Chapter 3

I stood with my arms crossed over my chest, watching the scene unfold with a strange sense of calm. It was like a switch had flipped in my head. I no longer saw Ethan through a lens of hope and affection.

Before, I thought he was steady, reliable, and handsome. But now, looking at him letting Chloe kiss him in front of me, he didn't even seem as attractive as Mark Davis.

"It's just a kiss, Miss Miller shouldn't be so narrow-minded, right?" one of the guys from their group joked, and a dozen heads turned in my direction, all of them smirking.

Noah looked at me with open disdain. "She likes Ethan so much, how could she possibly get angry with him over something like this?"

"Exactly," Liam chimed in, his voice laced with mockery. "For three years, everyone has known about Ethan and Chloe's relationship, and she still waited obediently after receiving so many 'gifts' from Ethan, right?"

He was talking about the condoms.

So, everyone knew. Everyone knew about Ethan's cruel Valentine's Day presents. No wonder they all looked at me like I was a complete joke, a pathetic, love-sick fool.

I let out a small, humorless laugh.

"I don't mind," I said, my voice clear and loud enough for everyone to hear. "If they want to put on a show right here, I have no objections."

I straightened up, reaching into the pocket of my new ski jacket. I pulled out the small box of strawberry-flavored condoms Ethan had sent me.

I walked a few steps closer, my eyes fixed on Chloe.

"By the way, Chloe, haven't you been into strawberry-flavored things lately?"

I held up the box.

"Here. Ethan bought these for me, but it looks like we won't be needing them anymore. You can use them."

I let my gaze sweep over her, then back to Ethan.

"Even though I'm not joining the Vance family, your current status means you won't be able to enter the Vance family either. So you should probably take some precautions."

With a flick of my wrist, I tossed the box of condoms. It landed in the snow right at Chloe's feet.

"Sarah, what do you mean?!"

Ethan's face went from smug to furious in a split second. Maybe my performance wasn't what he expected. I didn't stammer or look like I was about to burst into tears like I usually did. Or maybe it was because I had said I wouldn't be entering the Vance family.

For the first time, he left Chloe's side and walked directly towards me.

"Explain yourself. What do you mean you're not entering the Vance family?"

I spread my hands in a gesture of mock innocence. "Isn't it obvious? Don't you understand plain English, Ethan Vance?"

I looked him straight in the eye.

"I don't want you anymore."

The previously boisterous crowd suddenly erupted, not with cheers, but with laughter. Everyone was pointing at me, laughing as if I'd told the funniest joke in the world.

"What a joke! How could you not want Mr. Vance?"

"The Vance brothers would never want a small-town girl like her in the first place!"

"Don't you know? The Miller family set these four heirs years ago. No one else can inherit the Miller family fortune except one of them."

"This is hilarious. She really thinks she has the right to be picky."

Their idiotic chatter left me momentarily stunned. These people actually believed that my only path to inheriting my own family's fortune was by choosing one of these four men. They had it completely backward. The truth was, whoever I chose would become the Miller family's heir.

I watched this group of fools babble on, my mind unusually calm. They were all so blissfully ignorant.

"Sarah, don't play hard to get," Ethan said, his voice low and confident. "It won't work on me."

He left me with those parting words and walked back to Chloe, putting a proprietary arm around her shoulders. The rest of the group followed them, heading onto the ski slopes one by one.

I stood alone at the foot of the snowy mountain and pulled out my phone. I sent a text to Mark Davis.

[You're coming to the dinner tonight too.]

He replied almost instantly.

[Received.]

I sent another text, asking him to go back to the city and pick up the unique, custom-made suit I had commissioned. It was originally a gift for Ethan, but now, I didn't want him to have it. I didn't want him to have anything of mine ever again.

While I was looking down at my phone, a scream suddenly pierced the air behind me.

"Watch out!"

I spun around just in time to see a person on skis, completely out of control, careening down the slope at an incredible speed, straight towards me.

I recognized the brightly colored ski outfit. It was Chloe.

She was coming down way too fast. I had no time to dodge, no time to even think. She crashed directly into me.

The sharp edge of her ski sliced into my knee. It was a brutal, searing impact. I could almost hear the sound of my own flesh tearing.

The pain was so intense, so immediate, that it stole the breath from my lungs. I instinctively clutched my bleeding knee, collapsing into the snow.

"Chloe!"

Ethan's panicked shout was the only thing I heard clearly. He rushed to her side, his eyes filled with nothing but concern for her. He tenderly checked her for injuries, completely ignoring me lying wounded on the ground just a few feet away.

Then, he turned his furious gaze on me.

"Sarah, if you can't ski, what the hell are you doing on the ski slope?!"

He didn't wait for an answer.

"Are you really trying to kill Chloe?!"

His baseless, cruel words once again sealed my guilt in the eyes of everyone present. Sometimes I really wondered if Ethan' s brain had been eaten by zombies. He was incapable of seeing the truth, even when it was right in front of him.

Someone finally had the sense to call an ambulance.

A whole group of people surrounded Chloe, helping her, fussing over her as she was carefully loaded onto a stretcher and taken away. Not a single person looked at me.

Finally, one of the resort staff, seeing the blood soaking through my pants and into the white snow, couldn't bear it any longer. He spoke up hesitantly.

"Should we... should we take Sarah to the hospital too?"

Ethan's body stiffened. His voice, when it came, was as cold and sharp as the wind whipping down the mountain.

"No need. She brought it on herself."

As they carried her away, Chloe, nestled safely in Ethan's arms, turned her head. Her gaze met mine, and it was filled with pure, undisguised provocation and triumph.

Her expression seemed to say, "I won."