Chapter 2

As I stepped out of the house, I realized there was a crowd of neighbors hanging around the entrance, checking out the commotion.

One of them saw me limping and hurried over to give me a hand.

Shepard, who came out right after me, froze for a second. Seemingly with a guilty conscience, he moved to help me, too.

But before he could reach me, Jenna started crying behind him, "Shepard, it hurts so much!"

There went that drama queen again.

She was just sitting there, acting all pitiful.

The neighbor just shook her head, totally speechless. "Why don't you help your girlfriend up first? She can't just sit there like that."

Shepard looked awkward, mouth half open like he wanted to argue, but I just shot him a mocking look. "Don't just stand there. Go help your girlfriend up already," I sneered.

Shepard's eyes flickered, and with a look of resolve, he said something to Jenna before rushing over to see if I was hurt.

I shook off his hand. "Shepard, if you really like my sister, go ahead and be together for all I care. Your precious Jenna doesn't need to keep playing the damsel in distress."

Jenna's nails dug so deeply into her palms that her knuckles turned white. "No, that's not it."

Whenever there was a crowd, you could bet there was gossip flying around.

The ladies could sniff out the juiciest details in no time.

They were like cats who just caught a whiff of fish, all chattering away at once.

"So this is the real girlfriend? Is this guy trying to score both sisters or what?"

"He's all worried about the side chick over a little scrape. His actual girlfriend's foot is all messed up, and he doesn't even care. What a jerk."

Shepard and Jenna looked even paler. I dusted myself off and started to walk away, but Shepard came over, trying to scoop me up.

I frowned and stomped hard on his foot.

He yelled, "Charley, what's that supposed to mean?

"I was just trying to help you get in the car, and you—"

"No need. Go take care of your precious Jenna," I retorted.

Shepard scowled, clearly annoyed. "Do you have to be so mean? Jenna's just young and likes to fool around. There's nothing between us, seriously."

I shot back, "Is that so? Shepard, you really don't have to keep pretending.

"We both know exactly how this whole engagement came about."

Shepard and I were childhood friends. The Jefferson family had been wanting a piece of the perfume business for years.

But with the market already overflowing with every kind of scent imaginable, they set their sights on my family instead.

What they didn't realize was that my family's reputation in perfume-making came from a unique tradition—the craft was always passed down between women, never to men.

After my mom married my dad, my grandma entrusted her with the family's secret techniques. Back then, my mom was the one carrying the hopes of a centuries-old perfume dynasty.

Due to my mom, the family took the perfume business to a whole new level.

But back then, my mom insisted on traditional perfume-making, while my dad wanted to turn everything into business. That was how my engagement to Shepard came about.

"Shepard, I'm not the only girl in the family. Don't bother me anymore," I told him coldly.

With that, I got in my car and drove off.

Since I was taken back in time, I hadn't lived at home.

Instead, I moved into my perfume studio.

Because of my mom, I grew up around perfumes, so honestly, the studio was the only place that ever made me feel truly at ease.

Jenna still got her hands on the perfume formula, all thanks to Shepard.

But I wasn't about to make the same dumb mistake by foolishly obsessing over Amberwood Essence.

I was just waiting for my chance.

I thought I'd laid it all out for Jenna, and she'd never bother me again.

But I totally underestimated just how shameless she could be.

One day, she showed up at my studio.

I was working on a new fragrance when she entered.

She just leaned in. "Charley, any luck with the formula yet?" she asked, pretending to be all innocent.

Turned out she was not as clueless as I had thought. She'd already noticed the formula in her hands wasn't complete.

If things went as they had in my previous life, my dad's big birthday bash was just five days away.

Back then, after Jenna got the formula, she'd always be lurking around my studio, hoping to pick up something useful.

I realized Jenna was not as dumb as she looked.

I pushed up my glasses and pretended to be frustrated as I flipped through my research book.

"Ugh, I still can't crack that final blend," I murmured, letting out a sigh.

When Jenna saw me look so defeated, her eyes sparkled, and she rushed over, leaning in to get a closer look at my book.

"I'm part of the family, too, Charley. Let me help you," she said.

She was so full of herself, thinking she could be the Perfume Artisan just because she had learned a few things from me when we were kids.

I let out a faint, almost imperceptible smile before handing her the book.

She took it, and when her eyes landed on the line I'd marked in red, she looked up at me, totally stunned.

"Th-the book says the last ingredient is... is..." she stammered.

I quickly covered her mouth and made myself sound completely defeated. "Yeah, the last ingredient is the Perfume Artisan's heart's blood. But I've tried so many times and never succeeded. I'm starting to think maybe I'm not..."

"You're not the Perfume Artisan!" Jenna couldn't hide her excitement as she blurted out.

But then she realized what she'd said and quickly clapped a hand over her mouth, glancing around nervously.

Seeing me so down, she quickly cleared her throat and patted my back, trying to comfort me.

"There's only one Perfume Artisan in each generation of our family. So if I'm not..." I let my words hang in the air, watching Jenna's reaction.

The book in Jenna's hands hit the floor. I swear her heart was about to leap right out of her chest.

I let out a cold laugh and pulled out the Amberwood Essence formula she'd been dying to get her hands on.

Pressing it into her palm, I looked at her with pleading eyes and said, "Jenna, please, you have to keep this a secret. If you want to give the formula a shot, go ahead and take it."

Her hand shook as she took the paper, her breathing quick and uneven, but she still acted all reluctant, like she was doing me a huge favor.

"Well, since you're begging me, Charley, I guess I'll have to help you out," she said.

I watched as Jenna accepted the formula with a smug look, and the helplessness in my eyes grew even deeper.

Jenna clutched the formula and hurried out of the studio.

I watched her leave, eyes shadowed with thoughts.