Chloe’s certainty sent a jolt through me.

Before, when we were deeply in love, Chloe was just as certain.

She used to say, "No way, I, Chloe, will only love Ethan my entire life."

That day, I believed the person I’d spend the rest of my life with would definitely be her.

Chloe and I were desk partners in middle school, went to the same high school, started dating in college, and then co-founded our company — sixteen years.

We got engaged when the company was finally stable.

If nothing unexpected had happened, we would have actually gotten married this year.

But in our sixteenth year of knowing each other, our tenth year of being in love, Chloe changed.

When did Chloe start changing?

It was probably when she stopped sending me messages asking how I was, probably when she sat across from me, glued to her phone, unable to wipe the smile off her face, probably when she started sending Brandon good morning and good night texts every day.

Hearts, they change in an instant.

So, when we broke up, she blamed everything on herself, claiming the seemingly refined man had nothing to do with it.

I let her have her way; I didn't bring up the evidence of Brandon's provocations later on.

Honestly, when Brandon first appeared, I didn't think much of it.

He was the favored illegitimate son of a business partner, supposedly there to gain some experience at our company.

To close that deal, Chloe came to me for my opinion.

She suggested arranging for Brandon to be an assistant, doing trivial tasks like getting coffee, essentially paying to host a young master, as it wasn't convenient for him to touch company operations.

I believed her.

But I didn't expect Chloe to make Brandon her personal assistant, a position he held for an entire year.

And Chloe, through various means, convinced me to go abroad to expand the market, where I stayed for another year.

When I returned, Chloe was the "future Mrs. Brandon" everyone talked about.

I was Chloe's ex-boyfriend.

Before I could confront Chloe, she came to me.

She pushed a resignation letter across the table, along with a stock transfer agreement.

"Ethan, we once said that if either of us ever met someone we fell for more, we'd break up peacefully."

"You remember that, right?"