Chapter 1

When John Blake, my childhood friend, rushed into my office, I was still organizing the mess of documents on my table.

“Yggdra, what on earth are you trying to pull?”

I scowled and looked at my childhood friend of more than twenty years and felt frustrated. “What’s gotten you acting like a lunatic again?”

Soon, I understood the reason behind his rage.

William Lane, my boyfriend, had come in with a crying Claire Stone. Claire was our new assistant.

William had a dark expression on and a reproachful look in his eyes. The blatant disgust he exuded chilled me to the bone.

There was a red mark on one of Claire’s cheeks. John pointed at Claire and practically shouted at me. “No matter what Claire did wrong, you shouldn’t have raised your hand to her! Who the hell do you think you are?!”

When I saw his rage-filled eyes, I turned to Claire. “Did I hit you?”

Claire trembled and hid behind William before she shook her head minutely. Honestly, she put on a convincing pitiful act.

“Enough, Yggdra. Just look at how diabolical you are right now!” William’s enraged voice made my heart clench in pain. My eyes stung.

But I held back the emotions that were about to turn into vicious words on my tongue. “I’m diabolical? Heh. Fine. I sure am. I suppose I’m not worthy of you, o great lawyer, William Lane.

“From now on, we’re over.”

A flash of panic flickered in William’s eyes, but it only lasted for a moment. The anxiousness disappeared when Claire hugged his arm.

I slammed the documents I was holding onto the table.

Then, I left the office before my tears fell.

I could not bear to share a space with those three for even a second longer.

I shot out of the office as fast as I could and called my mother. I spoke with a quivering voice. “Mom, I broke up with William. When’s my blind date supposed to be?”

…

My mother was stunned for a moment before she sighed.

My parents had never liked William and had always been openly against my relationship with him since we got together.

My mother always said that I would suffer if I stayed with him.

But the boyfriend they disliked was not the only one who made me sad.

We did not end up talking much on the phone. My mother just asked me to head home first.

I started driving home. The cars rapidly flitting by on the road seemed to signal that everything I once was unable to let go of was fading from my life.

When I got home and saw my parents waiting for me on the couch, my sadness became an ocean that pulled me under.

I immediately threw myself into my mother’s arms and cried.

As I cried and told them about how I broke up with William, my father seethed.

They were not expecting that Claire would cause so many problems either.

While I was talking to my parents, Claire sent me a message.

It was a photo of the three of them together. Claire stood in the middle while John and William stood beside her like her knights.

The doting look in William’s eyes and the smile John showed her were once reserved for me.

Claire must have finally gotten what she wanted: to completely replace me.

My mother told me that she wanted me to go on a blind date with the son of a good friend of hers when she was young. He was a lawyer at a famous international law firm.

Since his grandmother was sickly, he intended to come back to develop his career. I was free to pick the date for the blind date.

I checked my phone before I looked at my worried mother. “Tomorrow, then. I’m fine with either the afternoon or evening.”