Chapter 2

The first time I met Vincent was the night he got dumped.

His fiancée, the girl he'd been engaged to since childhood, had flown off to Italy without a second glance.

He was sitting alone, slamming back drinks at the dive bar where I worked.

I'd open a bottle of hard liquor, and he'd down the whole thing.

My commission from his drinks that night alone was thirty thousand dollars.

As I was getting ready to leave at dawn, he grabbed my sleeve and wouldn't let go.

"How do I forget her… Please, help me forget her…"

For the sake of that thirty thousand dollars.

I took advantage of my summer break from college and brought this dangerous man back to my grandmother's old house in the suburbs.

Life in the slums had a simple rule. Spend your days chopping firewood and patching a leaky roof, and you'd be too exhausted to dream of anything but swinging an axe.

Sure enough, after five days of hard labor, he was too exhausted to think of anything but axes and tin roofs.

A month later, I took Vincent in our neighbor's beat-up pickup truck to the town market to sell the secondhand furniture we had restored.

After a month of hard work, we had made a total of fifteen hundred dollars.

After the cost of tools and gas, our net profit was less than seven hundred bucks.

I counted out two hundred and fifty dollars in cash and pressed it into Vincent's hand.

That night, this man who was used to seeing crates of dirty money tossed and turned in his narrow wooden bed, clutching those few worn-out bills.

The next morning, he sat down beside me with dark circles under his eyes.

"Chloe, be with me. I have money."

Of course, I knew he had money.

For the famous heir of the Moretti family, money was never an issue.

From that day on, he started to pursue me.

It was a grand spectacle, and everyone in our world was watching the show.

Wherever I went, there were whispers from family members.

"See? A mob boss's love isn't worth a dime. Serena's barely been gone a month and the heir's already found a new girl from the slums."

I finally said yes when Vincent rented out an entire city block and piled countless crates of the finest red roses in front of me.

He stood there stunned for a long moment before pulling me into a tight embrace.

Pressed against his furiously beating heart, I felt a strange and powerful surge inside me.

They didn't know. The heir to the Moretti family had everything, except for a moment of pure, uncalculated affection.

After getting together with Vincent, what shamed me most was my background.

But I had a stubborn streak and never intended to bow to their class-based rules.

I studied the complex ledgers day and night, eventually earning all the necessary licenses to become his most trusted financial assistant, the one who could legitimately manage his business.

Unfortunately, the good dream didn't last.

Serena, the childhood sweetheart who had ruthlessly abandoned him, came running back from Europe in disgrace.

She cried in his arms for a night, and the next day, my position was gone.

Serena effortlessly took my place as the family's new chief financial officer.

Vincent leaned back in his executive chair, loosened his tie, and looked at me with tired eyes.

"Chloe, I have no choice. Her father controls two city blocks. For the good of the family, I have to give her this position."

"Besides, once we're married, you'll be the Donna of the family. You need to see the bigger picture, to make some small sacrifices."

I bit my lip and, in the end, I gave in.

After that, I could only watch numbly as he and Serena became inseparable.

He bought her a luxury yacht for her birthday, and he even bought her an identical copy of the cross necklace he had given me when he proposed.

I waited, slowly dying inside from the cycle of hope and disappointment.

I suddenly understood. He probably didn't need my sincere heart anymore.

That day, I sat alone in the bridal shop for eight hours, only to be met by a bodyguard sent to try on the groom's suit in his place.

I finally lost my temper and yelled at him over the phone.

On the other end, he was even angrier than I was.

"Chloe, do you have any idea how much pressure I'm under, fighting everyone to marry a commoner?"

"Serena and I are in a negotiation in the South District. This isn't a game I can just walk away from. It's a stupid dress. Can't you see what's important and what isn't?"

From falling in love to wearing his engagement ring, seven whole years had passed.

He had never taken me to any public events, nor had we taken a single photo together.

Yet he allowed Serena to post pictures of them skiing together in the Alps on her social media.

I had swallowed every injustice, believing he loved me. Now I finally understood the reason I had to endure it all was simple. He just didn't love me anymore.