Blurb：
Pierse Jones risked his life to shield Eva Burns during the earthquake, suffering multiple fractures. Everyone called them the perfect couple—childhood sweethearts turned lifelong partners. But Eva Burns knew the truth: Pierse Jones had a mistress who looked just like her younger self. Discover the heartbreaking secret in this emotional story of love and betrayal. Will Eva Burns confront Pierse Jones? Can their decade-long relationship survive his hidden affair? Read now to uncover the lies behind the perfect marriage.
Content：
When the earthquake struck, Pierse Jones instinctively shielded me with his body, taking the full brunt of the impact and suffering multiple fractures.
In the hospital room, the girl in the next bed looked at me with envy and said, “Your husband didn’t even care about his own life to save you. He really loves you.”
I forced a smile. “Yeah.”
But just last night, after I had fallen asleep, he slipped into the bathroom, his voice soft and soothing as he spoke to someone else—his little mistress,
“I’m fine, don’t cry. Be good.”
“As long as I think of you, I’m not afraid of anything.”
Pierse and I grew up together, from childhood sweethearts to each other’s first love.
We had been together for ten years, admired by everyone as the perfect couple.
No one knew he had a mistress on the side, a girl who looked just like me when I was eighteen.
Chapter 1
I discovered Pierse Jones’ secret in the fifth year of our marriage.
On my way back from a business trip, the bus I was on got into an accident.
Fortunately, I had listened to Pierse and fastened my seatbelt as soon as I got on.
Aside from a minor injury to my calf, I was fine.
In the consultation room, a young girl in the next seat was on the phone, crying to her boyfriend.
“It hurts so much… When can you come pick me up?”
“Okay, I’ll wait for you.”
She ended the call, her lips curling into a bright smile, eyes gleaming with joy at whatever sweet words her boyfriend had whispered to her.
Then, her gaze shifted to me, and she spoke with innocent curiosity.
“Miss, you’re hurt too. Why didn’t you call your husband to come get you?”
I paused for a moment. “He’s busy with work and doesn’t have time.”
She tilted her head slightly, a hint of amusement tugging at her lips.
“That’s kind of sad.”
She was young, and her attempt at showing off was as blatant as a child’s.
I smiled, unfazed. “Yeah, when you’re young and in love, it’s like you can’t stand to be apart for even a second.”
When Pierse and I were eighteen, we were like that too.
At the graduation banquet after our final exams, he got drunk.
Holding my hand, he proudly announced to everyone,
“As soon as I graduate from college, I’m going to marry Eva Burns. Nothing in this world can tear us apart.”
As I left the consultation room, memories of the past lingered in my mind.
My injured leg made me walk slowly.
At the hospital entrance, I hailed a cab and had just gotten in.
A few meters away, a familiar black Bentley suddenly came to a stop.
The door opened, and Pierse stepped out, his expression carrying a hint of urgency.
I froze.
How did he know I was injured?
Just as I was about to lower the window and call out to him, the young girl from the consultation room came running over and threw herself into his arms.
Pierse took a step back, carefully avoiding the bandaged area on her arm before holding her tightly.
Through the car door, their voices reached me, slightly muffled.
“You’re hurt, and you’re still being so reckless.”
The girl looked up at him, pouting. “I haven’t seen you for days. Even if I’m injured, I still want a hug.”
His voice was filled with helpless affection.
“I really can’t take my eyes off you. Not even for a second.”
He said the same words to me once when we were twenty.
That night, after a fight with my mom, I was thrown out of the house.
With nowhere to go, I wandered the streets aimlessly.
When I heard Pierse’s voice, I thought I was imagining things.
“Eva.”
I looked up.
He was standing under the moonlight, worn out from travel, his eyes bloodshot.
His gaze fell on the red mark on my cheek, filled with distress.
“From now on, whenever you are back home, I won’t take my eyes off you. Not even for a second.”
…
It was raining outside.
When Pierse came back, I was curled up on the couch, hugging my knees.
“Eva, you’re home. Why didn’t you turn on the lights?”
He flicked the switch, and the dark living room was instantly flooded with light.
I stared at him in a daze.
My gaze slowly traced over his face, inch by inch, searching for something—anything—that was different from before.
But there was nothing.
He was exactly the same.
Chapter 2
Pierse’s gaze dropped to my calf, where blood was still seeping from the wound.
His eyes widened instantly.
“What happened?”
The worry and pain in his expression felt so genuine, not a hint of pretense.
I opened my mouth to answer, but before I could say a word, tears suddenly spilled down my face.
“It… it hurts… so much.”
The sharp sting of the wound touching water was nothing compared to the ache in my chest, an overwhelming helplessness threatening to drown me.
Pierse grabbed the first aid kit, took hold of my ankle, and carefully tended to the wound.
