Chapter 2

I stopped in my tracks and turned back to face him.

Caleb crossed his arms over his chest, giving me a smug command.

"You need to head over to the Rhodes residence tomorrow and break off the engagement.

"Grace is completely done with you after yesterday. She doesn't want you anymore!"

Only then did Grace finally look me in the eye.

"Evan, I used to think you and Caleb just didn't get along, that it was a normal sibling drama. I had no idea you could be so pathetic. Scalding him, playing cheap head games. Someone as disgusting as you doesn’t deserve to be my fiancé."

I blinked at her, totally lost.

Even though most of my memories were slipping away, hearing those words sent a sharp, stabbing ache through my chest. Tears spilled down my cheeks instantly.

Before the amnesia took over, I must have loved Grace so much.

Now, almost every trace of her in my mind was gone. Whenever I tried to remember us, all I saw was the cold line of her back as she turned away.

I aggressively wiped the wetness from my face and nodded.

"Okay. I understand."

Turning back toward the door, I pulled out my journal and scribbled a quick line: [3. Call off engagement with Grace tomorrow.]

Closing the journal, I was about to ask our driver to drop me off at the local bus stop when my mom’s voice cut through the air like a whip.

"Hold it right there! Caleb is going shopping this afternoon. If you want to leave, figure out your own ride.

"It's boiling hot outside. If you take the car, what is Caleb supposed to use?"

Part of me wanted to fight back. I wanted to scream and ask her why she was treating me, her own biological son, so poorly.

When I looked over my shoulder, the four of them were standing together in a tight, happy cluster. Caleb was leaning into my parents' sides, and Grace was right next to them, looking every bit like the missing piece of their perfect family.

The words caught in my throat.

I silently pulled an umbrella from my backpack and stepped into the scorching sun.

Behind me, my mom’s quiet mutter drifted through the doorway. "Good. This will teach him a lesson."

Then came Grace’s icy, barely audible reply. "He asked for it."

The gated community had no public transit, meaning the nearest bus stop was a grueling half-hour walk. Even under the shade of the umbrella, oppressive heat radiated off the asphalt. By the time I reached the bench, my shirt was glued to my skin, my head was spinning, and my legs could barely hold my weight.

After an hour packed into a suffocating bus, I rushed straight into the back room of the coffee shop, threw on my uniform and apron, and immediately started mixing drinks.

The summer heat drove massive crowds into the shop. I ran around non-stop, preparing drinks until my hands went completely numb.

By three in the afternoon, the rush finally slowed down. I pressed a hand over my stomach, which twisted with sharp pangs of hunger, then pulled out a slice of bread to eat in the corner.

Caleb's voice suddenly cut in from above my head.

He flashed a black card between two fingers, offering me a blinding, taunting grin.

"Hey Evan, slacking off on the job?

"I want five hundred cups of coffee! Make them the most complicated drinks on the menu!"

A girl working the register stepped up, trying to help me. "Sir, he hasn't even had lunch yet. You can order over at the counter, and someone else will make your drinks."

Caleb whirled around, glaring daggers at her. "Who asked you? I want him to make them!

"If he doesn't, I'll file a formal complaint with the company and have your manager dock your pay!"

I couldn't let my coworker take the fall for me.

Setting down the uneaten bread, I dragged myself back up as my vision momentarily flickered dark.

Five hundred drinks. Even if I worked past midnight, there was no way I'd finish.

Looking up, I caught Grace standing right behind Caleb. Hands shoved in her pockets, she watched with complete indifference as he went out of his way to torment me.

Desperate, I turned to her. "Grace, could you please talk to Caleb? Five hundred drinks is..."

She cut me off before I could finish the sentence.

"Evan, save the guilt trip. The family isn't hurting for the tiny paycheck you make here. You insisted on coming out in this heat just to play the victim, didn't you? That way you can go running back home crying about how Caleb picked on you.

"What, can't keep up the act anymore?"

I couldn't fathom where her twisted logic came from. I was working myself to the bone just to save up the few thousand bucks I needed for college tuition.

I opened my mouth to explain, but Caleb snapped aggressively.

"Are you making them or not? Because I swear I'm calling the company right now!"

Gritting my teeth against hunger and pain, I stood behind that counter from three in the afternoon straight through to nine at night. I didn't drink a single drop of water, and my stomach twisted into tight, agony-filled knots.

When another worker tried to prepare a few drinks on the sly, Caleb yelled across the counter, "Anyone who helps him gets reported!"

So, I did it all alone for six grueling hours without a pause.

Grace stared at my ghostly white face, her eyes filled with disgust. She was convinced I was putting on a show.

Ordering her assistant to carry out the massive haul of five hundred drinks, she turned back to sneer at me one last time.

"I really underestimated you, Evan.

"Not only can you play dumb, but you're a real master actor, too. Endangering your own health just to get me to feel sorry for you."

I was too exhausted to even form words, so I didn't give her the satisfaction of a reply.

At ten-thirty that night, I dragged my aching legs onto the last bus back. My stomach had gone past the point of hunger into a numb, hollow pain, and black spots danced across my eyes.

At least there was a silver lining. My manager handed me a fifty-dollar bonus for the hassle because of the massive order.

It was worth it. That fifty bucks could cover a whole week of meals at the college dining hall.

The second I stepped through the front door, before I could even kick off my shoes, a heavy hand struck my face, sending me crashing to the cold floor.