Chapter 1

The front door of the bar burst open. Several bloodied gang members stumbled inside and collapsed onto the floor. One of them roared, "Sebastian, you walked away from the underworld over a decade ago. You are breaking your own oath over a woman. Are you not afraid karma is finally coming for you?"

Sebastian stood in the doorway and towered over them.

"I was. I swore I would never get my hands bloody again. I built a legitimate business and left that life behind.

"You knew Evelyn once worked for me. You still laid a hand on her. What did you expect?"

The man standing before her was nothing like the Sebastian she knew. The bar had fallen silent, yet a relentless ringing filled her ears.

"Evelyn crossed the line. She wiped out three of our biggest operations," snarled the leader. "Sebastian, you are protecting the wrong woman. You turned the city upside down for her. What do you think your fiancée, the reporter, is going to say when she finds out?"

Sebastian raised a hand without a flicker of emotion. His men moved at once. A handful of muffled blows echoed through the bar. Moments later, the noise faded into silence.

"Take them to Evelyn. She can decide what to do with them." He gave the order over his shoulder.

When he turned to leave, his gaze swept across the room and stopped.

For one terrifying second, Vivian thought he had seen her.

Instead, one of his men rushed forward.

"Miss Evelyn is awake. She is emotionally unstable. She grabbed a shard of broken glass and is trying to hurt herself."

Sebastian strode out of the bar without another glance in Vivian’s direction.

The music resumed. People returned to dancing as though nothing had happened.

Vivian remained frozen beside the bar and stared at the doorway long after he disappeared. Her body felt ice-cold.

"You okay, miss?" asked the bartender.

She gave a faint shake of her head.

The bartender chuckled. "First time here. No wonder you are shaken. It has been a long time since I saw Mr. Sebastian make this kind of scene. We all thought things were truly over between him and his childhood sweetheart. Guess we were wrong."

Vivian frowned. "Childhood sweetheart?"

"Yeah." He polished the glass. "Back then, they came up through the organization together. Later, they ran it side by side. Then Mr. Sebastian walked away from that life for Miss Evelyn."

He let out a sigh. "It was a shame. They were both too proud to apologize. After their fight, Mr. Sebastian walked away and never looked back. Who would have thought that the moment Miss Evelyn’s life was on the line, he would leave his fiancée behind and come running."

Vivian felt her throat tighten.

The bartender crouched behind the counter and pulled out an old photograph.

"Here. We kept this all these years. It was taken the day Mr. Sebastian proposed. They were perfect together."

At the center of the faded photograph, a much younger Sebastian knelt on one knee. A plain black T-shirt clung to his frame, yet nothing hid the wild confidence in his smile. He looked up at Evelyn with a reckless grin that reached his eyes.

He looked nothing like the Sebastian Vivian knew. Sebastian was the impeccably dressed man whose shirts were always pressed, whose cuffs never wrinkled, and whose polite smile always seemed carefully measured.

It felt as though they were two different people.

When her eyes fell on the woman’s face...

Vivian looked away at once. Her fingers tightened around her glass until they trembled.

The bartender studied her, then glanced at the photo. "You actually look a little like Miss Evelyn. Only your faces, though. The vibe was different. She was all thorns. You look like the educated type."

That night, Vivian sat at the bar and listened to the bartender recount story after story about Sebastian and Evelyn. This was what Sebastian looked like when he truly loved someone.

It was not the polite kindness he showed her, and not the gentle consideration that never came from the heart.

Dawn broke over the city. Vivian stepped out from the back alley. Her phone vibrated. Her father’s name flashed across the screen.

The moment she answered, his furious voice crashed down on her.

"How could you not even keep a man? You chased after him for years and practically threw yourself at him. Now, on the day of your wedding, he leaves you standing there. You humiliated the entire Carter family.

"Go get Mr. Hayes back and finish this wedding.

"Otherwise, I will pretend I never had a daughter like you."

"I am not marrying him."

She hung up before her father exploded again.

As she crossed the street, something caught her eye. A small burger shop stood by the roadside. Through the window, she saw Sebastian sitting inside with a woman.

The woman had long hair that fell loosely over her shoulders. It was Evelyn, the woman from the photograph. She quietly ate her breakfast while Sebastian tore the hash browns into small pieces and placed them within her reach.

It was the kind of unspoken understanding that only years together could create.

Vivian remembered last year, when her fever left her weak and miserable. She called Sebastian without thinking and craved even a little concern from him. Yet all he said was, "Get some rest."