Chapter 1

The lights blinded me.

Microphones pushed towards my face.

Ethan, my Ethan, stood on the podium, his NFL draft cap slightly askew.

He just got picked, first round.

Our dream.

Then he spoke.

"Sarah Miller?"

His voice, amplified, echoed through the packed press room.

"We were never serious, just a college thing."

A chuckle from him, a polite laugh from some reporters.

"She' s a nice girl, I wish her well, but I' m focused on my career now, unencumbered."

Unencumbered.

That' s what I was.

A burden he just shed.

My world shattered.

The reporters turned, a pack of wolves sensing fresh blood.

Flashes popped, questions flew.

"Sarah, how do you feel?"

"Were you really just a fling?"

I couldn't breathe.

My legs felt like water.

Someone next to me, a former friend, snickered.

The shame burned hot on my cheeks.

Tabloids had a field day.

"Quarterback' s Cast-Off."

"Gold Digger Gets Ditched."

I was a joke, a cautionary tale.

Heartbroken, humiliated, I disappeared.

I had to.

I found a small town by the sea, a quiet place to lick my wounds.

It was there, months later, covered in paint from a community mural project, that I met Alexander Sterling.

He didn' t ask about my past.

He saw me, the real me, not the caricature the media painted.

Alexander was quiet, intensely private, but his kindness was a balm.

He was a tech mogul, a philanthropist, names whispered with awe in financial circles, but he lived simply when he wasn't changing the world with his foundations.

We fell in love slowly, then all at once.

Five years ago, we married, a secret ceremony with only two witnesses.

Five years of peace, of quiet joy, hidden away in our coastal home.

He was my rock, my sanctuary.

And no one, especially not Ethan Vance, knew he even existed in my life.