Chapter 2

I held my phone, silent for a long moment, and then, out of nowhere, I laughed.

I thought of our first time. No flowers, no protection, no five-star hotel.

Just sweat-damp school uniforms and a filthy abandoned restroom.

That was the year Sebastian's grandmother died, the grandmother who had raised him, the only family he had. He fell apart, told me he wanted to break up, skipped class to get into fights, acting like he'd given up on everything.

So I gave him everything I had, trying to fill the hole inside him.

I used my holiday money to cover his tuition. I kissed his tears away without being asked. I held him and told him again and again, close against his ear, that we would be together forever.

Later we got into the same university, and Sebastian worked a whole summer job to buy me a three-thousand-dollar diamond ring for my birthday.

He said, Okay, Bonnie. We'll be together forever.

More than ten years have passed.

Sebastian has everything now, but he can't remember my birthday anymore.

I glanced at the time. Twelve o'clock.

The first hour of my thirtieth birthday.

My voice was calm when I agreed. "Sure, I'll send them over."

But Sebastian went quiet.

"Forget it. I'll get Harvey to do it. Your eyes are bad, don't drive in the middle of the night."

I made a small sound of agreement and was about to hang up.

Then, on the other end, Sebastian suddenly said, "Bonnie, everybody likes something new. I'm no different."

"Whatever happens, I'm going to marry you in the end. So having a little fun before the wedding, it's not a big deal, right?"

Any other time, hearing that, I would have cried my heart out and demanded to know how he could say such a thing.

But today, all at once, I was tired.

Too tired to even bother saying the words to break up.

I made that same small sound again. "Understood. Go have your fun, then."

I hung up and left a message for the broker I know, handing her full authority to list this apartment for sale.

This was the place we rented the year we first came to New York.

At our poorest, Sebastian and I were crammed into this one-bedroom, splitting a single serving of instant noodles between us.

Later he made it big and moved to a big open-plan place.

But I couldn't bear to give this up, so I just bought the apartment and have lived here alone ever since.

After tidying up, I sat down on the couch, ready to check how the fight was going on my social media.

The next second, someone unlocked the front door from the outside with a key.

Sebastian walked in and pressed a small case into my palm.

"Birthday present."

"I saw everything they said in the group chat. They really went too far this time. I'll set them straight later."

I opened it and glanced inside. A necklace. Ordinary-looking, the kind that shows up most often as a bundled add-on in luxury boutiques.

And three days ago, I'd seen Alice, Sebastian's assistant, carrying a brand-new bag from that same label.

It wasn't hard to guess where this necklace had come from.

I closed the case again. "Thank you."

Sebastian looked a little stunned, not expecting my reaction to be so flat.

The year before last, he said he was going to propose on my birthday, so I spent two hours getting ready and waited for him at a restaurant he'd booked out, waited until the waitstaff started looking at me with pity, only to get one line in the end: "Alice isn't feeling well, it's her time of the month. I'll take you to dinner tomorrow."

We had a huge fight afterward and didn't speak for half a month.

Last year on my birthday, he stood me up again. I cooked the whole meal myself, then sat alone with a full table of food and a cake until the middle of the night, and he never came home.

That fight was worse. It got bad enough that everyone around us came to talk us down.

This year, he probably assumed I was just the same as always, throwing a fit because my birthday got forgotten.

Which was why he'd grabbed some random thing and rushed over to give it to me.

He reached out to pinch my cheek. "All right, stop being mad. I didn't stand you up this year. I even won Best Actor and brought it home for you."

"I know you get possessive. From now on I'll tell them all to be careful, not to bring up Alice in front of you. Good enough?"

I dodged his hand. "Sebastian, haven't you looked at your social media?"

Sebastian stared at his hand hanging in the air, his movement freezing for a second, his expression turning ugly.

"You mean that refund notice? Another one of those PR tricks you picked up somewhere."

"That's just your job as a manager. What, you want to be praised for it?"

I nodded, understanding now. So that was it.

No wonder the dissolution-and-refund statement had been up all this time and Sebastian and everyone else at the agency hadn't reacted at all.

It wasn't that they were slow to see things online, and it wasn't that they didn't care about this business.

It was that they were certain I would always, always chase after Sebastian.

No matter what outrageous thing Sebastian did, I would find a way to clean up his mess, and I would never leave him.

Not wanting to waste any more words, I gave a small smile and simply nodded.

"You're right. It's a PR tactic."

Sebastian watched my expression, silent for a moment, before he said, "...Once this all blows over, how about I take you on a trip? We can call it our proposal trip."