When the Man Who Swore to Protect Me Became the One Who Broke Me Novel - Chapter 47

Chapter 1 A week before the wedding, Vincent Caldwell returned from a last-minute business trip. The moment he pulled me into his arms, his first words caught me off guard, "You've put on a little weight. haven't you?" I froze for the briefest second, then forced a laugh, pretending to joke, "Oh? Did you hold someone. skinnier than me while you were away?" Vincent's body went rigid. Without a word, he pushed me down on the bed and kissed me hard, ignoring the question. Afterwards, as always, he went into the bathroom for a shower, every move perfectly normal. But I knew it wasn't.

We had grown up together for thirteen years, and not once had he ever called me fat. I took a long breath, steeling myself as I picked up his phone to check. Nothing unusual. When Vincent came out and saw me lying quietly without speaking, he climbed into bed, wrapped an arm around me, and gave a helpless little smile, "Still mad? Just because I said you'd put on a little weight? It's just... it's been too long since I saw you. I guess it felt a little unfamiliar." I nodded, saying nothing, curling against him in silence. The next day, I called my parents, "Vincent might be cheating.

I want to call off the wedding." They told me to investigate more carefully first. I got in the car and drove straight to Caldwell Corporation. It was Saturday, yet Vincent had claimed he needed to work overtime-blowing off the long-promised date he owed me. I thought about calling him, but before I could, a message from him popped up on my screen. We both kept two WhatsApp accounts for work. For everyday chats, we used TikTok DMs. We had been keeping up our "daily spark" streak there for over four thousand days. Vincent's message looked perfectly ordinary: Baby, have you eaten yet?

I stared at the chat bubble for a moment, blinking. Vincent had always hated anything cutesy. When I once begged him to switch our chat bubbles to something adorable, he refused, saying it was childish. Chapter 1 41.59% And yet... now his chat bubble had turned into a pink rabbit theme. I replied with just a question mark. The message showed as read instantly. A second later, the bubble switched back to the default theme as he sent: Must be a TikTok bug. I don't know what that bubble was. Didn't know? Biting my lip, I searched online.

My screen filled with videos of couples proudly showing off the very same pink rabbit theme. In that instant, everything clicked. My fiancé had set up a matching chat theme with another girl. I tapped on one of the newest posts, uploaded just ten minutes ago by an account named Soft Bunny Cupcake. It was a trendy chat-record video, full of "do you love me" style exchanges. The problem was obvious: the avatar on the other side was Vincent. And the profile photo he used was the candid shot I had taken of him, peeling shrimp for me.