Chapter 3

Groundless accusations were thrown at me all at once.

I felt that my three years of sincerity toward my neighbors had been nothing but a joke.

I replied, [That picture is AI-generated. I’ve filed a police report.]

Rosalind replied, [Ha! Go ahead. If you’ve got nothing to hide, what are you scared of?]

[Feeling guilty, are you? You’ve done something shady and can’t stand being called out for it, huh?]

[Ladies, the more worked up she gets, the more it proves she’s hiding something! Don’t let her fool you!]

I tried to explain further, but I found that I had already been kicked out of the group chat.

Many of my regular customers had already blocked me.

The customers who had just been happily buying cakes pushed open my shop door in a fury.

“You’ve got some nerve! Making money off this kind of filth! You don’t think what goes around comes around?”

“Get out! We don’t want your trash tainting our block!”

With that, they hurled the cakes they had just bought directly at me, smearing cream all over my face.

Not satisfied with just running their mouths, they tore my studio apart.

They did not stop until my studio was completely destroyed. Then, they slammed the door behind them and left, looking awfully proud of themselves.

I sat alone in the wreckage.

My body was covered in cream, and the floor was scattered with shards of glass.

My phone buzzed nonstop with refund demands and vicious messages from customers.

I broke down when I saw that my three years of hard work had been destroyed beyond recognition.

As I slid down to the floor and collapsed in a heap, broken shards cut my legs. At this point, I no longer felt the pain.

At that moment, my fiance, Kendrick Grundy, finally arrived.

When I saw him push open the door and walk in, I rushed over with teary eyes, thinking he would hold me and comfort me, saying, “It’s okay, I’m here.”

Instead, he took a step back and said coldly, “My mom saw those pictures. Do you have any idea how humiliated I am?”

I stood there frozen.

“Kendrick… that picture was AI-generated. Don’t you believe me?”

“Does it even matter what I believe?”

He tugged at his tie in frustration and said, “My mom called me. She asked me why I picked such a trashy woman to be my wife.

“At work, my coworkers forwarded that picture to the office group chat. Did you even know that?”

Trashy…

He said it so casually, as if it meant nothing. It landed like a knife in my chest.

He frowned and said accusatorily, “I told you to avoid trouble.

“You knew exactly what Rosalind was like. If she wants to scam a free cake out of you, just give it to her and move on.

“It’s only a couple hundred dollars. If you couldn’t cover it, I would’ve paid for you. How did you let it blow up into this mess?”

“A couple hundred dollars?” I stared at him in disbelief. “Kendrick, do you seriously think this is about money?

“She framed me and spread disgusting lies about me. Somehow, it seems that’s my fault too—”

He cut me off. “That’s enough! Just shut down the studio and act like it never happened. Once both of you calm down, everyone will just move on.”

“Why should I shut it down? What did I even do wrong?” I screamed.

He let out a sigh and spoke to me like he was reasoning with a stubborn child.

“Lia, why can’t you understand?

“Rumors are terrifying. Why bother fighting a lunatic like her? Even if you win, what’s the point?”

I looked at him in silence.

He stood before me in his immaculate suit and spotless shoes, keeping just the right amount of space between us.

At that moment, it hit me.

Love, apparently, was fragile enough to be broken by one cake and one lie.

“Kendrick, please leave.”

He was stunned for a moment.