Chapter 1

I'd just put the bill back in the drawer when Kane walked in.

He glanced at me and scoffed.

"So your pride only has a shelf life of three days. You came crawling back after all."

I didn't answer.

I'd spent three days running around taking care of my mother's funeral, and he hadn't even asked where I'd been.

Or maybe he'd already decided I was a gold digger.

He thought that no matter what happened, I'd always come groveling back for the money.

Even though I'd never spent a single dollar of his.

Kane walked straight to the sofa and sprawled on it.

He raised his right hand, index and middle fingers parted, and flicked them at me.

It was a habit of his.

It meant I was supposed to light a cigar and put it between his fingers.

He was always like that, acting like a billionaire without even realizing it.

But five years earlier, when he'd first started chasing me, he'd been nothing like that.

He'd put on a clumsy act, pretending to be poor.

He said he was just a warrior, with no parents and no savings.

All he had was his love for me.

I melted beneath his devoted gaze.

I was just an assistant healer myself, but I believed the two of us could build a good life.

But the longer we were together, the more I could tell he wasn't ordinary.

He only made $3,000 a month.

Yet he could name the head chef at every three-star Michelin restaurant in the city.

Without even thinking, he'd have me take care of little things for him, as casually as if he were giving orders to a servant.

Three months ago, I found a business contract he'd left lying around. It was worth eighty million dollars.

His signature was on it.

Only then did I learn who he really was: the CEO of the Frostwood Group.

After that, he became even more guarded around me, afraid I was after his money.

Kane waited a moment. When he saw I hadn't gotten his cigar ready, his face slowly darkened.

He lowered the hand still frozen in midair and sat up straight, his voice turning hard.

"From now on, if you really need money, file a request with my secretary.

"But stop using your mother's illness as an excuse. I'm not as stupid as you think."

His nonsense didn't make me angry. If anything, I wanted to laugh.

"So all I had to do was file a request, and you'd give me money."

Kane froze for a second, then sneered.

"Selena was right. You really are a gold digger. You've only been with me for my money.

"You just want $10,000 in pocket money, right? Fine."

He stood up abruptly and wrote me a check for one dollar.

"One dollar a day, and in 10,000 days you'll have saved up $10,000."

He pretended to think about it.

"That's less than 30 years. Surely a gold digger like you has that much patience."

I looked down at the check in his hand.

In five years together, this was the first money he'd ever spent on me.

A grand total of one dollar.

For five years, I'd made him a gift with my own hands for every full moon feast.

I'd paid for everything in our day-to-day life myself.

He'd enjoyed it all without a second thought.

Yet when I begged him to lend me $10,000 for my mother, he called me a gold digger.

Every time he called me a gold digger, my wolf would reach for him, then recoil at his words.

I thought of the bill he'd paid for Selena.

I thought of my mother's thin hand gripping mine before she died.

I didn't want to look at Kane's face for one more second.

Just as I was about to leave, a key turned in the front door.

Selena walked in.

She wore a black silk slip dress with a plunging neckline that exposed much of her pale chest.

When she saw me, she paused.

"Ella?" She tilted her head and looked at me. "Didn't you already leave?"

I turned to Kane.

"This is the apartment we rent together, and you gave the key to an outsider?"

Selena's eyes immediately misted over.

She hurried to Kane's side and took his arm, her voice full of wounded innocence.

"Kane said there's a room in this apartment for me.

"He pays half the rent too. Why can't he have a friend stay over?"

She glanced at me, then turned to Kane with a look of fake pity.

"Kane, you have your own estate, but you've been paying rent here for five years just to be with Ella."

When Kane started to frown, she went on.

"Without your help, she couldn't even afford a place this nice. And now you're not allowed to have one friend over?"

"Selena's right."

Kane reached out and ruffled her hair fondly. When he looked at me, his eyes had gone cold.

"I pay a full half of the rent, and I'm not even here every day.

"When you add it up, a hotel room would have cost me less."

He held his checkbook out to me.

"I let my guard down for one second, and a gold digger like you played me again. I've wasted five years covering half your rent.

"Write me a check for the last five years of rent."