Chapter 3

The cup in my hand crashed to the floor.

"What did you say?"

Noah's voice was very soft.

"Six years ago, I was the one who went into the fire and saved him."

I froze.

After that fire, everyone said Chloe had saved Julian.

Chloe died.

Julian took responsibility for the entire Hensley family.

But when Noah came home, he developed a high fever, coughed up blood, and suffered myocardial damage.

He said he'd only inhaled too much smoke.

He also told me not to tell Julian.

I grabbed his hand.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

He gave a faint smile.

"Evelyn, you'd only just married him back then."

"If I'd said it, it would've sounded like I was holding it over him."

"And Chloe was dead. A dead person couldn't defend herself."

My throat tightened.

"So you kept it secret for six years?"

"I wasn't planning to keep it secret forever."

He stared at the ceiling.

"It just feels like it's too late now."

I covered his mouth with my hand.

"Don't say that."

His eyes crinkled with a faint smile.

"Evelyn, I want some warm water."

I went to the nurses' station to get some.

I had just reached the corner of the hallway when I heard someone call my name.

"Evelyn."

Lily stood by the elevator with a small piece of gauze taped over her ankle.

I looked at that tiny patch of gauze and suddenly found the whole thing absurd.

Noah was lying in a regular hospital room waiting for money for surgery.

She had taken up a rehab slot in Switzerland over a scrape.

I stopped and looked at her.

"Six years ago, during that warehouse fire, did Chloe actually go inside? Did you lie?"

Lily's expression changed for a split second before she bit her lip.

"Evelyn, what are you trying to say?"

She didn't speak loudly, but it was just loud enough for people passing by to hear.

Julian called at that exact moment.

Lily answered, already sounding tearful.

"Julian, I'm fine. Evelyn was just asking about Chloe."

A few seconds later, she held the phone out to me.

Julian's voice was cold as a blade.

"Evelyn, did you go there to give Lily a hard time?"

"I asked about what happened the day of the fire."

"I warned you not to drag Chloe into this. She's already dead. Do you really have to pull a dead woman into your schemes too?"

Schemes.

Again with the schemes.

Suddenly, I didn't want to explain anymore.

"Julian, what would you do if one day you found out you'd mourned the wrong person, repaid the wrong debt, and protected the wrong family?"

He gave a cold laugh.

"That day will never come. All I know is that Chloe saved me."

The call ended.

Lily took her phone back. Tears still clung to her face, but there was no fear left in her eyes.

"Evelyn, you need to accept your fate. Gratitude isn't something you can steal just because you want it."

I looked at her.

"Anything you steal has a way of coming back to burn you."

...

That night, I went back to the Sterling house to get some documents.

Lily sat on the living-room sofa with one foot propped on an ottoman.

Julian was crouched in front of her, removing the gauze.

The moment I walked in, Lily pulled her foot back.

"Evelyn, don't misunderstand. Julian just said the ointment the hospital gave me wasn't good enough."

Julian didn't correct her.

I walked past them into the bedroom and took out the original marriage certificate, the prenuptial agreement, and a copy of the contract from when I'd mortgaged the house my parents left me to provide working capital for the Sterling Group.

Julian followed me in and shut the door behind him.

"You're really going to take this to court?"

"Yes."

He grabbed my wrist.

"Noah is still in the hospital. If you turn against me now and something happens, who's going to help you?"

I looked up at him.

"I don't need your help. I just need you to stop walking all over me."

From the living room, Lily called softly,

"Julian, I think my ankle hurts again."

Julian let go of my wrist almost on instinct.

In that moment, the last little voice inside me went silent.

...

That night, I returned to the hospital.

There was a sheet of paper beside Noah's pillow.

The handwriting was crooked and shaky.

"Evelyn, if I don't make it, don't beg him again."

"I just want you to be okay."

I clenched the paper in my hand and sat there all night.