Chapter 4

He'd done better than anyone else out of it, and he'd come away with two dollars.

Evan's performance left the whole group with nothing to say.

Nobody typed anything.

Serena, though, messaged me on my own.

[Adrian, you agreed to end the engagement. That was your decision.]

[So since there's nothing between us anymore, could you please stop making life hard for Evan?]

[He hasn't had it easy. You don't need to stand there being the rich boy in front of him.]

I looked at it for a while, then forwarded it to Liam.

Liam couldn't believe it. He didn't want to believe it.

As far as he was concerned Evan had drugged her, and everything I'd put in over the years had gone into a hole in the ground.

He got angry enough that he left the group.

Within the hour the rest of them left too.

Serena was furious and could do nothing about it, so the next day she posted vacation photos of herself and Evan abroad.

Holding hands. Legs against each other. As close as two people can stand.

She'd even had his initials tattooed on her collarbone. EB.

There wasn't a mark on him anywhere.

When the photos got back to her parents, the two of them were beside themselves and completely helpless.

So they came to me again.

"Adrian, don't be angry. When Serena comes home I'll have that tattoo taken off her, I promise you."

My face didn't move. I told them, without any particular feeling, that Shaw Holdings would not be doing business with Sutton Group from now on.

I'd carried that family long enough.

Two weeks after it ended, my family arranged a dinner for me with someone they thought I ought to meet.

I went happily enough, and ran into Serena at the restaurant.

"Adrian?"

Her eyes were red-rimmed, and she was clearly thrown to see me. "How did you know I'd be here?

"I've told you a hundred times. I don't love you, and I don't want your birthday present."

She'd decided that the gift I'd brought for my date was for her.

I didn't want her carrying that around, so I said it plainly.

"I'm meeting someone."

She didn't believe a word of it.

She looked me up and down and made a sound in her throat. "Adrian, you don't have to lie to save face.

"This is a couples' restaurant. Who else could you possibly be meeting?

"I think you've been following me. You waited until Evan was away so you could turn up and make eyes at me."

And while she was saying it, she reached for the present she supposedly didn't want.

"What did you buy? Let me see. Don't tell me it's another Chanel bag. That's the only thing you ever think of."

I found the whole performance genuinely funny.

But before I could say anything, Evelyn Langley came through the door in a pale cream dress, and every head in the room turned.

"Adrian."

She was smiling, and when she saw my expression she followed my eyes over to Serena.

"Am I interrupting?"

The moment Serena saw her, her face went dark.

"You actually are meeting someone."

Her eyes went back and forth between us for a long moment, and then she laughed, small and cold.

"Adrian, are you even a man?

"Two weeks. Two weeks and you're already onto the next woman. What is it, you can't survive without me?

"Or is this the part where you pretend not to want me so I come running?"

I looked at her and let out a breath, and felt absolutely nothing.

"Serena, you've thought yourself into a corner. I agreed to end it because I don't love you anymore.

"I'm here tonight because I actually want to meet someone new.

"None of it has anything to do with making you jealous."