Dumped With Cancer: I Became The Woman He Spends His Life Chasing

At seven in the morning, the convenience store had just finished its shift change.

Aria stood on tiptoe, arranging coffee cans on the top shelf, burn patches still stuck to her arm.

When the doorbell chimed, she didn't need to turn around to know who it was.

Julian stood in the doorway, suit immaculate, his eyes restless with irritation.

"What exactly are you trying to do?" he asked, forcing his anger down. "Ghosting me? Playing disappearing acts? You think I'd beg you to come back like this?"

Aria didn't stop. She kept arranging the shelves.

She knew this routine too well. Every time she ignored his calls out of spite, he would show up with a cold face, using accusations to force her to lower her head and apologize.

She would cry and apologize, and he would brush it off with a casual, "Let's not do this again next time," as if nothing had happened.

For ten years, the cycle repeated. She was like a tamed bird, unable to fly far, unable to escape.

But this time, she didn't want to play along anymore.

"Say something!" Julian strode forward, grabbed her wrist, and forced her to turn around.

But the moment he saw her face clearly, he froze.

Aria had grown frighteningly thin.

Her cheekbones jutted sharply, her eye sockets hollow, the once full cheeks reduced to a thin layer of skin.

Her wrist was so thin in his grasp it felt like a dead branch, as if it would snap with a twist.

"You…" His voice suddenly caught.

Aria tried to pull her hand back, but her vision went black and her body went limp.

Julian caught her instinctively, only to realize she was as light as snow, almost weightless.

The sharp smell of disinfectant filled the air in the hospital.

Aria woke up on the hospital bed and saw Julian sitting beside her, his brows tightly knit.

"What's wrong with you?" His voice was unusually low. "Are you sick?"

She opened her mouth, her throat dry.

The words crowded in her mind. That she had stomach cancer. That she only had a few months left. That the money he had taken was her only chance to survive.

But before the words could leave her mouth, the ward door was pushed open.

Lila walked in with a hand on her waist, her smile gentle. "Julian, I heard Aria collapsed? That's really worrying."

She glanced at Aria and lowered her voice, just loud enough for both of them to hear.

"But… she's always liked using this trick. Pretending to be sick, pretending to be pitiful, just to soften your heart. Do you remember last time? She said she had gastric bleeding, and it turned out to be nothing…"

Julian's expression changed instantly.

He stood up abruptly, his concern turning into icy disappointment.

"I knew it." He sneered. "You never know how to speak properly. All you know is playing the martyr."

Aria's heart sank completely into an icy abyss.

She wasn't even given a chance to explain. In his mind, her pain had always been nothing but an act.

"Let's go." Julian took Lila's hand. "Don't waste time here."

The door closed. Footsteps faded away.

Aria finally broke down.

She buried her face in the blanket and cried silently.

Not because she was sick. Not because she had been misunderstood. But because she had loved a man who couldn't even be bothered to confirm the truth when she was dying.

She cried until her whole body shook, until her phone screen lit up.

A notification popped up. "Lawson Group heir Julian Lawson officially announces his engagement today! Fiancée Lila Bennett's pregnancy revealed. Grand society banquet in preparation."

In the photo, Julian had his arm around Lila's waist, his smile gentle.

On Lila's ring finger was the diamond ring Aria had imagined countless times, a family heirloom left by his mother. He had once said, "When you marry me, you'll wear this."

Aria stared at the photo until her tears ran dry.

So it wasn't that he couldn't give a title. He had just never intended to give it to her.

She pulled the IV needle from the back of her hand and staggered out of bed.

A nurse chased after her. "Miss! You haven't recovered yet! The doctor said you're severely malnourished and need to stay for observation!"

Aria shook her head, her voice hoarse but firm. "No. I have to leave now."

She had her final twenty-four hours left.

But a few hours later, Aria received Julian's engagement invitation.