“Eva, how did this happen?”
I replied softly, “I was in a car accident on the way back today.”
“Why didn’t you call me—”
Halfway through his sentence, he abruptly stopped.
Something seemed to click in his mind.
His gaze dropped sharply, focusing intently on my wound, as if studying it carefully—yet he deliberately avoided meeting my eyes.
I dug my nails into my palm, using every bit of strength to keep my voice steady.
“Yesterday, when we were on video call, you mentioned you had an important contract to negotiate today. I didn’t want to disturb you. How did it go? Everything go smoothly?”
Pierse’s lashes were long and thick, casting shadows over his eyes, concealing whatever emotion lay beneath.
He picked up a cotton swab soaked in iodine with tweezers and carefully disinfected my wound.
After a long pause, he finally murmured, “Yeah. It went well.”
…
After treating my wound, Pierse went to take a shower.
I reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out his phone.
It unlocked effortlessly.
He added my fingerprint to his phone a long time ago, but I never once used it.
We were together for ten years.
And for all those years, I gave him my complete, unwavering trust.
Just as I trusted him completely, he trusted me the same way, which was why he never even bothered to hide his affair.
The chat history was right there—blatant, undeniable, filled with flirtations between him and that young girl.
Her name was Dolly Thomas, a junior in our alma mater, seven years younger than us.
Pierse called her Doll.
She complained about not getting along with her roommates, so he rented her an apartment off-campus and even got her a car.
Dolly loved Disney plushies.
When Pierse went on a business trip to Celadon City, he bought her two whole boxes of them.
She lined them up on her couch, took a picture, and sent it to him.
“You only bought them for me, right? Your wife didn’t get any, did she?”
Pierse replied, “No, she’s not like you. She doesn’t like these things.”
Dolly pouted. “So, are you calling me childish?”
“No, I find you adorable.”
My finger slowly scrolled down the screen, feeling weaker with each passing message.
So that was why, just before New Year’s, Pierse suddenly taken a trip to Westin Heights.
He had hiked up a steep trail to a remote chapel to light a candle for Dolly, who was sick.
And in June, when he left our college reunion halfway, claiming something urgent had come up, it was because Dolly had gotten drunk, called a cab, and sobbed her way to him.
Long before I ever noticed, she had already slipped into every crack in my life with Pierse, weaving herself into the spaces between us.
I swallowed the pain threatening to make me tremble and scrolled to the very bottom of their messages.
It was from today—after my accident.
“I took your wedding ring and threw it away.”
Dolly’s words were laced with entitlement. “Just looking at it pissed me off. It’s like that woman was flaunting her existence at me.”
“What’s so special about her anyway? She only met you first, that’s all.”
“So, when are you finally getting a divorce?”
And just moments before he walked through the front door, Pierse had replied, “Just wait a little longer. I’ll talk to her soon.”
…
By the time Pierse came out of the shower, I had already put his phone back in his coat pocket.
He didn’t notice anything off, just ruffled his damp hair with a towel and told me to get some rest.
I didn’t respond. My gaze locked onto his bare hand.
“You haven’t been wearing your wedding ring lately.”
His expression shifted slightly. As if covering up his reaction, he glanced down at his hand.
“I must’ve lost it in the locker room when I was out golfing the other day. I’ll have my assistant look for it tomorrow.”
Then, as if that settled it, he added, “You’re hurt. Get some rest, Eva.”
Chapter 3
A wave of emotion surged through me, thick as fog, swallowing me whole.
I could barely breathe.
I stayed silent for a long time before finally managing a hoarse response.
…
Late at night, Pierse called my name softly.
“Eva, are you asleep?”
His voice was gentle, as if making sure I was deep in sleep before he carefully got up and stepped onto the balcony to make a call.
“You saw my wife today?”
“Doll, divorce isn’t as simple as you think.”
“You’ve always been good, don’t start making a fuss now, okay?”
Just a few steps away, separated only by a glass door, my husband was soothing his young lover.
“Of course, I love you. I love you the most.”
His voice was soft, affectionate, laced with tenderness.
A faint curl of smoke rose from between his fingers.
I stared at him, frozen.
Then, as if sensing something, Pierse turned his head.
Through the glass, our eyes met.
He stiffened on the spot. “…Eva.”
I closed my eyes for a moment before rasping, “Pierse, who are you talking to?”
“No one special. There’s an issue with the new proposal. Tommy and the team needed my input.”
He put away his phone and walked toward me.
His tone was effortless, as if he had used the same hollow excuse countless times before.
I caught the lingering scent of smoke on him and coughed twice.
He immediately reached out and pressed his palm to my forehead in concern.
“You’re not running a fever, are you? It’s been raining all night, the temperature’s dropped. I’ll grab an extra blanket for you in a bit.”
