Chapter 1 Thrown Out
Liam Calder came home the day after our engagement party.
Reeking of alcohol, he dropped onto the sofa and frowned. "Why hasn't Martha made dinner yet?"
It was as though he truly believed nothing had happened.
I looked at the annoyance on his face, yet inside, I felt nothing at all.
"Martha is packing your things," I said calmly.
Liam shot to his feet and stormed upstairs. "Who gave her permission to touch my stuff?"
Martha had raised me since I was little. To me, she was family. But Liam had always treated her with hostility.
The moment he reached the bedroom, he ripped the clothes from Martha's hands and hurled them onto the floor. "Who told you to pack for me?"
A faint smile tugged at my lips. "You're not moving out today? Staying in your ex-fiancée's house after cheating seems a little inappropriate, don't you think?"
He froze in disbelief. "Ex-fiancée? What are you talking about? We're engaged."
I slowly lifted my left hand. "Then where's my ring?"
He had skipped our engagement ceremony for his first love Serena Cole, yet somehow still had the audacity to pretend nothing was wrong. The sheer absurdity of it almost made me laugh.
Liam strode into the study and yanked open the drawer where we kept the rings. The moment he realized it was empty, panic flashed across his face.
He turned to me sharply. "Where are the rings?"
Our engagement rings and wedding bands had always been stored there. But now that the wedding was off, there was no reason to keep them anymore.
"I threw them away."
That finally shattered his composure. He grabbed my sleeve tightly. "Maya Vance, are you out of your mind? Take them out right now. We're getting our marriage license tomorrow."
Liam believed in fortune-tellers and lucky dates. He had specifically picked tomorrow after consulting one.
I jerked my arm free. "You skipped the engagement party, and you still think we're getting married?"
His expression darkened instantly. He seized my wrist again, his voice rising. "What's that supposed to mean? You seriously want to break up?"
I flung his hand away once more, my fists clenching at my sides.
"How exactly am I supposed to keep living with you?" I stared him straight in the eye. "Why don't you tell me where you were yesterday instead of showing up at our engagement party?"
Even after making my decision, part of me still wanted the truth to come from him.
Instead, he answered without the slightest hesitation. "Serena's mother had acute appendicitis. There was no one there to take care of her, so I couldn't leave."
I looked at his perfectly composed face and suddenly laughed. At some point, lying to me had become second nature to him.
When I stayed silent, his irritation only grew worse. "Say something. What, are you mute now?"
There was a time when I had been hopelessly in love with this face. Every smile, every glance from him had once been enough to make my heart race.
Now, even looking at his anger, I felt nothing.
"Pack the rest of your clothes yourself," I said coldly. "And leave today."
Liam immediately sat back down on the sofa like a spoiled child refusing to budge. "I'm not moving out. I'm staying here with you."
I had seen shameless people before, but never someone who cheated and still acted this entitled.
"I'm clearing the way for you and Serena," I said bluntly. "Let's stop wasting each other's time."
But Liam had always been selfish. Everything had to revolve around him.
Because he was a clean freak, I wasn't allowed to use the bathroom connected to the master bedroom.
Because he hated certain smells, I had to make sure I always carried the scent of body wash or perfume. He could not tolerate even the faintest trace of sweat after a workout.
To keep him happy, I had spent years tiptoeing around his preferences, shaping myself into whatever he wanted.
But today, I was finally tired of it. I understood now that Liam and I had never truly belonged in the same world.
To me, he had once been everything. But in his heart, I would never come first.
A year ago, I came down with acute gastroenteritis. I was vomiting so badly I could barely stand. Liam had just helped me into the car when Serena called.
After speaking to her for less than a minute, he pushed me back out and said, "Take a cab to the hospital yourself. Something came up."
I had stood there watching his car disappear into traffic, my eyes burning with humiliation.
Six months ago, my father started having chest pains. Liam promised to go to the hospital with us, but while we were waiting for the examination, Serena casually mentioned she might be catching a cold. He left my father there without a second thought and rushed off to find her.
Three months ago, there was an important gala. Liam had personally chosen my dress and jewelry, only to abandon me two hours before the event because Serena wanted someone to accompany her to buy medicine.
What he never knew was that I had already found Serena's private Twitter account long ago. Every time he claimed he was working late, traces of him always appeared in her posts.
I was done pretending not to see it. I called two bodyguards and had them drag him out of the house.
No matter how loudly he pounded on the door and shouted my name, I ignored him completely. A man this heartless no longer deserved any of my energy.
After Martha finished packing the rest of his belongings, she tossed them all outside. That only made Liam angrier.
"What about the watches you gave me? The cars? Why can't I keep those too?"
I stood behind the door, my voice ice-cold. "Because you don't deserve them."
He didn't deserve the limited-edition watches I had spent months hunting down for him. And he certainly did not deserve the Lamborghini I had bought for him without hesitation.
