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Chapter 2

Author: Tea Everywhere
I froze for only a second before Jack reached the door and opened it.

A petite girl stood outside. She carried a suitcase and held several dolls in her arms.

Jack immediately took the suitcase from her and reached for her hand with his other. “Let me carry that for you.”

The girl gave him a soft, demure smile.

There was no mistaking her face. It was the same girl from the photograph. It was Layla.

Jack led Layla inside and noticed me standing nearby. A hint of awkwardness crossed his face.

“Layla is technically my wife now. If she does not stay here, her family will get suspicious. From now on, I’ll teach her how to run a business. You can share some of your experience with her, too. I’m sure it will not be long before she can stand on her own.”

My heart seemed to freeze solid. Even when I had just started out, I had clawed my way up entirely on my own. Even though Jack was my boyfriend, he never used his authority to give me an advantage.

“Thank you, Mr. Parker.”

Layla gave Jack a sweet, obedient little bow before turning to glance at me. A flicker of displeasure crossed her face.

“Thank you, Mrs. Parker.”

Mrs. Parker? Jack and I were not married. I did not know what that made me.

I placed the necklace on the table without another word and turned away to pack my things.

Layla refused to let it go. She stared at me blankly for a moment before tears welled in her eyes.

“Mr. Parker only married me because he’s kind. He’s always willing to help people. Please don’t blame him.

"He only loves you, so please don’t worry, Mrs. Parker. Mr. Parker did assign me a team of people, but that’s only so I can learn to protect myself as quickly as possible. Once I’m strong enough, I’ll build my own forces and repay both of you.”

As she spoke, she shifted slightly, making the badge pinned to her chest catch the light.

The intricate engraving of the Parker family crest was unmistakable. I recognized it instantly.

It was a special insignia Jack issued to the leaders of each district. Whoever possessed one had the authority to command the soldiers stationed in that territory.

I spent years working toward that badge, and I was finally close to earning one myself. Jack had simply handed it to her.

I stared at him in disbelief.

“That’s the special insignia reserved for district leaders. I’ve followed you for years, and you’ve never given me one.

"You always told me I had to earn everything on my own. I was already about to get that badge through my own efforts. So why does she walk through the door and suddenly get special treatment?”

The moment I said special treatment, Jack’s expression darkened.

Jack had always been a stickler for rules. He never played favorites, especially with me. The moment Layla appeared, those rules stopped mattering.

“It’s just a badge,” he replied in a cold voice, “If I didn’t give Layla one, why would her parents agree to marry her off to me? And it’s not just the badge. To make her parents trust me completely, I also handed her family control of the entire real estate division.”

A metallic taste rose in the back of my throat.

That division was something I had built from the ground up. When our family first entered legitimate business, everything was unfamiliar.

The family gave me a little capital and nothing else. I had been left to figure everything out on my own. Only I knew how much blood, sweat, and tears it had taken.

“That division is mine. I built it from nothing. What gives you the right to hand it over to her family without even asking me?”

I once imagined that after the business matured, Jack would finally propose.

Instead, I waited eight years for a proposal that never came, and I watched him take the business I had built and use it to win over another woman’s family.

“It’s just a business division. Mr. Parker has plenty of them. So what if you were the one who developed it? It still belongs to him! I thought Mr. Parker’s girlfriend was supposed to be impressive. It’s just one business line, and she’s making such a fuss over it. She sounds just like some hysterical woman off the street.”

Layla muttered under her breath, but every word carried clearly enough for both Jack and me to hear.

Jack’s lips parted as though he wanted to speak. Then he closed them again.

He did not defend me. Instead, he turned and led Layla upstairs. He unpacked her things for her, then ran her a bath.

Those were the little things I had always done for myself.

He made an exception for her.

Layla glanced back at me over her shoulder. A faintly triumphant smile played on her lips. Then she happily followed Jack into the room.

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