Chapter1

Our betrothal always stopped at the final step.

On the 1st attempt, a shattered glass sliced open my palm.

On the 5th attempt, boiling water left second-degree burns across my wrist.

On the 14th attempt, a speeding bike knocked me down a flight of concrete stairs.

From freshman year to the end of junior year. Three entire years. Twenty attempts.

Every single time, I bled right before the final confirmation.

But an official betrothal was the unwritten, ironclad prerequisite for the Twin Track Abroad Fellowship.

Only couples with a verified Binding Accord, complete with joint guarantor signatures and a registered ring, were granted the privilege.

It legally bound two students to the same overseas city, the same priority housing, and the same research advisor.

Without it, Caius Wren and I would be separated by an ocean and two entirely different trajectories.

I never believed it was a bad omen. I just thought fate was testing my grip.

I believed that if I held on tight enough, I could drag our future back onto the tracks.

Before that day, I believed Caius and I were the happiest, most devoted pair in the world.

The corridor of the Science building was dead quiet. It was six in the evening.

I carried a paper bag with Caius’s favorite dinner.

I stopped outside Lecture Hall 4. The heavy oak door was slightly ajar.

I heard Thayer’s voice. He was Caius's closest friend. He sounded furious.

"Twenty times, Caius. Twenty."

"Keep your voice down," Caius said. His tone was flat. Dead.

"The falling stage lights? The janitor's cart? You could have killed her," Thayer paced.

"I calculated the physics. It was only meant to scare her," Caius replied.

My feet froze. The paper bag crinkled in my grip.

"She loves you," Thayer snapped. "She takes all this pain because she thinks she is fighting for your future."

"I don't want a future with her." Caius struck a lighter.

The smell of tobacco leaked into the hall. "I want Isolde. I need the fellowship with Isolde."

Isolde was a junior at our university.

I thought there was nothing between them, only to find out she was the one he truly loved.

"Then cancel the betrothal!" Thayer argued.

"I can't," Caius said. "Ten years ago, her parents drowned to save me.

I cannot refuse her request without ruining my reputation."

Silence hung in the room.

"So you torture Seren?" Thayer asked.

"I am giving her an exit," Caius exhaled.

"I need her to break the contract. If the accidents keep happening, she will snap.

She will surrender of her own free will. Then my hands remain clean."

My chest violently contracted. The air left my lungs.

A sharp, acidic sting flared in my nose. The truth hit me with brutal clarity.

He wanted his perfect academic future, and he wanted his new love. But he was a Wren.

He could not afford to be the ungrateful villain who abandoned the orphan of his saviors.

He demanded both freedom and public honor.

So he offered me fake, beautiful promises while secretly setting the traps.

He comforted me after every disaster, playing the devoted fiancé.

He wanted the trauma to break my mind.

He needed me to be the one who gave up, so he could wash his hands of his debt and play the tragic, helpless victim left behind.

Now, my mind flashed through the past three years.

My fractured wrist from the blocked stairwell. Kneeling in the freezing rain to find his ring.

The falling stage light that almost cracked my skull.

Twenty brutal accidents. I bled for him. I cried for him.

I endured the pain because I thought fate was testing us.

But as the mastermind behind the scenes, he had been coldly watching me bleed all along.

It was a lie. All of it. I was just a debt. A stubborn stain he wanted to erase.

I turned around. I walked away silently. I left his favorite dinner in a hallway trash can.

I stepped out into the cold night air. I took out my phone and dialed a number.

"Mireille Aunt," I said when the line connected. She was Caius’s mother and the Foundation director.

"Seren. Is something wrong?" Her voice was sharp and elegant.

"I want to break up with him. I no longer want to get engaged to him or go abroad to study together." I stated clearly.

Silence stretched on the line. Then, a sharp intake of breath.

"Why ?" Mireille sounded genuinely shocked. "Seren, are you listening to yourself? Think this through. You love him. You have endured so much for this union."

"I am certain."

"Why?" Mireille demanded softly. "Did you two fight? You begged the board to keep the fellowship window open just yesterday."

I looked up at the dark sky. The cold wind bit my face.

"I heard him talking to Thayer," I said. My voice was completely flat.

"The falling stage lights. The blocked stairways. All twenty accidents. He planned them."

Mireille stopped breathing.

"He wants Isolde Kaye," I continued evenly. "But he cannot refuse my request.

He orchestrated my injuries and wanted to torture me until I broke. He needed me to quit, so his reputation would remain perfectly clean."

The line turned dead quiet. When Mireille finally spoke, her voice shook.

"I am sorry, my child."

"Aunt, I hope you can understand me. I won’t go through the engagement registration procedures with him anymore. Let him be with the person he truly loves.."

A heavy, painful pause followed. I heard the deep guilt in her silence.

The Wren family owed my parents an unpayable debt.

Now, her son had repaid that blood with more blood.

"I understand," Mireille whispered.

Her voice was thick with heartbreak and pity. "I am so sorry. I will inform the board tomorrow. I will protect you."

The call ended. I lowered my phone.

A crushing weight lifted off my shoulders.

I took a deep, long breath. For the first time in ten years, the air felt clean.

Two hours later, Caius found me.

I was sitting in the campus library. He walked toward me.

He reached out and gently brushed a stray hair from my face.

"There you are," he said smoothly. "I was worried. How is your shoulder healing?"

I looked at his hand. I looked into his eyes. I felt absolutely nothing.

"The IPO office opens on Monday," Caius said softly, trying to read my silence.

"We will go in the morning. We will register the betrothal. The twenty-first time will work. I promise you."

He waited. He expected my usual reaction.

He expected me to light up with fragile hope.

He offered these comforting promises like painkillers, fully intending to plan my next accident behind my back.

He enjoyed this game. The cycle of hurting me and playing my savior kept his conscience spotless.

But I just looked down at my desk. I didn't even look at him.

"There is no rush. We can talk about it later."

The silence between us turned absolute.

Caius stared at me. His jaw locked. He was genuinely shocked.

In the past, I would grab his arm.

I would cry with relief. I would pester him to set an exact time.

I used to beg him not to delay it anymore.

Now, I was treating our betrothal like a boring, forgotten chore.

"Talk about it later?" he asked. His voice tightened.

He sounded incredibly confused. "Seren, the registry is important. You used to hound me about this every single day. You tracked the hours. Are you sick?"

"I feel fine," I stated evenly. I casually turned a page of my book.

"You seem... strange." Caius stepped closer.

He searched my face for blind love and my usual desperate obsession.

He found nothing but ice. "Very different."

"I am just completely awake," I replied.