Chapter 2

He tossed the thin stack of papers onto the seat beside me.

The terms were laid out clearly in black and white.

Our finances would remain completely separate before and after marriage.

And if we ever divorced, I would walk away with nothing from him.

Xander rested one hand on the steering wheel and glanced down at me.

The man who had always been patient and gentle with me now looked at me with nothing but coldness in his eyes.

I curled my fingers tightly into my palms and took a deep breath.

“But my parents never signed a prenup when they got married.”

Xander gave a quiet laugh.

“Your dad, the teacher, and your mom, the accountant?”

His tone was almost indulgent.

“Sienna, they’re ordinary people who got married and built a life together. Of course they didn’t need one.”

My breath caught.

I stared at him in disbelief.

“You investigated me?”

My family had protected me carefully all these years.

They had created an airtight background for me, so everyone believed that was really where I came from.

I had planned to tell Xander the truth after I accepted his proposal.

Xander admitted it without hesitation.

“Vanessa looked into you.

“She said you were never innocent from the start. That you were an ambitious gold digger with expensive tastes.

“I didn’t believe her at first.”

He paused.

Then he looked at me and slowly shook his head.

“Until last night, when the first thing you did was ask me for five million dollars.”

My eyes began to sting.

Then Xander reached over and gently wiped the corner of my eye.

“Sienna, there’s a difference between knowing your worth and being greedy.

“Do you have any idea how many women in this city would kill to become Mrs. Shaw?”

I looked up at the little good-luck charm hanging in his car, the one we had picked out together.

Memories of everything we had shared flooded back.

I took a deep breath and made one last attempt.

“Xander, five million dollars is my father’s only condition.

“Anything else, I can agree to.”

He let out a merciless laugh.

“Sienna, you really think far too highly of yourself.”

My face went pale.

“Then we should break up.”

His expression changed instantly.

“So you’re not even going to pretend anymore?”

“The second you realize you can’t get five million out of me, you want to break up?”

He sneered.

“What? Already eager to find your next rich guy?”

I couldn’t stand listening to him insult me anymore.

I turned and pulled open the car door.

But Xander grabbed me and yanked me back.

With red-rimmed eyes, he pinned me against the passenger seat.

“Sienna, I gave you a chance.

“You’re the one who didn’t want it.

“So don’t come crying and begging me later.”

Then he drove away.

I walked alone through the cold wind until I had no tears left to cry.

I took time off from the orchestra.

Over the next two days, I gathered everything in my apartment that had anything to do with Xander.

In the end, there wasn’t actually much.

Just two small boxes.

So why did it feel as though someone had carved half my heart out of my chest?

I spent two days at home in a daze, crying until I had nothing left.

On the third day, one of my colleagues from the orchestra called me in a panic.

“Sienna, check social media right now. Is that post about you?”

That was how I found out Vanessa had posted a long story online about Xander and me.

Except she had twisted almost everything.

In her version, I was a calculating gold digger who had gone after Xander for his money from the very beginning.

She claimed I had constantly manipulated him into spending money on me and then flew into a rage when he finally saw through me.

She never mentioned my name.

But she didn’t need to.

An orchestra.

A cellist.

A fireworks proposal.

There were more than enough details for people online to figure out who I was.

Soon, people started flooding Xander’s social media account, asking whether Vanessa’s story was true.

Half an hour later,

Xander liked her post.