The day everything broke.

Bianca didn't look up from her laptop.

The numbers on the screen blurred together.

She started again. A soft knock came against her office door.

"Miss Ellington?"

She looked up.

Her assistant stood outside. "Your coffee."

"Thank you."

The young woman set the cup down carefully. "I heard the directors approved your proposal."

Bianca smiled. "They did."

"Congratulations."

"Thanks."

The assistant hesitated. "You've been here since seven. You should go home."

"I will."

The assistant nodded and quietly left.

The smile disappeared the moment the door closed.

Bianca leaned back in her chair.

Her mind drifted to the marina.

I need your help.

I wasn't lying when I said I had nowhere else to go.

She shook her head.

"No."

She reached for another file.

...

By the time she left the office, the sky had turned orange.

She glanced at the clock.

Six o'clock. She had time.

A smile crept onto her face.

Maybe she should surprise him instead.

...

Twenty minutes later, Bianca parked outside Daniel's apartment building.

She stopped by the bakery downstairs.

Daniel loved chocolate cake.

She carried the small white box in one hand and took the elevator upstairs.

Apartment 804.

She stood outside the door.

Just as she lifted her hand to knock—

A woman's voice came from inside. "You've been avoiding me."

Bianca frowned. She looked at the apartment number again.

804.

She hadn't made a mistake.

Daniel answered. "I told you not to come here."

"Then answer your phone."

There was a long silence and Bianca took a small step back.

The door wasn't fully closed, she could hear them clearly.

"You keep choosing her." The woman's voice cracked.

"How much longer are you going to keep pretending?"

Daniel let out a tired sigh. "You don't understand."

"Then explain it to me." Bianca's fingers tightened around the cake box.

Inside, a chair scraped across the floor.

"I've already invested years into this."

Her heartbeat slowed.

Years?

"What does that even mean?" the woman asked.

"It means I'm not walking away now."

"Because you love her?"

Bianca waited. So did the woman.

Daniel laughed. A quiet, humorless laugh.

"Love?"

The word hit Bianca before the next sentence did.

"When was the last time you heard me talk about love?"

The woman spoke again. "So... you don't?"

Daniel didn't answer immediately.

When he finally did, his voice was flat. "Love was never the point."

The cake box slipped in Bianca's hands. She caught it before it hit the floor.

Inside the apartment, neither of them noticed.

The woman sounded confused. "Then why stay with her?"

"Because being close to Bianca opened doors." Bianca's eyes slowly widened.

"What?"

"The Ellington family." Daniel's voice stayed calm. "It gave me opportunities people from my background don't get."

The woman stared at him. "So you've been using her?"

"I used the situation."

"Daniel..."

"I'm too close now." His voice hardened.

"I'm not walking away until I get everything I deserve."

The hallway spun.

Bianca pressed one hand against the wall.

No.

No...

The woman lowered her voice.

"What if she really loves you?"

Daniel shrugged. "So?"

Bianca bit down so hard on her lip she tasted blood.

Inside the apartment, the woman whispered,

"You're cruel."

Daniel looked toward the window.

Bianca stepped back slowly. Her legs barely held her.

She didn't remember reaching the elevator.

She didn't remember pressing the button.

She only realized she was crying when a tear landed on the white cake box.

The elevator doors opened.

An elderly couple smiled at her.

She looked down and she couldn't smile back.

...

By the time she reached her car, her hands were shaking.

She unlocked it on the third try.

The cake slid onto the passenger seat.

She stared at it then she laughed. It came out broken.

A second later, she covered her face.

Everything she'd defended.

Every argument she'd had with her parents, every promise Daniel had made, every future she'd imagined was fruitless. 

She gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white.

"Why?"

The word barely left her lips.

Her chest tightened. She bent forward, resting her forehead against the steering wheel.

The tears wouldn't stop.

...

Across the city...

Ethan stared at his phone.

Another message from Daisy.

**The hospital can't delay the surgery anymore. They're asking me to confirm tomorrow. I don't know what to tell them.**

He closed his eyes.

Then another message arrived.

**I'm scared, Ethan.**

He stood up so quickly his chair rolled backward.

He paced across the room. His father wouldn't listen.

He'd tried everything. His eyes landed on Bianca's number.

He stood there for almost a full minute. She'd already rejected him.

She had every reason to.

He rubbed a hand over his face. "I have nothing left."

He pressed call.

Bianca's phone vibrated on the passenger seat.

She ignored it.

It rang again.

She looked up.

Unknown Number.

She almost declined it. Instead...She answered.

"Hello?"

Neither of them spoke at first.

Then Ethan's voice came quietly through the speaker.

"Bianca..."

She closed her eyes.

"I know you've already given me your answer." He swallowed. "But... please, just hear me out."

She looked through the windshield.

The lights of the city blurred behind her tears.

Daniel's voice echoed inside her head.

**Love was never the point.**

She let out a shaky breath.

There was nothing left to protect, nothing left to wait for and nothing left to believe in.

"...I'll do it."

Silence.

Ethan was shocked. He wasn't sure he'd heard her correctly.

"What...?"

"I said..." She wiped at her face with the back of her hand. "...I'll do it."

Then Ethan lowered himself onto the edge of the sofa.

His knees suddenly felt weak.

Bianca stared through the windshield.

Her voice trembled. "Tell me when and where."