Chapter 2

Hannah initially wanted to decline the call, but sheer habit made her swipe to answer.

The moment the line connected, Ethan's arrogant voice came barking through the speaker. "Have you come to your senses yet? I'm giving you a chance to make up for your bad behavior.

"Sara spent all day traveling to get the marriage certificate and hours standing out in the cold. She needs to rest, so you're taking her place at the client dinner tonight. If you do a good job, I might even overlook that passive-aggressive attitude of yours earlier..."

Listening to him order her around like a servant, Hannah let out a cold, bitter laugh. This guy seemed to have forgotten that she was the one who had stood outside City Hall from sunrise to sunset, shivering in the bitter cold while waiting for him.

There had been a time when all it took was a sneeze from her in a drafty room for Ethan to look at her with deep concern, immediately taking off his coat and draping it over her shoulders.

Back home, he would rush to make her hot tea with lemon and honey and bring her cold medicine, terrified that she might catch a chill and get sick.

And now? He was ordering her around like some disposable tool, completely indifferent to how she felt. And he seemed to have forgotten something far more serious.

Hannah was severely allergic to alcohol. She couldn't even have a drop.

During the early years, when she had helped him build the Turner Group from the ground up, they had constantly been forced to entertain clients and endure drinking dinners just to secure contracts.

Back then, Ethan had treated her health as his top priority. Whenever possible, he turned down drinking engagements altogether.

When there was no way out, he would step in and take every drink for her. More than once, he had come home completely drunk, clutching the toilet and vomiting until there was nothing left in his stomach.

Yet even then, he would force himself to endure the discomfort, reassuring her that he was fine and telling her to get some sleep so she wouldn't worry herself sick.

His entire world used to revolve around her, and now he had given his heart to someone else.

Snapping back to reality, Hannah refused to make another pathetic compromise to save a relationship that had already fallen apart.

"I'm allergic to alcohol. I can't do it," she said flatly. "Besides, that dinner is Sara's responsibility. It's not part of my job."

Her blunt refusal caught him off guard, but his surprise quickly turned into fury.

"I reached out to you with an olive branch, and this is how you respond?" he snapped. "I pay your salary. When I tell you to do something, you do it. That's what your job requires."

"Then I quit," Hannah said evenly, ending the call before Ethan could respond.

Then she dialed a number she hadn't called in a long time. When the call connected, she spoke seriously. "Mr. Carter, I'm accepting your offer."

The man on the other end was the CEO of a major international design firm, one of the industry's biggest players.

They met a year ago during a joint venture. Just before they signed the contract, she happened to notice a critical structural flaw in one of the company's flagship products, which was about to launch.

The defect had resulted from an aesthetic design choice that could easily have caused mechanical failure and triggered a massive public-relations disaster.

After Hannah pointed it out, Ernest Carter immediately ordered a full investigation and modified the assembly line just before the official launch, saving the company tens of millions of dollars in potential losses.

From that day forward, Ernest became one of the few people Hannah considered a true friend.

After looking into her situation and learning that she was being sidelined at Ethan's firm, he had flown in overnight more than once to recruit her, offering her the position of Design Director along with $100 million in stock options.

But Ethan suffered from lingering childhood trauma and refused to move abroad, preferring to stay close to home. Because of that, Hannah had repeatedly turned down Ernest's lucrative offers, sacrificing what could have been a brilliant career just to remain by Ethan's side.

Back then, she genuinely believed her devotion would eventually be met with the same devotion in return. Instead, she had lost everything.

Looking back now, she realized she'd spent the best years of her youth sacrificing herself to help Ethan survive a decade of struggle, only to discover that he hadn't even considered her worthy of a simple marriage certificate.

It had all been a terrible waste. Now, it was finally time to put herself first.

...

Ernest's delighted voice pulled her back to the present.

"Are you serious, Hannah?" he asked. "Our doors are always open for you. But didn't you say you were getting married and settling down? What made you change your mind?"

Hannah let out a self-deprecating laugh. "It's nothing. I broke up with my boyfriend."

Silence fell over the line.

Then Ernest offered warm words of comfort. "I don't know the whole story, but I know your character. Losing you is entirely his loss."

Moments later, Hannah's phone chimed with a notification: a bank transfer of $100,000.

"Take that for now and use it to get your affairs in order," Ernest said. "I'll be waiting for you whenever you're ready to fly over."

Hannah smiled quietly.

After briefly discussing her new responsibilities, she ended the call and prepared to accept the transfer when Ethan posted another update on social media.