Chapter 2

A week later, I saw her. I was at a charity gala my father' s company was hosting. I didn't want to be there, but my father insisted. It was important to "maintain appearances."

I was standing by the bar, nursing a glass of bourbon, when they walked in. Chloe was clinging to Liam' s arm, her laughter loud and artificial. She wore a bright red dress that was too tight and too short. Liam looked smug, his cheap suit straining at the seams.

They looked like they owned the place.

They saw me immediately. Chloe' s smile widened. She dragged Liam over to me, her heels clicking aggressively on the marble floor.

"Ethan, darling," she said, her voice dripping with fake sweetness. "I'm so surprised to see you here. I thought you'd be at home, crying your eyes out."

Liam smirked. "Give the guy a break, Chloe. He's probably just trying to find a rich old lady to latch onto now that you're gone."

A few people nearby turned to look. Their whispers were like the rustling of dry leaves. I could hear snippets. "That's him... the one Chloe Davis dumped..." "Looks pathetic..." "Can't believe she'd leave him for that other guy."

I felt a familiar knot of shame tighten in my stomach. For five years, this had been my life.

Chloe leaned in closer, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "You know, Ethan, it's really not a good look. Following me around like this. It's desperate."

"I always knew you were a leech," she continued, her voice rising again for the benefit of the crowd. "Always pretending to be so independent, but you were just using me for my connections, weren't you? Trying to climb the social ladder on my back."

The irony was so thick I could have choked on it. Her connections? Her father was a retired factory worker. My father owned half the buildings in this zip code.

I remembered all the times I had swallowed her insults. The public humiliations. The way she would "borrow" my credit card and max it out on things for Liam. The way she would cancel our plans at the last second because Liam was having another "emergency."

I remembered how I used to beg her to stay. How I would apologize for things that weren't my fault, just to keep the peace. I would buy her expensive gifts to try and win back her affection, gifts she would later give to Liam.

I had loved her. Or I had loved the idea of her-the woman I thought she was in the beginning.

But that man was gone. He died in the City Clerk' s office, standing alone with a useless piece of paper.

I looked at her now, at her perfectly made-up face and her cruel, smiling eyes, and I felt nothing. Just a vast, cold emptiness.

I took a slow sip of my bourbon.

"I'm sorry," I said, my voice even. "Have we met?"

Chloe's smile faltered. She blinked, her perfectly mascaraed eyelashes fluttering in confusion. "What did you say?"

"I don't believe I know you," I repeated, looking her straight in the eye. I turned to Liam. "Or you."

I placed my empty glass on the bar and walked away, leaving them standing there, their mouths hanging open. For the first time in five years, I felt a flicker of something that wasn't pain or shame.

It felt like freedom.