Evening fell, but the sweltering heat lingered.
Celia Sterling, dressed in a vintage Port Sovereign-style long dress, sat in the garden, propping her head up with one hand. She watched Declan Nash with keen interest, her expression languid. Her beauty was utterly bewitching, yet she projected no sense of frivolity. Her aura was proud and fiery, mixed with a hint of untainted purity.
Declan Nash was madly in love with her.
Right now, he was laying out a collection of luxury items he had gone all the way to Port Sovereign to bid on, presenting them to Celia Sterling like a child eager for praise.
Her phone buzzed a few times as three consecutive text messages popped up from her friend, Quinn Sinclair:
"Celia, your fiancé is cheating on you! And with your future sister-in-law, of all people!"
"Holy shit! I heard Declan Nash gave a standing order—he'll kill anyone who lets this news get to you."
"That bastard Declan scrubbed the trending topics so fast. I only managed to grab two screenshots. Take a look."
The screenshots were perfectly clear.
The first was a high-definition photo from inside a lavish club, showing Declan Nash with a beautiful woman on his lap, personally fastening a priceless necklace around her neck.
The second picture showed Declan with his shirt wide open, leaning in to gently bite the woman's neck. The hazy lights cast a glow on his dissolute, handsome profile, creating an intensely intimate atmosphere.
And the female lead of this scandal was none other than Summer Sutton—the wildly popular superstar who was also the secret lover of her own brother, Kian Sterling, kept in Port Sovereign.
For the Sterling Family, this was no longer a piece of gossip. It was a scandal.
Celia Sterling stared at Declan Nash in astonishment for a few seconds. He didn't understand, raising a confused eyebrow.
"Babe, why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?"
Celia didn't answer. She lowered her head again, picked up her phone, opened a web browser, and searched the trending keywords.
Just as she'd expected, the trending topics had been completely wiped clean.
Even Declan Nash's name had become a blocked term, yielding a blank page on search.
'But what's seen can't be unseen.'
'I can't just pretend nothing happened.'
Celia Sterling put down her phone and looked again at the man sitting before her, Declan Nash.
In the circles of the second-generation rich, Declan Nash was notoriously reckless. With his black diamond earring, skull necklace, rakish looks, and untamable spirit, he also possessed a pair of especially bewitching "peach blossom eyes." A single glance from him could steal the souls of half the socialites in the Capital Circle.
Four years ago, Declan Nash had indeed stirred up a storm of scandalous drama in the Capital Circle. Countless women fought viciously over him, but his only comment was:
"I like novelty. A little fun is fine, but I don't do commitment."
But then, while attending the coming-of-age ceremony for Miss Celia Sterling of the Sterling Family, he fell in love at first sight with the delicate, bright, and captivating girl.
The Norwood Family was one of the eight super-rich dynasties of the Capital Circle, and the Sterling Family was another.
They were a perfect match in social standing.
However, the current head of the Sterling Family, Kian Sterling, was famous in their circle as an overprotective "sister-doting demon." A man with a notorious reputation like Declan Nash wouldn't have even registered on Kian's radar.
But Declan was relentless. For a full year, he showered Celia Sterling with a constant stream of expensive gifts while shamelessly pestering Kian Sterling. After proactively handing several major projects over to Kian, he finally got the man to relent:
"Are you clean?"
After a moment of shock, Declan answered with a straight face, "My innocence is intact."
Kian Sterling's expression softened slightly. "She's only nineteen. Date for three years first. You are not to touch her during that time. After three years, if she is still satisfied with you, I will consider letting you marry her."
From then on, Declan Nash went from a promiscuous playboy to a man who abstained from all women.
Or, to be precise, he abstained from all women other than Celia Sterling.
In front of Celia, however, he was stickier than Super Glue.
And he remained stuck to her for three years.
Growing ever more attached, unable to leave her side.
He'd even start to panic if he didn't see her for a single day.
Celia Sterling had never imagined that this man, who had practically welded himself to her, could fall for someone else just like that.
And at this very moment, the man rumored to have fallen for another, wearing a custom vintage rock-and-roll-style T-shirt, was fawningly opening one exquisite gift box after another, speaking in a soft, gentle voice.
"Babe, this is that 'Star of the Blue Sea' you mentioned last month. It's a collector's piece from the Aethelred's auction house in Port Sovereign, and I snagged it. I also won two purple diamonds. I want to have them designed into our wedding rings. The wedding is in three months, so there should be enough time."
Celia Sterling gave a noncommittal "mm."
Seeing her lack of enthusiasm, Declan paused to think for a moment before pointing to the other items.
"The exhibition hall in Port Sovereign had a lot of nice things this time. I bought all of these based on your tastes, babe. See if there's anything you like."
Celia glanced over the dazzling array of luxury goods. Every item was priceless, especially the 'Star of the Blue Sea,' a legendary diamond in the industry, which was said to have sold for 180 million Hong Kong Dollars.
This man truly spared no expense when it came to her.
"Wasn't there also a royal necklace?" Celia asked impassively.
Declan was fiddling with the two purple diamonds, pondering the design for their wedding rings.
Hearing her question, he froze almost imperceptibly.
"You mean the Holy Heart Pearl?" he said with a casual "oh." "After I won the bid, I realized the symbolism wasn't great, so I just gave it away to someone. It was a cheap little thing anyway."
A necklace with a closing bid of thirty million, and he spoke of it so dismissively.
'If I didn't happen to know that his companies were in turmoil recently, with an unstable cash flow, I might have actually believed his bullshit.'
'At a time like this, he'd probably feel the sting of spending even three million on an unrelated woman, let alone thirty million.'
Celia forwarded him the screenshots from Quinn Sinclair. "The 'someone' you mentioned... was it Summer Sutton? You call holding her on your lap and personally putting the necklace on her 'just giving it away'?"
Declan's peach blossom eyes fixed on the screenshots, his face stiffening slightly as the scandal he had tried so hard to suppress was laid bare.
Celia continued to press, "Or what? Are you planning to take a wife in Port Sovereign and another in Metropia, and enjoy the best of both worlds?"
This time, Declan's answer was firm. "Babe, don't overthink it. You're the only one I'll ever marry."
"You can't," Celia said softly. "I have a thing about cleanliness. I can't be with someone who's unfaithful. Declan, pick a time. We're breaking off the engagement."
For a rare moment, Declan panicked. He subconsciously twisted the engagement ring on his middle finger before quickly composing himself.
He tried to explain, "She's really no one important. A few of my degenerate friends in Port Sovereign heard I was getting married soon and threw me a bachelor party. This Miss Sutton just crashed it. It was all just for show."
"Biting her neck is 'just for show'?" Celia scoffed. "Or is it that for you, it's only betrayal if you go all the way?"
This time, Declan realized arguing would be pointless. He paused, then admitted his mistake in a placating tone.
"I'd had a bit to drink, and that woman, Sutton, she looks so much like you, babe. I don't know what came over me, I was possessed. But it really didn't go all the way. Babe, if you're really upset, I'll even kneel on a durian for you."
After speaking, he thoughtfully packed the glittering jewels back into their boxes and placed them in front of her. His tone shifted, now a mix of soft persuasion and hard-nosed reasoning.
"As for breaking off the engagement, don't even mention it. Babe, you know as well as I do that several major projects are built on the foundation of our families' alliance. If we suddenly call it off, the projects will stall, and the losses for both our families will be immeasurable."
He wasn't wrong. In the marriage alliances of wealthy dynasties, the interests involved were too great. The actual feelings of the people involved were the least important factor.
'Breaking off the engagement is going to be incredibly difficult.'