Chapter 2

It was Tina Morgan, Ian’s first love. He had never stopped caring about her, and she was the reason he hadn’t proposed to Rowan in five years.

There was always tension when romantic rivals met.

Tina stood before Rowan in a sharp business suit, polished and poised. Rowan found herself losing her nerve.

Tina was the first to greet her.

“It’s been a long time, Rowan.”

Rowan’s hands curled into fists at her sides. She forced a smile.

“What are you doing here?”

Tina’s expression didn’t change. “Ian invited me back from overseas. I’m his assistant now.”

Everything Tina said and did was perfectly polite. She looked at Rowan with such calm composure that anyone might have thought nothing ever happened between them.

But Tina and Ian’s breakup had been ugly.

Rowan’s parents raised Ian like their own son, so when they learned he was dating Tina, they investigated her background.

They discovered that Tina had once been involved with someone who was married. Rowan’s mother wasted no time posting the news on the school’s website, where it caused an uproar.

Tina was forced to transfer schools, but she still refused to break up with Ian.

In the end, Rowan’s mother gave her a check for one million dollars.

Tina took it, went overseas, and cut ties with him.

After that, Ian grew distant from the Shaw family and rarely came home.

Perhaps that was when he began treating Rowan coldly too.

He no longer stroked her hair to comfort her when she was upset or made her a warm drink during her period.

In his eyes, she went from the “little sister” he doted on to someone he couldn’t bear to see.

Rowan was still lost in thought when the CEO’s office door opened, and Ian came out.

The moment he saw her, his face filled with suspicion.

He stepped between the two women and shielded Tina behind him.

“What are you doing here? Are you planning to use the same trick you pulled five years ago?”

Rowan knew what he meant. He thought she would use her family’s influence to drive Tina away again.

All these years, he saw her as a spoiled, overbearing rich girl who could never compare to Tina.

In the past, his words would have hurt Rowan enough to make her lash out. She would have said something cruel, even if it hurt her more than it hurt him.

But as Rowan watched Ian devote himself to protecting another woman, she felt no anger at all.

She was dying.

What was left to fight over?

She said nothing.

She gently placed the breakfast she made into his hand, then turned and left.

Outside the office building, she felt dizzy.

A gust of cold wind nearly knocked her off her feet.

Rowan caught herself against the wall.

Only then did she remember that she hadn’t eaten breakfast either. She had always suffered from low blood sugar, and the cancer diagnosis left her even weaker.

She steadied herself and started to straighten up. Then she looked down and saw large drops of bright red blood falling onto the pavement.