Chapter 3

Donna walked in, her eyes sweeping over the scorched proposal, and she scrambled to pull it out of the fire.

My throat tightened with a bitter ache, but I forced my voice steady. "It's nothing. It fell in by accident."

Donna didn't think much of it. She stayed up all night printing me a brand-new copy. "Be there on time for tomorrow's bidding conference."

The next day, the bidding conference was packed, every corporate heavyweight in the city showing up.

But all the attention in the room was on Andrew, dressed in an extravagant tailcoat, his arm wrapped intimately around Donna's waist as he charmed the crowd.

He might as well have been the guest of honor that night.

Then, the moment my proposal went up on the big screen, the whole room erupted.

"Isn't this Andrew Cooney's idea? How shameless does someone have to be to steal another man's work?"

"Let's call it what it is: plagiarism. He'll do anything to marry into money and finish that fund of his!"

"Good thing Andrew already warned us about this, or Steve might have tried to turn it around on him!"

I looked at Donna on instinct. Her face was full of disappointment, and it made me feel like there was nowhere to hide. "Even you don't believe me?"

Donna looked away, disgust in her eyes. "You know better than anyone whether it's true or not."

She stopped looking at me and pulled Andrew into a gentle embrace instead, murmuring low, soothing words.

He let out a wounded, choking sob. "I know Steve doesn't like me, but I spent so much time working out this plan. How did it end up being his?"

Donna no longer cared about sparing my dignity. She pointed a finger in my face and tore into me, "And to think I trusted you this much! You'd really stoop to something this shameful just to finish that fund a little faster? If this is the kind of trick it takes for you to save the money, you can forget about ever marrying me!"

Something in my chest caved in.

Back when her parents had made things difficult for me over the fund, she'd been the one fighting in my corner. She'd said she'd rather walk away with nothing than let me carry that kind of pressure just to marry her.

But now I found myself wondering. How much of that so-called sincerity had ever been real?

My voice caught as I looked at her. "You printed it again yourself yesterday. You know exactly what happened..."

"Shut up! Who knows when you threatened Andrew, or what filthy trick you used to steal his idea!"

The veins on Donna's forehead stood out, and her eyes were full of contempt. She didn't care at all about the wrong done to me. All she cared about was how many more tears had rolled down Andrew's face.

The mocking voices around me dug into my spine. Even the event staff were grumbling about the mess.

Andrew's eyes turned red at the rims, and he bowed to everyone in the room. "This is all our fault for causing so much trouble. Let me apologize on Steve's behalf. I'll cover every cent of the damages. Please forgive us."

Hearing that, the tenderness in Donna's eyes deepened even further. "It's not your fault. You don't need to be the one apologizing or paying for it."

With that, she drew herself up with all the authority of a company president and stepped forward to set things right. "Steve, you're the one who's going to pay for the company's losses."

Suddenly, I started laughing, half out of my mind. "Donna, can I even withdraw money from my fund?"

Faced with my question, she froze for a few seconds, a flicker of guilt crossing her eyes.

But what she said next hit me like an explosion. "Doesn't your mother have an old family home? Auction it off, right here."