The city buzzed with news again, though this time it wasn't about contracts or boardroom wars. It was about Zhao Ming.
Li Na first saw his name in a headline on her phone: *Former Finance Executive Zhao Ming Returns After Sudden Disappearance.* Her stomach tightened. She hadn't spoken his name aloud in weeks, not since he had abandoned her for Fang Mei.
But by afternoon, he was standing in front of her.
The confrontation happened outside the company, where the air smelled of exhaust and the flash of cameras hovered like vultures. He wore a tailored suit, a little too polished, as if to mask the desperation that lingered in his eyes.
"Li Na," he said, stepping forward as though no time had passed. "You look… well."
She stiffened, her voice clipped. "Why are you here?"
He smiled faintly, the same smile that once charmed her, now dripping with insincerity. "Because I made a mistake. Fang Mei isn't who I thought she was. She used me, and when the storm hit, she abandoned me just as quickly as I once abandoned you."
The irony of his words twisted like a knife, but Li Na didn't flinch. "So now you come crawling back?"
His expression tightened. "I came back because I realized something. You don't belong in Yen Rui's world. You're not a pawn for his power games, Li Na. You deserve better, someone who actually loves you."
Her chest clenched, not with temptation, but with fury. "And you think that someone is you? The man who left me humiliated in front of the entire city?"
He stepped closer, lowering his voice. "Yen Rui doesn't love anyone but himself and his empire. He'll use you until you're nothing. But I… I know you. I can give you the life you wanted, the life we planned before all of this."
A shadow fell across them, and suddenly Yen Rui was there. His presence cut through the air like a blade. His eyes, cold and sharp, locked on Zhao Ming.
"You're standing too close to my wife," Yen Rui said evenly.
Zhao Ming's jaw clenched, but he didn't move back. "Your wife? Or your contract?"
The tension crackled like fire. Li Na's hand trembled at her side, but her voice was steady. "I'm not yours to fight over. Zhao Ming, you lost the right to stand beside me the night you chose Fang Mei. And Yen Rui…" She glanced at her husband, her tone softer, resolute. "He doesn't need to claim me. I already chose to stand beside him."
The words silenced them both. Zhao Ming's eyes darkened, but he forced a bitter smile. "We'll see how long that choice lasts."
As he walked away, the flashing cameras caught every angle, the reporters already scribbling stories of confrontation and scandal.
Yen Rui's hand found Li Na's, firm and grounding. "You didn't have to answer him," he murmured.
"Yes, I did," she said quietly. "For myself."
The city would twist it, the media would devour it, and their enemies would weaponize it. But Li Na felt something stronger as taken root inside her chest with clarity.
She was no longer the bride abandoned in white. She was no longer fragile or breakable.
She was the woman standing in the fire and choosing to stay.