in the village, it was nothing new.

To avoid dragging things out, the next day I used my medical money to buy a burial plot. Then I boarded a bus back to my hometown.

The wind was howling outside the window as I nodded off, half-awake. I dreamed of the darkest night of all—the nightmare I never wanted to remember.

After my father passed, I had no source of living and no means to survive. At first, some of the neighbors felt sorry for me. They brought food and water and tried to care for me.

But kindness always had its limits. Soon, they stopped coming. I dug up wild sweet potatoes from the fields to eat and drank filthy water from the ditches.

Time passed—I didn't even know how long. One night, an old bachelor from the next village crept into my room. He covered my mouth and whispered that we'd play a game and that afterward, he'd give me food. Without thinking, I agreed.

By the time the Foster family found me, the man was gone.

"He said he'd give me food, but he lied. Ma'am, can you help me find him?" I rubbed my empty stomach. "I'm so hungry." Tears rolled down my face. I missed my father's cooking.

Helena Foster held me tightly, crying. She said my father had done good deeds without seeking credit, that when he was young he'd saved her son's life.

She had searched for our family for a long time, but she had come too late. The person who saved her son was gone, and now even his daughter...

"Summer," she whispered, "I'll take you abroad. We'll make sure you get treated."

Before we left, Helena tracked down that old man in her own way, making sure he could never harm anyone again.

Nathan didn't know. That night, Summer was already dead.