Chapter 2

At last I stood up.

Nestled in Sebastian's arms, Madison smiled with easy grace. "I'm sorry, Hope. What Sebastian said up on that stage just now was out of line. Let me apologize to you on his behalf."

"It's fine."

"I'm pregnant, so I can't drink. Let Sebastian give you a toast for me."

Sebastian raised his glass to me. I smiled and tipped my head back to drink it down.

The liquor was strong, and I coughed twice.

His hand tightened around his glass, the knuckles standing out sharply.

A high school classmate chimed in to flatter her. "Miss Butler, we're all Mr. Rowe's high school classmates, so we can speak with authority. You and Mr. Rowe really are the perfect match."

Madison seemed intrigued. "Sebastian, I've never heard about your high school days. Tell me about them."

Sebastian's gaze settled on my face, and his voice came out cold and hard. "There's nothing worth telling. It's all in the past."

I looked at him too, my thoughts drifting back ten years.

Back then, I was first in the whole school, and he was dead last.

Yet at the awards ceremony, he announced to the entire school that he intended to pursue me.

I stood on the stage and met his eyes.

"If you come within one place of me on the next monthly exam, I'll say yes."

He curled his lips into a teasing smirk.

Some thought he'd knuckle down for my sake and fight his way to second place; others thought he'd give up, since the gap between us was simply too wide.

But all he did, right before the next monthly exam, was corner me in an alley, and we both missed the test.

And that was how Sebastian Rowe and Hope Mann—

Two names that had been separated by more than ten pages on the report card, two names that should never have crossed paths, stayed tangled together for ten years.

"There really isn't anything left worth bringing up. It's all ancient history."

I took the glass of wine from Stephanie's hand.

"Let me offer you both one more toast. May you grow old together and have a lifetime of happiness."

I looked up and drained the glass in one go.

Madison said lightly, "All right, all right, it's a happy day today. Let's move on to the next table."

But just as they were about to leave, someone deliberately tripped me—I don't know who—and I started to pitch forward.

Sebastian reflexively reached out and caught me, steadying me.

Then, as it dawned on him what he'd just done, he stiffened for a moment.

He twisted his lips into a sneer. "What is it? Is Miss Mann so reluctant to let me go?"

The high school classmates piled on.

"Oh, don't tell me Hope's trying to be the other woman."

"What a clumsy trick."

Stephanie pulled me out of Sebastian's arms, shot him a vicious glare, and then led me out through the hotel's front doors.

From start to finish, apart from my blessings, I never said a single word in my own defense.

I held myself together until we got to the car, and only then did I pass out.

When I came to again, what I saw was the hospital ceiling.

Seeing that I was awake, Stephanie clenched her fists in fury. "That bastard Sebastian Rowe—how dare he talk to you like that. He deserves to die."

I shook my head. "That's only right. After all, he and I are a thing of the past now."

Stephanie sighed. "You've come to terms with it awfully fast."

Then she tried to comfort me. "It's okay, look on the bright side. Maybe Sebastian's the one who's about to die."

"If that day comes, I'll definitely hire people to bang gongs and drums outside the Rowe family's gate and celebrate for three days and three nights straight!"

She made me laugh.

Stephanie said she'd help me get over the breakup, so she quit her job to travel around and see the sights with me.

In the last stretch of my life, I treasured the time I spent with her.

We went to Norway to see the northern lights, to the Rockies to see antelope, and to Egypt to see the Pyramids.

Everywhere we went, I would eagerly ask her to take lots of photos of me.

But whenever she wanted to post them online, I'd stop her.

The good times didn't last.

After we came home, I was hospitalized.

Stephanie was frantic. "Come on, Hope, I don't remember you ever being this fragile. Can a breakup really hit you this hard?"

"You don't understand."

The doctor changing my IV—my junior colleague—cut her off.

"Miss Mann, tell her. You can't keep it from everyone forever."