Chapter 2

“A little won’t kill you. We have a family doctor.”

I stared at the shrimp ball for two seconds, then picked it up and ate it.

A few minutes later, my neck started to itch.

Red hives spread across my skin.

Chloe let out a startled little cry, then tears started spilling down her face.

“I didn’t know she was really allergic... I thought she just didn’t like me...”

Mrs. Bennett immediately pulled her into her arms and patted her back, soothing her. Then she turned and glared at me.

“Hey you—if it was a real allergy, why didn’t you say so earlier? Were you trying to make Chloe cry?”

I touched the rash on my neck and answered softly,

“I did say so. You just didn’t believe me.”

Then I stood up. Without looking at anyone else, I turned and went back to my room.

The door had barely been shut for thirty seconds before Ethan pushed it open and came in after me. His face was cold as ice, and when he spoke, he kept his voice low.

“Watch what you say. Don’t mention a single word about what happened between us.

“We were just chatting online to pass the time. You know that. Chloe is the only one fit to be my wife.”

I looked up at him.

No tears. No argument. Not a trace of extra emotion on my face.

“Ethan, we’re done.”

He froze.

I didn’t bother saying anything else. I turned and shut the door.

2

I found my allergy pills and swallowed one with cold water.

The fine, prickling itch at my neck slowly started to ease.

Then I sat down at my desk and opened my laptop.

My WhatsApp icon was flashing nonstop.

It was from Summer Shaw.

Her profile picture was an orange tabby with a spicy snack stick in its mouth, and I’d saved her under Emergency Contact.

She was my only close friend—and my agent. She handled all my copyrights, schedules, everything.

Messages kept popping up one after another:

[Oh holy one!! Submissions are now open for the Aurora Prize, a key Nobel bellwether! Did you finish Darkwater yet? Ready for another gold award?]

I replied:

[Winning the same prize once was enough.]

[Darkwater is for the Nobel.]

I had barely sent it when someone knocked twice and pushed open my door.

Chloe walked in holding a plate of mango crepes. Her eyes were still red.

“Sorry about what just happened, Nina. I made dessert for you to apologize.”

Then her gaze swept across my laptop screen—and she froze.

I only had two people on my WhatsApp friends list.

One of them was Ethan.

His profile picture was still that mountain photo he’d used for six years.

Crash.

The plate hit the floor. Mango filling splattered everywhere.

Her voice shot up so sharply the whole floor could probably hear it.

“How come you have Ethan’s WhatsApp?

“If you really like Ethan, then I-I’ll step aside... but how could you—”

Footsteps thundered in from the hallway.

Mr. Bennett, Mrs. Bennett, and Ethan all came at once.

Mr. Bennett charged in first, his face dark with fury. Without a word, he slapped me across the face.

Half my face went numb instantly. I tasted blood at the corner of my mouth.

“You shameless little thing! Trying to seduce your sister’s fiancé? You’ve humiliated this family enough!”

Ethan stood behind the others, anger blazing in his eyes.

He probably thought I’d exposed his contact on purpose to force his hand.

He took two steps forward and reached toward me. “Give me your phone.”

I didn’t move.

So he took it himself. His thumb found the fingerprint unlock spot with practiced ease.

Click.

The screen unlocked.

He went straight to my contacts, opened the chat under his mountain photo, deleted himself, and blocked the account.

The floating comments were flying so fast they were almost unreadable.

[Holy crap! Look how pale she is! She’s definitely about to expose the chat logs now, right?]

I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth and looked at every person in front of me, one by one.

My voice was quiet, but it didn’t shake.

“Anything else? If not, I’d like to rest.”

The comments stalled.

Chloe’s sobbing hitched. Even Mr. Bennett seemed to choke on whatever he’d been about to say.

Ethan stared at me for several long seconds. His expression was unreadable. His lips moved slightly, but in the end, he said nothing.

One by one, they all left.

The door shut.

The room was finally quiet.

I opened WhatsApp again.

Now there was only one person left on my friends list.

Summer.

I stared at the empty screen for a few seconds.

Back when I first met Ethan, the pen name I’d used for ten years had just been forcibly bought out by the platform. After that, I used Summer’s ID to register a new author account and started over from scratch.