Chapter 2

It was 1:00 AM by the time Julian returned to our apartment.

We had lived together here for eight years.

He gasped slightly, startled by me sitting quietly on the sofa in the dark.

"Still awake?"

When I didn't answer, he slipped off his suit jacket, which was heavily scented with Serena’s perfume, and sat on the sofa opposite me.

"Are you still mad? What I said this afternoon... I didn't mean it."

I looked at him blankly, my voice completely flat.

"If you were engaged to Serena, why did you start dating me?"

His face remained indifferent.

"I don't love her. Marrying her is just an family arrangement."

"Love is love, and marriage is marriage. That's how it works in families like mine. I thought you knew that."

A bitter laugh escaped my throat.

"I didn't know. If I had, I would have never stayed with you."

I would never have given my heart to a man like him.

I would never have wasted ten prime years of my youth.

Julian let out an impatient sigh and lit a cigarette.

"Chloe, you've always been a smart woman."

"The Cinderella story only happens in fairy tales."

"We come from different worlds. Having an affair is fine, but marriage was never on the table."

He flicked the ash carelessly, his brow furrowed behind the smoke.

"But this doesn't change anything between us. My marriage to Serena is just for show. My heart still belongs to you."

Looking at the man who treated my decade of devotion like a game, a sharp pain pierced my chest. It took me a long time to speak.

"I don't want to be a dirty secret anymore. I'm almost thirty, Julian. My family wants me to have a normal, stable marriage."

Julian clicked his tongue in irritation, the rising smoke failing to hide his annoyance.

"If your parents are nagging you that much, I can introduce you to some guy. You can have a fake wedding to get them off your back."

"But privately, you still stay with me."

He said it so casually that I was rendered speechless by his sheer audacity.

Julian stared at me in the silence.

Taking my silence as agreement, a small smirk played on his lips.

"But Chloe, we need to spend some time apart for now."

He stubbed out his half-burnt cigarette in the ashtray.

"I don't want Serena finding out about us."

"Even though I don't love her, I have to play the part of the devoted fiancé perfectly."

His eyes darkened with ambition.

"I need the Cross family's resources."

"Chloe, be a good girl. Don't make a scene, and don't cause trouble for me."

"Don't ruin my plans."

I wanted to scream at him. His plans were important, but what about my ten years? Were they just nothing to him?

Ten years. How many decades does a person get in their prime?

The best years of my life had been completely withered away by his hands.

When I met Julian, he was twenty-four, and I was eighteen.

That night, Julian had drunk far too much and was passed out in front of the bar where I worked.

I was working there just to make a couple thousand dollars to cover my basic living expenses.

Seeing him completely unresponsive, I dragged him to the staff break room and handed him a warm cup of water.

"Drink this. It'll help you sober up."

He looked up at me, a brief flash of awe crossing his hazy eyes.

"Are you that desperate for money? Working in a place like this?"

I nodded, handed him the paper cup, and turned to leave.

Just as I reached the door, he called out to me.

"I need an assistant. You'll do."

Only later did I find out he was the heir to the Sterling real estate empire, and his drinking that night was for a major business deal.

He offered me a salary of fifty thousand dollars a year, saying experience didn't matter.

Fifty thousand dollars. It was enough to cover my entire college tuition, fix my mother's leaking roof in our small hometown, and ensure I never went hungry again.

So, I accepted.

Because of my college classes, I couldn't spend much time at the office, but Julian never minded.

Occasionally, he would ask if I was too tired, or if the job was getting in the way of my studies.

Sometimes, when my classes ended late, he would drive through torrential rain just to pick me up.

He didn't act like my boss; he acted like my suitor.

On my nineteenth birthday, he bought me a cake and gave me a necklace.

It was incredibly expensive, engraved with both of our names.

No matter how naive I was, I understood what he wanted.

Back then, I told him, "Julian, I'm a traditional girl. I don't do casual flings."

"I don't have money or a fancy background. Please don't play with my feelings."

Julian had pinned me against the floor-to-ceiling window, kissing me deeply.

"I won't," he whispered against my lips. "Never."

His voice was hoarse as his kisses trailed from my eyes down to my neck.

"I've loved you since the moment I saw you."

He wrapped his arms around me and clasped the expensive necklace around my neck.

"I don't do casual flings either."

After graduation, I worked tirelessly, helping him close multiple major deals.

At my busiest, I drank so much at business dinners that I ended up in the hospital with stomach bleeding.

I worked myself to the bone to repay his initial financial help, trying my best to catch up to his level.

From nineteen to twenty-nine, I fought with everything I had to protect our love, wanting to make myself worthy of him.

But in the end, I was the only one who remembered those promises.

Or maybe he didn't forget. Maybe he just pretended to forget for the sake of his "big plans."