Chapter 3

Nora White POV

I then picked up my phone and sent a message to my direct supervisor, Simon Yale.

"Simon, I've decided to resign. I'll leave next week."

The reply came quickly.

"I respect your decision. I'll help you with the resignation process. It's a shame, though. The firm was planning to promote you to the youngest senior partner. The management committee already passed the initial review."

Senior partner.

The thing I had fought desperately for two years at Kingsley to achieve.

I stared at that line of text for a few seconds, then typed a reply.

"Thank you."

Then I scrolled through my phone's contact list and found a number that had only called me once, one I had never dialed myself.

Liam's mother, Sophia Chambers.

Three months ago, Liam took me to the Hunter family home for dinner for the first time.

Throughout the meal, Sophia was polite but distant. Afterward, she called me alone to the study, told me I wasn't suitable for Liam, and said I should leave sooner rather than later. She even offered me money.

I refused on the spot.

Sophia said nothing more, just left me a phone number.

Now, I dialed it.

"But I agree to break up with him."

There were two seconds of silence on the other end, then Sophia laughed, the kind of laugh that saw through everything with disdain.

"I'll give you five million dollars. I'll send the check to your company."

"No need."

The call had already ended.

I gripped my phone.

I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes for a moment.

Liam's voice filled my head.

"This pawn will have served her purpose."

But I didn't want to believe it.

I still remembered the night I first met Liam.

I had just joined the firm three months earlier and taken on a rotten case no one else wanted to touch.

The defendant was a local real estate developer with connections, and the plaintiffs were a group of workers whose construction payments had been withheld.

Everyone advised me not to take it. Even if I did, I couldn't win. Even if I won, I'd make enemies.

I took it anyway.

For two straight weeks I lived in the office, sleeping only four hours a day. The rest of the time I spent combing through case files, searching for evidence, and writing legal briefs.

One night at three in the morning, I couldn't hold on anymore and fell asleep at the conference table.

When I woke up, there was a jacket draped over my shoulders and a still-warm cup of coffee on the table.

Sitting beside me was a man I'd never seen before, flipping through the case files I had spread out.

"Your case, the breakthrough isn't in breach of contract. It's in the money trail."

He didn't look up, just pointed at a page in the file.

"Follow this line and you'll find their off-the-books accounts."

I was stunned. I looked at the file and realized the loophole he'd pointed out was something I'd missed after two weeks of searching.

"Who are you?"

The man looked up. Under the lights, his features were sharp, his eyes carrying a kind of casual coolness.

"Liam Hunter."

Later I learned that this man who had guided me through a case at three in the morning was the only son of Kingsley's founding partner, Richard Hunter.

After that, Liam began appearing frequently in my work life.

He'd bring me late-night snacks when I worked overtime. When I didn't eat them, he'd leave them at the corner of my desk, and when they got cold he'd replace them with fresh ones.

He'd block me from the firm's obligatory drinking parties.

When everyone else avoided me, he would casually sit in the empty seat beside me, open a case file, and say he wanted to look at my case.

I refused him many times.

I knew what my status was, and I was clear about the distance between us.

But Liam didn't care.

He never gave expensive gifts, at least not at first.

He gave me band-aids because my new shoes gave me blisters.

He gave me a voice recorder because I always forgot details from court hearings.

He gave me a folding umbrella because I never checked the weather forecast.

They were all inconspicuous little things, but each one precisely met a need of mine.

So when he asked me seriously one more time if I'd give him a chance, I nodded.

Clearly, all I ever wanted was him as a person, not his money.

But now I knew. Even him as a person was fake.

I opened my eyes.

The office was nearly empty now, and the lights in the hallway were going out one by one.

I stood up to gather my things from the desk, preparing to leave.

I pushed open the office door, and suddenly the safety stairwell door at the end of the hallway burst open.

A man stumbled out, his suit rumpled, reeking of alcohol, holding up his phone with my photo displayed on the screen.

"It's you."

The man squinted as he looked me up and down, the corner of his mouth twisting upward.

"Miss White, you're prettier in person than in the photos."

I took a step back.

"Who are you?"

The man grinned, his steps unsteady as he closed in on me, grabbing my wrist.

"Don't be nervous. If you can sell your photos, surely you won't cost more than the photos, right? Name your price. I can afford it."

His grip was strong, causing a sharp pain in my wrist.

I struggled hard but couldn't break free. Just as I was about to kick him, a hand reached from the side, grabbed the man by his collar, and yanked him backward.

Then came a dull thud.

Liam's fist slammed into the man's face with enough force to knock him to the ground. Blood immediately gushed from his nose.

He kicked the man.

"Get lost."

His voice wasn't loud, but it was as cold as ice.

The man covered his face and scrambled away.

Liam turned around and looked at my wrist.

Red marks had already surfaced.

He frowned and reached out to examine it.

"Why are you still at the office this late? Does it hurt? I'll take you-"

I pulled my hand back.

I looked at the face in front of me.

The same concern as always, the same tenderness as always, the same... perfectly timed response as always.

Perfectly timed enough to make me believe he actually cared about me.

"Nora? Still angry about the document?"

Liam's tone softened.

"I didn't send that document. I lent my phone to a friend for a few days. He went too far sometimes. I already scolded him and I'm having people delete it."

"Liam."

I interrupted him.

My voice was so soft that the echo in the hallway was louder than my own voice.

"Let's break up."

Liam's expression froze for an instant.

Before he could speak, the elevator door at the other end of the hallway opened.

Vivian Whitlock walked out.

She wore a white dress today, her long hair falling over her shoulders, holding a bouquet of flowers.

Seeing Liam and me standing face to face, her steps suddenly halted.

The bouquet slipped from her hands.

"Liam... you and her..."

Her voice trembled, tears immediately welling up in her eyes.

"Are you two really together?"

Before she could finish, she turned and ran into the stairwell.

Liam's expression changed.

He glanced at me once, then turned and chased after her.

As he passed me, his shoulder slammed heavily into mine, causing me to stumble back two steps. My back hit the wall.

I didn't cry out in pain.

I slowly steadied myself and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window at the end of the hallway.

Below was the firm's courtyard garden.

In the night, the streetlights stretched two people's shadows very long.

Liam grabbed Vivian's wrist, rain falling on his shoulders. He seemed oblivious to it.

"Yes, the Hunters and Whitlocks are enemies. So what? Even if it means defying the entire Hunter family, even if the whole world opposes it, I only want you."

Vivian looked up, tears and rain mixing together. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his lips.

Liam cupped her face with both hands and kissed her back forcefully.

I stood at the window, looking down at this scene.

I returned to my apartment, took a shower, and lay in bed.

I didn't sleep all night.