Chapter 1

I stared at my phone, the screen glowing in the dim light of my studio.

Liam' s name was at the top of the screen.

Five years.

For five years, I had been Liam Hayes' secret. His on-again, off-again lover. The one he called when he was lonely, the one he hid when he was with anyone else.

He was my best friend Chloe' s older brother, a successful tech executive who could charm anyone.

And I was the struggling artist who had fallen for it all.

The phone in my hand buzzed again. A new message from him.

"You up?"

My fingers hovered over the keyboard. Every time, I told myself this would be the last time. Every time, I was wrong.

This time felt different. The silence in my apartment was heavier, filled with the echoes of our last fight.

It happened at a tech gala two weeks ago. An event I had been excited about. I thought maybe, just maybe, this would be the night he finally acknowledged me.

Instead, he had walked in with a model on his arm, a woman named Jessica. He introduced her to everyone as his girlfriend.

When he saw me standing there, my smile frozen on my face, he just gave me a small, dismissive nod. As if I were a distant acquaintance.

Later, when I confronted him in a quiet hallway, the smell of expensive champagne on his breath, he had laughed.

"Sarah, don't be so dramatic. It's just for show. You know how it is."

"Five years, Liam. I've given you five years." My voice was shaking.

"And they've been fun, haven't they?" he' d said, his eyes cold. "Don't make it complicated."

That was it. Five years of my life, my love, my self-respect, reduced to "fun."

I hadn't answered his calls or texts for two weeks. Until tonight.

My phone buzzed again, insistent.

I finally typed a reply.

"I'm getting married, Liam."

I sent it before I could second-guess myself.

His response was almost immediate. A single question mark.

Followed by, "Is this a joke?"

And then, "Sarah, pick up the phone."

I ignored the incoming call, my heart pounding against my ribs.

I wasn't joking.

An hour ago, David Chen had proposed to me.

David. The kind, stable architect I had known since we were kids. He had come to my studio to see my latest work, just as he always did. He saw the dark circles under my eyes, the hollow look I couldn't hide.

He didn't ask what was wrong. He just looked at me with a sad, knowing expression and said, "Sarah, let me take care of you."

He had pulled out a simple, elegant ring. No grand speech, no dramatic gestures. Just a quiet promise of a life where I wouldn't have to hide.

A life where I would be chosen.

My phone started ringing again. Liam.

I took a deep breath and answered.

"What the hell is this, Sarah? Married? To who?" His voice was sharp, angry.

"It doesn't concern you anymore," I said, my own voice surprisingly steady.

"Of course it concerns me! After everything we've been through?"

I laughed, a bitter, hollow sound. "Everything we've been through? You mean everything I've put up with?"

"I told you, I need more time. Chloe-"

"Don't," I cut him off. "Don't you dare use your sister as an excuse anymore. You were never going to choose me. I was just convenient. Your little secret."

There was a silence on the other end of the line. For a moment, I thought he might actually understand.

Then he spoke, his voice dropping to that low, persuasive tone that had always been my weakness. "Baby, don't do this. Don't throw away five years over one stupid night. I love you. You know that."

"No, Liam," I said, looking at the diamond on my finger, a solid, real thing in my chaotic world. "I don't know that. I don't think you do either."

"Who is he?" he demanded.

"David Chen."

I heard him suck in a breath. "Chen? The architect? You're marrying him for his money?"

The accusation was so predictable, so Liam. To him, everything was a transaction.

"I'm marrying him because he respects me," I said calmly. "He wants to build a life with me, not hide me in the shadows."

"You'll regret this, Sarah. You're making a huge mistake."

"The only mistake was waiting five years for a man who was never going to be mine."

I hung up the phone.

Then, I blocked his number.

I sat there in the silence, the smell of turpentine and oil paint filling the air. My art was my passion, the one thing that was truly mine. But for five years, Liam had cast a shadow over it, over everything.

I remembered the beginning. An accidental text, a flirty message meant for someone else sent to him. He was Chloe' s cool older brother, untouchable and impossibly handsome. He' d played along, and it escalated into a secret, thrilling affair.

The first time we were together, it was wild, intense. He made me feel like the only woman in the world. Afterwards, he had held me and said, "This is special. This is our secret."

At first, the secrecy was exciting. It felt like we had our own private world. But soon, the rules became clear. We could never be seen in public. He couldn't introduce me to his friends. And I absolutely could not tell Chloe.

"She wouldn't understand," he'd say. "She's so protective of you. It would ruin your friendship and my relationship with her."

I believed him. I made myself small, invisible. I was the woman who waited by the phone, who cleared any trace of herself from his apartment before she left. I was a ghost in his life.

I watched from the sidelines as he dated a string of other women. Publicly. He'd call me after a date, telling me they meant nothing, that I was the one he really wanted. And like a fool, I would let him back in.

The humiliation with Jessica wasn't the first time, but it was the most public. The most definitive. Seeing him look at me like I was nothing, after five years of giving him everything, finally broke the spell.

A single tear rolled down my cheek, not of sadness, but of relief.

It was over.

I stood up and walked to the window, looking out at the city lights. For the first time in a long time, the future didn't feel like a dark, uncertain tunnel. It felt like a blank canvas.

And I was finally ready to paint my own picture.

I picked up my phone again, my fingers scrolling to a different name.

David.

I hit the call button. He answered on the first ring.

"Sarah? Is everything okay?"

"Yes," I said, a real smile spreading across my face. "Everything is perfect."

"I accept."