Chapter 2

At the café, Natalie stared at me for a long moment, her eyes wide with disbelief.

Natalie finally spoke, her voice trembling a little, "Are you telling me you just went to sleep and woke up here? Then... do you remember anything from the last five years?"

I nodded, then quickly shook my head.

"This isn't the first time Alexander's tried to divorce you," Natalie said, her face hard to read.

After a long moment, she managed a weak smile.

"And... it's been ages since we last talked," she said softly.

I just sat there, stunned.

Finally, Natalie sighed and started filling me in on everything that had gone down these past years.

Less than a year after the wedding that rocked the whole city, Alexander changed.

All that talk about him turning over a new leaf? It was all just an illusion, like chasing shadows.

My eyes went wide. "He cheated?"

"Yeah, it was four years ago."

Natalie took a sip of her coffee before glancing at me. "She was a junior at your school, you know? Just like you, she was one of the Sterling family's scholarship kids."

Natalie said that when I found out, I totally lost it and did all sorts of crazy things.

I stormed over to the school, cornered that girl, and started yelling at her—causing a total uproar; it was all over the place.

Then I crashed and wrecked the huge birthday party Alexander threw for her, and he ended up dragging me to the police station himself and even filed for divorce.

Natalie took a sip of her coffee and said she just couldn't stand watching me like that, so she tried to talk me into letting go. But I was so messed up, I actually ended up hitting her.

After that, even my one true friend turned her back on me completely.

I was just a pampered canary who thought I could tame the city's wildest bad boy, and I ended up becoming the laughingstock of the entire city.

After hearing her narration, I was floored.

"So, just because I ruined one of the flowers his little sweetheart was growing, Alexander really went and broke my hand over that?" I asked, my voice trembling.

Natalie gave me a silent nod.

I gave the divorce papers a quick once-over.

Actually, Alexander wasn't stingy.

Even with our relationship falling apart, he didn't hold back.

Six million dollars, plus a few prime apartments downtown.

I snapped out of it and grabbed the pen, ready to sign.

But Natalie suddenly grabbed my hand.

"Have you really thought this through this time?" she asked, her voice tense.

Seeing the confusion on my face, she hesitated, then said, "The last few times, you just pretended to sign, then backed out at the last second and played him for a fool. It drove Alexander up the wall."

I was stunned. Did I really get that out of control?

Natalie pressed on, her voice gentle but insistent. "Isabelle, do you really not love Alexander anymore?"

At her words, my hand fell still.

A quiet settled between us, and my thoughts slipped away to another time, another place.

Truth was, Alexander was right.

If it hadn't been for him, I would have long since been consumed by the harsh, unforgiving destitution of those backwoods.

Alexander was the one who personally chose me for the Sterling family's scholarship program.

Without the Sterlings, I never would've escaped that place, let alone had a shot at a normal education.

It wasn't until my sophomore year that everything changed.

My stepfather tricked me into coming back, claiming my mom was seriously ill.

Then, scared I'd run off, he broke my hand and locked me up in a cage—just waiting for some sleazy old guy to show up the next day with 10 grand to buy me.

But Alexander dropped everything and came for me that night.

He was furious and got the best lawyer around to have my stepfather and that sleazy old man thrown straight into jail.

Alexander saved me and my mom, no question.

Before my mom passed away, she kept telling me the same thing, again and again.

"Isabelle, if it weren't for Mr. Sterling, you wouldn't have the life you do now. We may be poor, but we must always remember who helped us and be grateful," she'd say.

I took her words to heart and swore I'd find a way to repay Alexander.

When he said he liked me, I taught myself to love him back.

When Alexander said he wanted to marry me and bring me into the Sterling family, I nodded with genuine happiness—as long as it made him happy, I was happy too.

But now, he had found someone better suited for him, someone who truly put him at ease.

Maybe I had finally repaid my debt to him.

Maybe I should start chasing my own dreams now?

Natalie's eyes welled up with tears, her voice choked with emotion.

"Isabelle, it's really... good that you're thinking this way," she said, her voice trembling.