Chapter 2

When I got home from work the next day, Lorenzo wasn't there. The house was silent.

I sat on the sofa scrolling through my phone, and a notification came up.

Giuliana had posted an update.

In the photo, she wore a gorgeous gown as my parents and brother gathered around her and Lorenzo placed a crown on her head.

The caption:

"This year's birthday party, with my family and the one I love most."

I stared at the photo and couldn't stop running my finger over that dazzling crown on my screen.

Giuliana was an orphan, and I was the one who gave her her first birthday cake.

We'd been freshmen in high school.

When we discovered we shared a birthday, I brought her home to share my cake.

At first my parents and brother were against my being so close to her. They thought she was low-born and calculating.

But little by little, they began to favor her.

My parents gave her the best room in the house. My brother brought gifts back from his trips only for her. My favorite dishes stopped appearing on the table.

For the past three years, they'd thrown her a lavish birthday party every year while forbidding me from celebrating my own.

All because Giuliana had once tearfully said she envied my luck and wished she had a family like mine.

I forced myself to accept the favoritism. I told myself they only felt sorry for her.

But now even Lorenzo was at her birthday party.

Every year on my birthday, he'd stayed by my side with a gift and a cake he'd baked himself.

He'd said that even if no one else in the world celebrated with me, he always would.

Last year, Lorenzo asked what I wished for. He said he'd make it come true, whatever it was.

I said I wanted him to love me forever, and to be with me on every birthday to come.

He promised.

And he broke it.

I kept blocking Giuliana's account, then unblocking it, only to block it again.

I needed to see the truth, but I was afraid of being hurt again.

At eleven that night, Lorenzo finally came home.

At the same moment, Giuliana's newest post came up.

"Thank you to my darling for the necklace. I hope you love me even more next year than you do now!"

The photo showed her in front of a mirror as someone fastened the necklace around her neck.

I knew that necklace.

It was the one I'd told Lorenzo again and again that I wanted for my birthday this year.

And I knew the hand even better.

He'd gotten the scar two weeks earlier, when he burned himself with hot oil while learning to cook my favorite dish.

I looked up as Lorenzo came toward me. My voice was hoarse when I spoke.

"You gave Giuliana the necklace I wanted, didn't you?"

He was setting a small paper box on the table when he froze. His next words slipped out before he could stop them.

"How did you know?"

I bit my lip and forced back my tears.

"She posted it herself.

"Didn't you say you'd always be with me on my birthday? Why did you break your word?"

Lorenzo looked away and didn't answer.

"I brought you some cake. Come have a piece."

He opened the box. Inside, a slice of frosted cake lay on its side, the strawberry that had topped it alone in the corner.

It was a slice from the corner of Giuliana's birthday cake.

I'd seen the whole cake in her post. It was huge and beautiful.

Lorenzo had brought me the very corner of it.

I stared at the battered slice, but no tears came.

"No, thank you. I don't like cake anymore."