Chapter 1

Jocelyn's POV

It was 2:00 am when we finally left the police station.

Melvin Norton walked ahead, his arm slung around Stacy Decker's waist. I walked behind them, rain streaming down my pants.

Stacy was basically clinging to him like a koala, her chin resting on his shoulder.

"Melvie… Did you know how fiercely that officer was glaring at me just now?"

Melvin pinched her on her cheek and chuckled. "Who told you to grab the steering wheel, you little minx?"

She then cocked her head and looked coquettishly at him with her big doe eyes, showing off the bright red-and-purple hickey on her neck. Melvin glanced back at me, not in guilt, but to gloat.

This was the ninth time.

Every woman he went out with would always look at me smugly that way whenever they got "caught", as if to tell me that I'd lost.

It took a long time for us to finally hail a cab. I pulled open the backseat door. However, Melvin shoved me aside and pushed Stacy into the door instead.

"I'm sending her back home first, Jocelyn. She got a huge fright."

Stacy stuck her head out of the window and called out to me. "Wanna hitch a ride home with us, Joyce?"

Melvin frowned and said, "Forget about it. She's just a killjoy."

They shut the door in my face and left, the taillight of the cab disappearing in the rainy night while I was left behind on the sidewalk, completely drenched in the rain.

My phone buzzed just then. It was a notification from the hospital, informing us of our shift schedules.

I stared at the screen and suddenly felt exhausted. It wasn't from having to work overtime, but rather, it was the kind of exhaustion that had long seeped into my bones from a while ago.

I scrolled down my contacts and finally dialed a number that I hadn't called in three years.

"Dad, does what you said about that guy from three years ago still count?"

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line.

"You mean the one from the Vaughan family?"

"Yeah. I'll marry him," I said.

The rain intensified. Dad didn't press for more information and simply said that it was good that I was coming back.

It wasn't for another 40 minutes that I finally managed to flag down another cab, and it was 3:00 am by the time I got back to the apartment.

I turned the key in the door, but it wouldn't open. As it turned out, it was bolted from the inside.

After rapping on the door for about a dozen times, the bolt was finally slid back, and the door was opened by a crack.

Melvin appeared in his underwear, his neck boasting fresh new hickeys that exactly matched the ones on Stacy's neck.

"What are you doing back here, Jocelyn Bloomberg?"

Stacy's voice could be heard from the bedroom. "Melvie… It's so cold here… Come back…"

Melvin told me in a low voice, "Go spend the night at a hotel." He then produced a 50-dollar bill and stuffed it into my palm.

50 dollars.

Just a couple of hours ago, he'd treated Stacy to a fine-dining dinner that cost 300 dollars per head. And now, he was telling me to find a hotel room for 50 dollars for the night.

The door then slammed shut in my face, and I heard it being locked and bolted again from the inside.

The lights in the corridor were out. I stood in the darkness, holding the bill in my hand, letting the rainwater soak into the paper.

My phone lit up then. It was a text message from Dad.

"Adrian Vaughan said the date would be set on the same day as it was three years ago. He hasn't made any changes."

I'd run away from the wedding three years ago, leaving Adrian at the altar waiting all day for me to appear.

I stuffed the 50-dollar bill back into the door crevice and texted Dad a reply.

"Okay."