Chapter 1
On my birthday, Charles Rivers booked the most expensive riverside restaurant in the city.
I wore the dress he gave me and waited from seven until eleven.
The waiter changed the candles three times.
The cake's frosting had collapsed on one side.
Charles finally texted me, [Something came up. You go ahead and head home.]
The next second, I stumbled across his assistant's social media post.
Fireworks were lighting up the river.
Charles was right in the middle of the crowd, helping a girl light her birthday candles.
The caption said: [Thanks, Mr. Rivers, for remembering I just mentioned wanting to see fireworks.]
I stared at that photo for a long time.
It turned out he wasn't actually busy.
It's just my birthday wasn't important enough for him to make time for me.
It was past midnight when Charles finally came home, still smelling like fireworks.
Seeing I was still awake, he tossed a gift box onto the table.
He said, "This is to make it up to you.
"Don't give me that look. She got dumped today. I couldn't leave her alone."
I opened the box.
Inside was a necklace.
The tag wasn't even mine, it had someone else's name on it.
At that moment, I suddenly felt like even crying would be a waste.
When Charles reached out to put the necklace on me, I softly closed the lid of the box.
His hand paused in midair, his brow barely creasing, but his tone stayed gentle. "Don't like it? I'll have the store clerk get you a different one tomorrow."
I looked at the tag sticking out from the edge of the lid. Susan Ray's name was half-covered, like a half-peeled label.
"No need," I said, pushing the box back to him. "It was ordered for someone else. It just doesn't feel right wearing it."
Charles slowly unfastened his cuff links, giving me a look like I was a misbehaving pet throwing a fit.
Charles said, "Evelyn, stop acting like the victim,
"Susan Ray got dumped. As her boss, comforting a valuable employee is business.
"And you? Throwing a fit over a birthday that means nothing, are you seriously trying to test my patience?"
He tossed the necklace with Susan's name on it straight into the trash.
Charles said, "Just a necklace and a dinner, and you're already giving me attitude?
"Did you forget? The villa you live in, the custom dress you're wearing, even that fancy 'fireworks designer' title, none of it would be yours if it weren't for me.
"Without me, you'd just be some nobody sketching in the dirt at a construction site."
I stared at his icy face, my thumb running over the dried, cracked frosting on the cake box. "So, even the project I spent countless sleepless nights perfecting, you just tossed it to her to cheer her up?"
"That wasn't a gift," Charles said.
Charles let out a cold laugh, his tone full of disdain and contempt.
Charles said, "That's what I call resource optimization. Susan's got the kind of education and social skills you could only wish for. With her name on the project, we'll score way more government money.
"Evelyn, get real about your place in this world. You're twenty-eight, stop obsessing over having your name on everything like some kid.
"Just settle into being Mrs. Rivers and you'll never have to worry about a thing. But if you're dead set on throwing a tantrum about calling off the engagement right now."
He stepped in close, his eyes chilling and menacing as he warned me. "Believe me, with one word, I could make you disappear from the entire cultural tourism design industry.
"Without my say-so, not a single fireworks company in the country would touch your work. You want to fight me? Who do you think you are?"
"I'm done. I want to break off the engagement," I said.
Charles's expression turned icy, his gaze suddenly frosty, like he'd just been hit with a bucket of cold water. "What did you say?"
I pulled the wedding schedule out of the drawer and slid it across the table to him.
Along with it were the guest list, tasting notes from the menu trial, the wedding dress booking, and a tiny blue ignition card.
The ignition card was a sample the master gave me when Charles first took me to the fireworks factory three years ago. I didn't know a thing about fireworks back then, but for his cultural tourism project, I spent six months learning the ropes.
Later, I called that opening fireworks display "Homeward."
Back then, Charles held my hand and wrote three words on the back of the card.
For Eve only.
Charles's eyes lingered on the card for a moment before he looked away. "Don't make such rash decisions about calling off the engagement. My grandfather already knows, and both our parents are waiting for the wedding date."
"Then let everyone feel awkward," I said, pulling the wedding schedule back. "Better everyone than just me."
Charles's jaw tightened, and the last trace of patience vanished from his voice. "Evelyn, don't try to use our marriage as leverage against me. You know I can't stand it when you start guilt-tripping me for no reason."
It turned out that after I waited four hours and got a necklace with someone else's name on it, simply saying I wanted to call off the engagement was enough for him to accuse me of emotional blackmail.
I tossed the cake box into the trash, the collapsed corner of frosting stuck to the side, like a messy little reminder of how things had gone wrong.
Charles watched me, his voice even colder. "Take a couple of days to cool off. When you've thought it through, we'll talk."
He disappeared into the bathroom without another word.
My phone buzzed on the table. It was a message from Susan. Not sure if she meant to send it to me.
Susan wrote: [Mr. Rivers said the fireworks plan will be credited to me tomorrow. You don't mind, do you, Eve?]
I stared at the message, my finger hovering over the blue ignition card.
On the back of the card, the words "For Eve only" had been crossed out with a black marker at some point.