Let My Death Complete Your Rhythm

My fiancé proposes to my stepsister Thalia Yates in front of everyone at our engagement party. Furious, I pack my stuff and leave home.

That's when Jude Pearson, heir to an international medical group, entered my life. He's a surgeon rumored to have zero interest in women. Yet he pursued me passionately for six months. Eventually, I accepted his proposal.

For seven years after our wedding, he's been gentle and considerate, always putting my needs first. Then, I overhear his phone conversation with his mother, Helena Roberts.

"Jude, it's been seven years, but you still have no kids. It's time for a divorce."

"Since I couldn't marry Thalia, it doesn't matter who I married instead. I'll keep playing this role forever. As long as I'm around, she'll never be able to intrude upon Thalia's happiness."

That's when the truth hits me—Jude has given up the family business to become a surgeon just to treat Thalia's heart condition. Our years of marriage are actually his way of protecting Thalia from afar.

If that's the case, then I'll disappear from their world and let my absence be their happy ending.

After discovering that Jude Pearson was still in love with my stepsister Thalia Yates, I had already made up my mind to disappear from their lives. I reached out to my friend, Naomi Clarke, and started putting together a flawless fake-death plan.

Just as we were finalizing the details, I caught the familiar scent of disinfectant—and there he was, Jude, walking in with a bouquet of roses.

He wrapped his arms around me from behind and nuzzled affectionately, asking, "What are you working on?"

"A few things for my research paper," I replied casually.

"Don't worry about your paper, honey. I've got you," Jude said as he gently massaged my shoulders like it was the most natural thing in the world.

For seven years, I had been the woman everyone envied. After all, he was the kind of man who seemed disinterested in everything. He gave up his right to inherit his family business, pursued medicine with unwavering focus, and eventually became the chief clinical advisor for the surgical society.

He poured himself into medical research and work for years, never seen with another woman. And yet somehow, he claimed to have fallen for me at first sight.

Someone who had never been in a relationship awkwardly pursued me for six months, and I thought this was my redemption after being betrayed. Now I realized that this was just another abyss built on lies.

"There's some data in the paper that still needs refining," I said with a smile, my eyes drifting toward the collar of his shirt, where the top button was left undone.

Due to his hospital habits, he always handled everything meticulously. He would button everything up to the very last button before being satisfied. He noticed my gaze, and his expression flickered with unease before he straightened his clothes.

"There was an emergency surgery at the hospital. I