As he spoke, his gaze flickered over my face, subtle but assessing.
He was trying to see if I had overheard his conversation just now.
I pulled my robe a little tighter around me and softly responded, “Alright.”
My voice was as calm and steady as always.
Pierse visibly relaxed.
“Go back to sleep.”
…
Back in bed, he dozed off quickly.
He had tucked the blankets snugly around me, yet I lay there staring at the dark ceiling, wide awake.
The moment I closed my eyes, memories flooded in.
I was twelve when Pierse and his mother moved to town while she recovered from an illness. That was when we met.
Back then, I was always hungry.
Whenever my parents fought, my mother would punish me by making me stand outside in the yard for hours.
My little brother grinned smugly, gnawing on a drumstick right in front of me.
“Hey, worthless girl. Mom said you’ll only ever get my leftovers.”
Pierse would march right in, grab my wrist in front of both my mom and brother, and drag me away to his house for dinner.
My mother, still seething from her latest fight with my father, couldn’t take her anger out on me.
Instead, she shouted after us, furious,
“If you like her so much, why don’t you just marry her?”
Pierse suddenly stopped, turned back, and smiled.
“That’s fine by me. It’s much better than letting her starve in your house.”
…
After high school, my parents finally ended their toxic marriage.
My father walked away without looking back.
My mother, on the other hand, made it clear.
“Eva, you’re eighteen now. An adult. I have no obligation to support you anymore. Don’t expect another cent from me.”
I scraped my way through four years of college, surviving on student loans and scholarships.
Meanwhile, Pierse worked himself to the bone, saving up every dollar until he finally had enough to start his own business.
In our senior year, he missed my birthday because of a business dinner.
But late that night, he still showed up outside my dorm, out of breath, clutching a bouquet of flowers.
He shoved them into my arms and pulled me into a tight hug.
“Eva, I’m going to give you the best life.”
…
As time went on, our lives only got better.
On our wedding day, Pierse held my hand and made a solemn vow.
“In a world where everything changes, my love for you never will. Eva, I will love you forever. I will never waver, never betray you.”
And I believed him wholeheartedly until I discovered Dolly.
Before that, I had always thought I was his one and only.
Chapter 4
By the time I woke up the next morning, the rain had long stopped.
Sunlight poured in through the window, bright and clear, as if the whole world had never known a shadow.
For a fleeting moment, I almost believed that everything from yesterday was just a bad dream.
Then I shifted slightly, and a sharp sting shot through my injured leg.
With the pain came everything else—a tidal wave of tangled memories from the day before, crashing over me all at once.
Dolly.
The moment her name crossed my mind, a crushing weight settled over my chest.
Her strange hostility in the clinic yesterday, and her taunting words.
Now, it all made sense.
I reached for my phone and saw a message from Pierse.
“Eva, you’re hurt. Get some rest. I already took care of things at work, so you don’t have to worry about going in today.”
“Something came up at the office, so I’ll be home late. Don’t wait for me for dinner.”
I didn’t reply.
Instead, I got in a cab and headed straight to our old university.
It was just after class, and students streamed out of the buildings.
Dolly walked out with her head high, looking every bit the picture of confidence.
The moment she spotted Pierse’s Bentley parked by the gate, she ran straight to it, throwing herself into his arms.
“Pierse, I missed you so much.”
He wrapped an arm around her and smiled, pressing a quick kiss to the tip of her nose. “Still mad at me?”
“Of course I am! Unless you make it up to me properly today.”
“Alright, today I’ll do whatever you want.”
Then, right there on the street, they kissed—long and deep—before finally pulling apart.
I sat in the car, silently watching as the Bentley disappeared into the distance.
The driver glanced at me through the rearview mirror and asked cautiously. “Do you want me to follow them?”
I shook my head. “No. Just take me home.”
…
It didn’t take much effort to track down Dolly’s social media using the phone number I saw in Pierse’s messages.
She hadn’t bothered to hide their relationship at all.
Hundreds of posts chronicled every little moment between them.
“Had another fight with my roommates. Such a bunch of morons. My mom just tells me to reflect on myself, but Pierse? He immediately got me a luxury apartment. Being loved feels amazing.”
A memory surfaced in my mind.
Back in college, I refused to help my roommates cheat on an exam, and things had never been easy between us after that.
They would even lock me out of the dorm when I went to shower, just to make things harder for me.
Pierse wanted me to move out, to get a place off-campus so I wouldn’t have to deal with them.
But back then, we were just broke students.
Even a simple studio apartment was more than we could afford, something we had to carefully consider.
And now, he could rent a high-end apartment for Dolly without a second thought.
I had turned down the idea of moving out back then.
We even fought about it.
“I can just call the dorm supervisor to handle it. There’s no need to waste money on an apartment.”
