Chapter 1

Adrian's POV

By the time I came out, the four people who had promised to wait for me were gone.

I didn't bother looking for them. I simply followed the crowd toward the parade route.

Kyle Lane stood on the lead float with three women around him, each dressed like a princess. He looked like he owned the world.

"I'm so jealous," a girl beside me whispered. "I heard you have to reserve a spot on that float a month in advance."

A month in advance.

I watched Serena Sullivan reach for Kyle's hand without hesitation.

And they'd still forgotten about me.

I looked away, expressionless. The laughing tourists around me felt like they belonged to a different world.

When the parade ended, the four of them finally found me just as I was about to leave.

"Adrian, where did you go?"

"Come on. We booked a restaurant. We're going to sing happy birthday to you!"

Serena grabbed my hand. Chloe Quinn and Vivian Yates nodded eagerly beside her.

"Yeah, Adrian. We've been planning this surprise forever."

Kyle came over smiling too.

For a second, I froze.

They had actually planned something for me?

They hadn't forgotten my birthday?

Serena pulled me all the way to the restaurant, only for the host to stop us at the entrance.

"I'm sorry. Your reservation is for four, and we can't add another chair to that table. You can wait for the next one to open up, though."

I stopped walking.

The tiny spark of hope I'd just felt made me look even more ridiculous now.

Serena blinked. "I must have counted wrong."

A humorless smile tugged at my mouth.

Right.

Serena Sullivan, the straight-A prodigy I had known since childhood, apparently couldn't count to five.

Kyle groaned. "We have to wait? I'm starving. Aren't you guys hungry?"

All three women turned toward me at the same time.

Their hesitation said everything.

"Maybe..."

"I'll go," I cut in. "Enjoy dinner."

Serena brightened immediately. She hooked a finger around mine, cupped my face, and rose on tiptoe to kiss me.

"You're the best, Adrian.

"Besides, you said you're cutting right now."

Chloe and Vivian were already walking Kyle inside.

"Just wait out front for us," one of them called. "We won't be long."

I stood there and watched the four of them laugh together through the glass.

December had never felt so cold.

I let out a quiet laugh and finally unclenched my fist.

Then, instead of waiting, I turned against the cheerful crowd and walked away alone.

There was the hiking trip, when a snowstorm shut down the mountain. The last gondola cabin down only seated four people.

Serena had bought exactly four tickets.

They promised they'd send someone back for me once they reached the bottom.

So I waited and waited.

By nightfall, I could hear wolves in the distance, and no one had come.

A patrol team eventually found me and brought me down.

When I finally got home, the four of them were watching a movie.

"Adrian? Why are you only getting back now?"

"We thought you were upstairs asleep."

The confusion on their faces was real.

They'd forgotten I existed.

Then there was our graduation trip.

They wanted to travel overseas. I was running a high fever and didn't speak the language, so I didn't want to go.

They insisted. They swore they would take care of me.

At our very first stop, they left me behind on a train.

I couldn't communicate with anyone. My bag was stolen, and then I got shot.

I almost died in a foreign country.

By the time the four of them returned from their trip, the embassy had already got me home.

They stared at me in shock.

"Wait. Why are you home? We thought you were with us."

I had been missing for more than ten days.

They hadn't even noticed.

Then they kept showing me beach photos of Serena, Chloe, and Vivian in bikinis clustered around Kyle.

The winter wind dragged me back to the present.

I took out my phone and called my father.

"Dad, you said that once I turned twenty-four, I could choose whether to stay at headquarters or train at one of our overseas branches, right?

"I've decided. I want to go overseas."

After I hung up, fireworks burst across the sky.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY appeared in glittering letters.

Under it were four sets of initials. Theirs, not mine.

I laughed quietly.

Then I whispered to myself, "Happy birthday, Adrian."