Chapter 4

"What day?"

Confusion crossed Vivian's beautiful face.

And just like that, I understood.

I had been the only idiot still counting, the only one remembering the promise to get married, the only one who remembered that when she caught me on those stairs years ago, I had looked at her and thought, I want this woman in my life.

The last stubborn piece of hope inside me went quiet.

"Nothing," I said.

Julian's footsteps were getting closer.

Vivian straightened her jacket and turned away.

"We'll talk at home later."

Then, without looking back, she said, "I'll go ahead. Don't let Julian see you."

A second later, Julian appeared.

"Vivian, there you are. I've been looking everywhere."

Vivian shifted half a step and blocked me in the shadowed corner behind her.

Julian tugged lightly at her sleeve.

"My flight got in too late and all the downtown hotels are booked. Could I stay at your place tonight?"

Your place. The apartment Vivian and I had shared for five years.

She almost said no.

I heard the start of it.

Then Julian continued.

"Your dad asked me to visit tomorrow. If I stay with you, we can go together."

For five years, Vivian had told me she was working on things with her father.

And every time I appeared in front of him, he still pointed at me like I was an enemy and ordered me out.

Julian, on the other hand, had always been someone her father adored.

Vivian was silent for a long time.

My heart hung there with her answer.

Then she said, "Okay."

The waiting ended.

My heart didn't stay suspended. It fell, and this time it broke cleanly.

My phone kept buzzing.

Adrian, don't come home tonight.

I don't want Julian seeing you there and telling my father about us.

She didn't need to worry about tomorrow anymore.

She could spend all the time she wanted with Julian and her father.

I had nothing left to say about it.

Under cover of night, I went back to the apartment and packed everything that mattered.

Everything that didn't went into the trash.

When I found an old medical file in the bedside drawer, the scar over my chest began to ache again.

Years ago, when Langford Holdings was fighting for survival, Vivian had taken business from men who were used to getting their way through intimidation.

They set a trap to teach her a lesson.

At the time, her family was collapsing and no one wanted to get involved.

I called the police.

Then I went after her before backup arrived.

During the struggle, someone swung a heated metal bar toward her.

I took it instead.

It burned deep into the skin just below my collarbone, frighteningly close to my heart.

In the hospital, Vivian sat beside me with red eyes and held my hand.

That was the day she finally said yes to me.

Her fingers trembled over the bandages on my chest.

"Give me five years," she whispered. "In five years, I'll be strong enough to stand beside you without letting you carry me. I won't let you be humiliated because of me."

Over those years, she had loved me in her own way.

She never forgot a single gift.

At home, where nobody could see us, she spoiled me shamelessly.

Her possessiveness bordered on extreme. If I said one word too many to another woman, she'd keep me up half the night in bed, making me say her name over and over.

And selfishly, I had loved that side of her.

I'll admit I took advantage of her at her lowest and slipped into the gap Julian had left behind.

Now the dream was over.

He was back.

I had gambled, and I had lost.

I dragged my suitcase downstairs and reached for my phone to call a car.

A horn sounded.

The woman who had been watching me from the corner of the party sat behind the wheel, smiling.

I blinked.

"What are you doing here?"

She popped the trunk and stepped out in heels.

"Making myself useful. The great Adrian finally agrees to a strategic engagement with my family, and I'm supposed to let him call a rideshare?"

A free driver? I wasn't going to argue.

I lifted my suitcase toward the trunk. She reached to steady it.

The case slipped, and our hands brushed.

I started to pull mine back out of simple politeness.

Then a familiar voice came from behind me.

"Adrian."

Vivian stood there, expression stormy.

"I ask you to stay out for one night, and you immediately find a woman to keep you company?"