Pierse pressed his lips together, watching me intently. “I just want you to have a better life.”
I sighed softly. “I know how hard you work to make money, and I just want to make things easier for you too.”
In the end, he didn’t say anything else—just pulled me into his arms, his eyes turning red.
…
“I really wanted to go to Disney, and the moment I mentioned it, Pierse booked the tickets right away. Full VIP access, no lines, no hassle. Just imagining my mom sweating in line with her brat while I got the royal treatment makes me feel amazing.”
I gripped my phone tightly, the sudden wave of pain doubling me over.
I thought of that summer when I was fifteen—the rare time my parents weren’t fighting.
They locked me at home and took my little brother to Disney.
Pierse showed up that day and took me to a small amusement park in a nearby city instead.
The roller coaster cost three dollars a ride, the carousel two dollars a turn.
The rides were old and worn, but I still had the time of my life because no one had ever taken me anywhere like that before.
Pierse stood off to the side, watching me the whole time, his eyes gradually turning red.
On the way back, we walked under the moonlight, and I heard him say, “Eva, one day, I’ll take you to Disney too.”
Chapter 5
“You can stay as long as you want.”
Then we graduated and got married.
The last time we planned to go to Disney, something urgent came up at work, and we had to cancel.
Pierse looked at me, full of guilt, but I just gave him a reassuring smile.
“It’s really not that important. Pierse, I’m not a kid anymore. Missing a trip to an amusement park isn’t going to upset me. You don’t have to feel bad about it.”
He stared at me for a long, long time before finally nodding.
And after that, he never brought up Disney again.
Now I knew why because he had already gone with Dolly.
…
I kept scrolling through Dolly’s posts, reading far more than I should have.
By the time I reached the bottom, a deep, suffocating ache spread through my chest, making it hard to breathe.
I didn’t want to see any more.
Wiping my tears away, I moved to exit her profile.
But just as I did, a new post popped up.
Posted just three minutes ago, it was a photo of Dolly in skimpy lingerie, with a man’s hand barely visible at the edge of the frame.
There was a fresh red kiss mark on her collarbone.
“Someone has some… unique ways of making it up to me. My back is killing me, my throat is sore, and he’s acting like nothing even happened.”
In the comments, an account with a matching couple avatar replied:
“Try calling me an old man again and see what happens.”
It was Pierse.
Dolly pouted in response. “I was wrong, okay? My sweet Pierse.”
A violent wave of nausea surged up my throat.
Stumbling to the bathroom, I barely made it in time before doubling over the sink, gagging uncontrollably.
But since I hadn’t eaten anything all day, there was nothing to throw up.
The room swayed before me, light and shadow blurring together.
Holding my stomach, I sank onto the cold bathroom floor.
…
Pierse didn’t come home until the following evening.
The moment he walked in, he pulled out a small box and handed it to me.
His face was filled with guilt. “Eva, I had my assistant look for it, but they couldn’t find the wedding ring I lost.
“It wasn’t anything special anyway—we didn’t have much money back then. So, I figured I’d just replace it with something better.”
I looked down at his open palm.
Resting on a black velvet cushion were two gleaming platinum diamond rings, so dazzling that their worth was obvious at a glance.
His gaze was steady, sincere—so utterly convincing, as if his devotion had never wavered, not even for a second.
I stared at the rings for a long time before finally lifting my head.
“You didn’t come home last night. Where were you?”
He hesitated for half a second before answering.
“After the dinner, it was already late. I had been drinking, and I didn’t want to risk driving, so I stayed at a hotel nearby—”
He suddenly stopped mid-sentence because across from him, I was already crying.
Tears streamed down my face as I curved my lips into a bitter smile, my vision blurring again.
From the moment I discovered his affair with Dolly, the thought of divorce had been simmering in my heart.
But I couldn’t say it.
From twelve to twenty-eight, Pierse had been a part of my life for as long as I could remember.
This wasn’t as simple as ending a relationship.
Our lives had grown together, seamlessly intertwined.
Ending it now felt like cutting off a part of myself—painful, excruciating, leaving behind nothing but raw, bleeding wounds.
I replayed the past over and over, searching for where it all went wrong—wondering if I hadn’t been enough, if that was why he strayed, why he chose someone else.
“Eva, you—”
Pierse reached for my hand, his voice filled with shock and concern, but his fingers only brushed against mine before the world suddenly lurched.
For a second, I couldn’t process what was happening.
Then—
“An earthquake!”
The massive crystal chandelier above us swayed violently before the chain snapped, sending it crashing down.
Without hesitation, Pierse threw himself over me, shielding me with his entire body.
His familiar yet unfamiliar scent surrounded me, overwhelming and suffocating.
Through the swirling dust and debris, I caught a glimpse of the two shimmering rings—rolling across the floor, disappearing into the wreckage.
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