CHAPTER 1 – Love’s Unyielding Chains

[ Li Xin’s POV ]

The rain was already waiting for me when I stepped out of Vitality Pharmaceuticals. It had that familiar scent — the metallic breath before thunder — and I almost laughed at the irony. Five years of devotion, five years of pretending I was enough, washed away by an email stamped “Congratulations to the future Mr and Mrs Liu Hao.”

I stood under the glass awning, clutching the resignation letter that no one had bothered to read. Around me, the city pulsed like a wounded heart: cars hissing through puddles, neon trembling across mirrored streets. Inside my chest, something tight refused to break, though it wanted to.

Liu Hao hadn’t even looked at me when his mother announced his engagement. I still saw his reflection across the boardroom table — perfect tie, polite smile, the good son she’d raised. When he finally turned, his eyes were a stranger’s.

“Li Xin,” he’d said, voice measured, “you understand how the company works.”

What I understood was the sound of my own heartbeat in the silence that followed.

❖

The rain kept whispering, even indoors.

I lingered in the lift lobby, pretending to check my phone. My reflection in the mirrored doors looked like someone mid-fall. Mascara blurred into small rivers; my blouse clung to my skin, rain and tears indistinguishable.

When the doors slid open, the HR manager gave me that sympathetic look reserved for people being erased. “We’ll process your exit by next week,” she murmured. “It’s really for the best.”

I nodded because that’s what polite women do when the world collapses politely.

Outside again, the storm had thickened into curtains of silver. The umbrella in my hand felt pointless. I let the rain soak through my hair, my sleeves, my pride. Each drop struck like memory — our first date at the harbour, his laughter under fairy lights, the night he said forever.

Forever, it seemed, lasted until a mother decided it shouldn’t.

❖

The café at Rainlight Bay was nearly empty when I found Kyra. She was a burst of colour against the grey — bronze curls, film-set sunglasses, the kind of confidence that made silence step aside.

“Xin, what happened?” she asked before I could sit.

My voice barely worked. “He’s engaged. To Wang Mei.”

Kyra blinked, slow, deliberate, then reached across the table to squeeze my hand. “You’re joking.”

“I wish I were.” I tried to smile, but it cracked halfway.

She exhaled sharply. “His mum again?”

I nodded. “She said I’ll never fit their circle. And … I think he agreed.”

Kyra’s grip tightened. “Then he never deserved you.”

Her words were fierce, but I heard the tremor under them. She’d seen this city eat people whole — especially women who loved too hard.

❖

The rain had thinned to a drizzle, tracing slow lines down the window.

I watched droplets race each other toward the sill, wondering which would reach first, which would disappear unseen.

“Maybe it’s fate,” Kyra said softly. “Maybe this is how you start again.”

“Start what?” I asked. “I don’t even know who I am without him.”

“You’ll find out,” she said. “You always do.”

Her certainty was both comfort and a curse. I envied how easily she believed in rebirth. My own reflection looked like a ghost of someone still begging the past for answers.

❖

Hours later, I walked home through Serenity Haven’s night scape. The skyline shimmered — towers outlined in rainlight, streets glistening like liquid glass. Each step echoed in rhythm with the ache inside me.

I thought about returning the gifts, the letters, the promises. But memory doesn’t return itself; it lingers, haunting the edges of consciousness.

At the crossing outside Nexus Tower, a black saloon idled beside the curb. Its tinted window lowered just enough for me to glimpse a man inside — dark suit, silver cuff links, eyes unreadable. For a heartbeat, our gazes met. Something about that stillness brushed against the rawness in me, a calm far too deliberate for strangers.

Then the light changed. The car rolled away.

I stood there, pulse unsteady, the echo of those eyes following me into the rain.

❖

The rain had stopped, but the air still smelled like him — like something I shouldn’t remember.

When I reached my flat, silence greeted me. The city hummed beyond the glass, a muted symphony of tires and thunder fading into the distance. I peeled off my wet blouse, folded it carefully as if neatness could rewrite the day, and sat by the window.

My phone vibrated — a message from Kyra: Still awake? I left soup by your door. Eat before you cry yourself to sleep.

I smiled, small and real. Outside, the moon floated half-hidden behind drifting clouds, pale as forgiveness.

I whispered into the quiet, not sure to whom, “Tomorrow, I’ll survive.”

The words felt heavy, but they stayed.

■ Sneak Peek — Chapter 2 : Whispers of Betrayal

They say silence heals, but in Serenity Haven, silence spreads like fire.

Tomorrow, the world will know Liu Hao’s engagement — and Li Xin’s name will burn with it.

“Every storm begins with rain, finds peace in the sky, and returns in the wind.”

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