Chapter 2

"You're trying to swindle me? Just so you know, my family runs the largest emerald business in the country."

The Gibbs family with the emerald business empire? Wasn't that the very family my father had picked out for me to marry into?

Before I could think it through, Donna pulled the bracelet off with obvious distaste and held it up in front of me. I reached for it, but she stepped back and pulled it out of my grasp.

For one dazed second, I didn't understand what was happening, and then I saw her fling the bracelet straight at me. "It's just a fake. If you want it back that badly, here, take it. Don't forget, you still owe me three million dollars."

I watched, helpless, as the bracelet fell, watched the triumphant smile spread across Donna's face. I lunged for it the instant it left her hand, but I was too slow, and the crisp sound of it shattering rang out anyway.

I dropped to my knees, and the shards cut into them. Blood welled up almost as fast as my tears did.

That bracelet was the token of love my father had given my mother all those years ago. She'd treasured it her whole life and only taken it off right before she died, to pass it on to me.

Now it was destroyed, and it was my fault. I really did deserve this.

I knelt there, crying too hard to make a sound. I don't know how much time passed before Eric hauled me up off the ground.

"It's just a fake bracelet. Is it really worth all this? Worst case, I'll buy you another fake one. It's not like it costs much. You'd be better off spending all that crying time figuring out how you're going to pay Donna back."

Money, money, money. That was all he ever cared about. He didn't actually care about the money at all, not really. He just used it as an excuse, some absurd scheme to back me into a corner.

I wrenched my hand out of his grip and crouched down, carefully gathering up the broken pieces of the bracelet. Only after I'd picked up the very last shard did I finally look up at him, my eyes rimmed red.

"Eric, I have nothing left. Haven't you had enough?"

He froze, confusion creasing his brow, as if he genuinely didn't understand what I meant. But I wasn't interested in giving him another chance. "Let's break up."

I saw Donna's eyes light up, delight flooding her face at once. No wonder she'd been the one feeding Eric ideas on how to mess with me, to deceive me. She'd wanted me to give up and walk away all along.

Eric went rigid, clearly not expecting me to be the one to bring up breaking up. After all, in his mind, I was supposed to do everything in my power to pay off his debt for him, because I loved him that much.

I'd even worked as a cocktail waitress for his sake, supporting him for five years. What else was there that I wouldn't do for him?

"Liv, you're breaking up with me?

"So this is how it is. The second things get hard, everyone scatters. You're leaving me right when I need you most.

"I really misjudged you. You've been looking down on me this whole time, haven't you?"

With that, he stormed off, dragging Donna along with him.

I watched his back as he left and understood exactly what he was doing: trying to force me into backing down. I'd said it before. I would never abandon him just because he had no money, and I would never leave him the moment things got hard for him.

I wiped my tears away and turned back toward the club. I'd only ever taken the job pouring drinks there to support Eric. Now that we'd broken up, there was no reason to keep working there. I was going back to the Camerons anyway.

When the floor manager heard I was quitting, she stared at me like she couldn't believe it.

"Liv, so you actually passed the boss's test? You really did have it rough. The boss sent all those rich boys to grope you and try to tempt you with money, and you still made it through. That's not easy."

I frowned. There was too much in that to process all at once. What did she mean, sent rich boys to grope me and try to tempt me with money? And what exactly did she mean by the boss's test?