Chapter 1

Nathan Ridges immediately shut his mouth when he saw me.

All eyes in the room turned to me.

"What are you doing here?" My brother, Lucas Everett, put down his glass and moved aside to make room for me.

"Mom and Dad are out for a business dinner. I was bored at home alone." I tried to keep my voice steady, but my hands trembled uncontrollably.

He nodded and warned the people in the private room, "My sister doesn’t drink. None of you better force her."

His friends laughed and teased, "Lucas, you treat your sister so well. What will you do when she gets a boyfriend?"

Lucas rolled his eyes with a grin. "I’ll have to check him out thoroughly. Not just any man is good enough for her."

The group burst into laughter.

"What kind of man would be good enough, then? Do any of us qualify?"

Lucas glanced around the room, then jokingly settled his gaze on Nathan, who had been silent the whole time. "I guess only Nathan barely makes the cut."

"But he doesn’t even take his girlfriend seriously. No way I’m letting my sister date him."

Lucas was joking, but Nathan’s expression was stiff. He turned to glance at me, then quickly looked away.

"Don’t joke around. I see Sienna as a sister."

I stared at the side of Nathan’s face, feeling an unbearable pain in my heart.

Noticing my gaze, Lucas waved his hand in front of me. "Sienna? Why are you staring at Nathan like that?"

I quickly lowered my head and took a sip of water to cover my panic.

The others continued with their teasing.

"Sienna, sure, Nathan is good-looking, but he’s a total player. Don’t fall for the wrong guy."

"Yeah, just now, he was saying his girlfriend is easy to fool because she’s naive and soft-tempered. Can you believe that?"

"I thought he was actually serious after dating her for years. Turns out, he said she chased him too hard, and he couldn’t shake her off."

"Right! And he never brings her around. Why do you think that is? Because he never planned to have anything long-term with her. Just earlier, he—"

"That’s enough. Stop talking." Nathan’s face darkened, and his voice turned cold.

Lucas, being the closest to him, noticed his mood shift and asked, "What’s wrong? Don’t tell me you’re still upset about Bianca coming back?"

My hand trembled suddenly.

Bianca was coming back?

Nathan quickly glanced at me before looking away just as fast. "What does her return have to do with me?"

Lucas chuckled. "How does it not? You don’t care about your girlfriend because you still have Bianca in your heart, don’t you?"

Everyone knew he had a girlfriend he never introduced, but no one knew that person was me.

He would take calls from her at gatherings, speaking softly and sweetly. He sent her gifts every week—never the same, always thoughtful.

Even Lucas thought he was serious about her.

For three years, Nathan had treated me well—gentle, considerate, generous. He was the perfect boyfriend. The only condition he had was that we kept our relationship a secret.

His reason? "You’re still young."

I believed him.

Until just now, when I heard him say in a completely indifferent tone that I was nothing more than a pastime to him.

Just a pastime.