Chapter 2
As a teenager, I was a typical spoiled socialite. I was bossy and haughty and made plenty of enemies at the elite school.
Once, the older brother of my rival tracked me down at school with a gang of thugs, ready to give me a beating.
It was Edward who stood in front of me, shielding me. "The Sterlings are our family's benefactors, and Vivian is my fiancée. If any of you take one more step, I'll make sure you're in a hospital bed for a month."
He was all swagger and muscle, ready to take on four guys with just his fists. He actually managed to send them packing with their tails between their limbs, but he was left a bloody mess.
I rushed to help him up, my voice trembling. "Are you crazy? You could have been killed!"
But he pulled me into his arms. "As long as you're safe, nothing else matters. Vivian, do you believe me now? I really do like you."
That boy, the one who looked at me with such earnest devotion, the one who only had eyes for me, seemed to have vanished into thin air, lost to the wind and my memories.
Edward ignored my fury and just drove off to find Rose.
The empty villa was filled with the ghosts of our past. I had renovated this place to match the layout from our childhood memories, only for it to become their love nest.
How could I forget? The girl who knew him way before I did was Rose.
The housekeeper stepped out from the shadows and draped a blanket over my shoulders. Her voice was thick with pity as she tried to comfort me. "Ms. Sterling, be careful not to catch a cold."
I took out my phone and checked Edward's Instagram post. He had actually gone public with a photo of Rose, calling her his girlfriend.
The photo showed them locked in a passionate kiss on a motorcycle. It didn't take long for the post to spread like wildfire through our social circles.
The group chats for the city's elite were absolutely buzzing.
[I guess Vivian's status doesn't mean squat. She can't hold a candle to that childhood sweetheart.]
[Seriously. All that money and her man's never around. She might as well be a widow.]
[Seems to me Edward just wants a glorified housekeeper to pay back the Sterlings for saving his skin back in the day.]
My grip tightened on the phone as I read those messages. I couldn't take it anymore and called Edward. "What the hell is that post supposed to mean?"
Edward took a drag of his cigarette, his voice smooth and laced with a smirk. "Honey, what are you so mad about?
"I've always kept things in separate boxes. A wife is a wife, and a girlfriend is a girlfriend. You should be used to this by now."
My fingers went numb. Back when my family was still on top and I was the reigning socialite, if anyone even whispered that I was just his girlfriend, he would throw a party just to set the record straight.
He would even hire PR teams just to flaunt our relationship to the world.
Back then, he couldn't wait to shout it from the rooftops that I was his fiancée, that I was the one he was going to marry with all the bells and whistles, that he must have saved a galaxy in his previous life to marry me.
If another man had a crush on me or liked me, Edward was ready to go over and beat them up.
It used to be a running joke in our circle that one could chase anyone, but not me. Because my fiancé was a loose cannon and he maimed the one who dared.
In just ten years, a mere blink of an eye, everyone in our circle was now laughing at me.
The suffocation and humiliation finally broke me. I stormed out the door and ordered the driver to head straight for Rose's place.