Chapter 2

I was about to force my anger down.

Then Lily suddenly stepped out of the crowd.

In full view of everyone, she lifted her long skirt and revealed a dazzling pair of diamond heels.

Her tone was innocent, yet smug. "So the shoes were on my feet. No wonder you couldn't find them."

The diamonds on the uppers brushed Charles's trouser leg.

Charles bent down instinctively, as if to brush off dust that wasn't even there.

That natural, protective gesture made my eyes sting.

Lily seemed completely unaware. Her stunt plunged the entire backstage area into dead silence.

Everyone stared at her, dumbfounded.

My best friend reacted first, her voice sharp. "I knew it. Earlier, Lily insisted on checking whether the heels were steady, took the shoebox, and went into the storage room.

"Natalie. I didn't stop her. I never thought she'd be vicious enough to switch your shoes."

Her voice trembled with anger as she demanded, "Lily, are you sick? Why did you swap Natalie's heels for straw shoes?"

Lily curled her lip, unconcerned, as if it were a harmless joke.

She smiled sweetly at Charles, her voice cloying. "Charles, I wanted to give you a surprise. Don't you like it?

"These look so good on me. Natalie's so generous, and she won't mind letting me try them first, right?"

Then Lily actually pulled the straw shoes out of the trash and shoved them into my hands, as if she were the star. "Natalie, these are natural materials. You should wear these. Hurry up and get ready for the red carpet."

Triumph practically spilled from her eyes. I understood at once. This farce was a calculated humiliation.

No wonder she had followed me like a shadow from the moment I arrived, one moment praising the heel design, and the next eagerly offering to carry things.

So this was the pit she had dug, waiting for me to fall in.

I couldn't help laughing, but my voice was cold. "So what you're saying is, my 600,000 custom heels should be yours, and I should go onstage in these trash straw shoes?"

At that, Lily's eyes reddened, and she shrank into Charles's arms. "Charles, I really was joking. I didn't know Natalie would be this angry.

"I've never seen shoes this expensive. How was I supposed to know they were so delicate you can't even touch them?"

I stared at her pitiful act and asked coldly, "Never worn good shoes, so you don't know how to spell 'steal,' either?

"If you understood boundaries, you wouldn't have 'accidentally' spilled red wine on my one-of-a-kind gown at the brand gala last time.

"And you even said, all aggrieved, 'Natalie, your dress was so beautiful. I was stunned for a moment.'"

What chilled me even more was that Charles Landon was still shielding her.

He pulled my hand away from where I was pointing at Lily, impatience in his voice. "It's a pair of shoes. Lily's young and likes to play around. Why are you making such a big deal of it?"

I looked at his tightly knit brow, that expression that said I was petty and unreasonable.

Out of the corner of my eye, I glanced toward the lounge area. Charles's mother forced a smile that looked worse than tears.

And his father, face livid, stared at the floor.

This so-called marriage alliance was Landon Corp using Summers Studio to elevate their brand image, while my family needed their southern channels. At its core, it was a trade of interests.

The next second, I suddenly went slack. Not because I was no longer angry, but because I felt tired and absurd.

Charles didn't notice my disappointment at all and kept going. "I'll order you ten more pairs, okay? Stop it. Everyone's watching."

His tone was as if he were dismissing a shrew making trouble.

My gaze fell on the diamond bracelet on Lily's wrist.

It was the style I had wanted for ages, and the one Charles never remembered to buy for me.

All at once, I laughed. "No need. This marriage alliance ends here."

The moment the words fell, backstage sank into silence.

Every gaze, as if a solid blade, was fixed on me.

A clothes hanger slipped from a staff member's hand and clattered to the floor.

Charles grabbed my arm hard, the force frightening. "Natalie Summers! Are you out of your mind? Over a pair of shoes?"

It was Lily who swapped the heels, humiliated me with straw shoes, and ruined the ceremony. Yet in his eyes, it became my unreasonable tantrum.

I had been with Charles for two full years.

Two years ago, my father told me Landon Corp was the most suitable match, and I agreed to date him.

From deliberately catering to him on our first date to later forcing myself to learn about the extreme sports he loved, I worked to fit in every time we were together.

I thought even a cold stone should have warmed.

When he proposed getting engaged, I immediately contacted foreign craftsmen to customize these "Starlight Heels."

I even chose the starry-sky elements he had once praised offhand.

My best friend laughed at me then, saying I looked like a child with candy as I held the design drafts.

"I put in a lot of effort to convince the board to approve this partnership." Back then, I held his hand and said, "But now I think it's all worth it."

I really did it, putting him first in everything. Any meeting I could postpone, I did; his needs came first. I declined friends' gatherings whenever I could; his mood mattered most.

As long as he said, "I need you," no matter where I was, I would rush over immediately.

But after Lily returned from abroad, everything changed.

Our dates were constantly interrupted by her "emergencies."

The gifts I prepared so carefully were always intercepted halfway, as she pouted, "Charles, it's so pretty. Give it to me."

Whenever I showed the slightest displeasure, Charles would rub my hair and say, "Lily is like my little sister. Let her have it. Don't be so petty."

He didn't know that in a late-night post Lily shared, I saw her leaning on his shoulder, wearing the limited-edition watch I had given him for his birthday.

He also didn't know that last week, when I went to his company, I ran into Lily coming out of his office with his suit jacket over her shoulders.

And the night before the ceremony, I sat alone on the terrace until dawn.

Deep down, I had already known there was no way for us to go on.