Chapter 1

The man was about to say something else when I strode over to him, picked up the coffee on the table, and poured it directly over his head.

He stared at me with wide eyes, then shouted furiously, “You pathetic loser! Do you know who I am? How dare you throw a drink at me?”

The café was close to the office, and many familiar faces were regular customers there.

A spectacle had broken out, and everyone began turning to look in our direction.

“Isn’t that Team Leader Cole? How dare he lose his temper in front of Ms. Monroe? Is he trying to get himself killed?”

Vivian watched what I had done and didn’t get angry. Instead, she simply laughed it off.

The man hid behind Vivian, his eyes filled with undisguised contempt for me.

Then he put on an aggrieved expression and said, “Ms. Monroe, you have to stand up for me!”

His eyes filled with tears, and his innocent, harmless appearance reminded me strongly of someone.

He was Vivian’s first love, the man she had never been able to forget. I had tried for five years and still couldn’t come close to the place he occupied in her heart.

Vivian stirred her coffee with a spoon, then looked up and said indifferently, “What are you making such a fuss about? Is this really worth getting angry over?”

“If you don’t like him, I can make him disappear from your sight.”

“I promised my mentor that no matter what happened, no one would ever take your place.”

At the mention of my mentor, I clenched my fingertips, removed the jade pendant from around my neck, and held it out to Vivian.

“My mentor gave this to me, but when you get right down to it, it belongs to your family. I’m returning it to its rightful owner.”

Vivian lowered her eyes and picked it up for a look. “They say jade nourishes its wearer, and the wearer nourishes the jade. You’ve worn it for years, yet its color is still so dull. I guess it doesn’t suit you.”

She tossed it casually into the arms of the man behind her. “It’s yours. Mr. Cole could never be worthy of an emerald like this, worth millions.”

It wasn’t that the jade didn’t suit me. It was that I wasn’t worthy of it.

In Vivian’s eyes, I was nothing more than a low-class “thing” born in the countryside.

After saying that, she waved her hand and picked up a napkin from the table to wipe it.

As if she had touched something filthy.

I watched the disgust on her face, and it felt as though a pair of giant hands had seized my heart, squeezing it until it hurt.

“Mr. Cole, I never wanted to take your place. I only want to stay by Ms. Monroe’s side and serve her.”

The man spoke again at that moment. He had probably heard what Vivian had said earlier. Although he clearly disliked my position as her husband, he was clever enough to settle for second best.

“You heard him, didn’t you?” Vivian raised an eyebrow and looked at him. “Go outside first. I’ll be there soon.”

The man nodded obediently.

Vivian followed closely behind him. Before leaving, she even warned me:

“Adrian Cole, if something’s lost, then let it stay lost. Don’t lose yourself too.”

“I’ll allow you to act out this once and treat it as a little novelty, but you need to remember where you stand!”