Chapter 1

Audrey’s POV

[I know this must be painful for you. But what Jared and I have is real. I hope you can find it in yourself to let him be happy.]

The message lit up my phone.

It was from Selena Morgan, Jared Lockwood’s secretary.

Aside from that message, the rest were photos.

Jared with Selena at a private Lockwood club.

Selena sitting beside him during a family dinner, her hand resting intimately on his shoulder.

The two of them, drinking together in the back room of one of our casinos.

And the last photo showed them kissing against the floor-to-ceiling windows of Jared’s penthouse.

I stared at the screen for a long time only then did I finally accept it. Jared was no longer the man I had once loved.

We had met when we had nothing.

For seven years, I had stood beside him while he fought his way to the top of the underworld.

I had taken a bullet meant for him.

I had been dragged into an enemy family’s basement and tortured for three days because I refused to tell them where Jared was hiding.

I had watched him bleed after ambushes and stitched his wounds with my own hands.

I had buried men we once called friends.

I had abandoned sleep, comfort, and every ordinary life I could have had for the sake of building the Lockwood empire with him.

Seven years.

Seven years of blood, betrayal, and living with a gun within reach.

And after everything we’d survived together, Jared had chosen to share his bed with his secretary.

I didn’t hesitate.

I drafted the divorce papers.

Just as I was about to sign my name, a familiar voice sounded beside me.

“Don’t.”

The voice struck me like lightning.

My fingers froze.

Slowly, I turned and there stood Jared at nineteen — young, terrified, and still hopelessly in love with me.

His eyes were already red with tears as he stared at the man he would become.

Then he looked at me.

“You promised me three chances, didn’t you?”

For a moment, I couldn’t speak then I laughed softly.

“All right. Three chances it is.”

My phone rang again.

It was Jared. I answered and put the call on speaker.

His cold voice immediately filled the room.

“How many times do I have to tell you to leave Selena alone?”

I stared at the younger Jared beside me.

The boy’s expression darkened.

“She’s my secretary. She works for me. Whatever problem you have with me, keep her out of it.”

I almost laughed.

“Your secretary?”

My voice was quiet.

“After seven years of taking bullets for you, burying your men, and nearly dying in an enemy’s hands, this is what you’re defending?”

There was a brief silence then Jared’s voice hardened.

“Don’t make this about the past.”

The nineteen-year-old Jared’s fists clenched.

“How dare he talk to you like that?” His voice trembled with fury. “He should be on his knees thanking you.”

I looked at the boy who still remembered every sacrifice I had made and smiled at him.

Then Jared’s present-day voice came through the phone again.

“You’ve become bold lately. If you have something to say, come to the Lockwood estate and say it to my face.”

A pause.

“You have thirty minutes.”

The call ended.

I looked at the nineteen-year-old Jared.

“That’s the first chance.”

I wasn't even sure whether I was speaking to the boy standing beside me or to myself.

By the time I reached the Lockwood estate, forty minutes had already passed.