Chapter 3

After treating Ryan to dinner, I dragged my exhausted body home.

The door wouldn't open. The lock responded with nothing but a cold, mechanical tone. Access denied.

Each rejection hit me like a hammer to the chest. I stared at the familiar front door, dazed, wondering how my life had fallen apart this badly.

Only one person could have changed the passcode. Damian.

My hands shook as I punched in Damian's birthday. Then mine. Then our anniversary. Every date that ever meant anything to me met the same cold response—access denied.

I slid down to the floor, too drained to stand, and let the grief wash over me. I pulled out my phone, wanting answers.

But the moment the screen lit up, every feed was plastered with Damian and Olivia's engagement announcement.

Damian had posted an intimate photo of the two of them cheek to cheek, matching rings glittering on their fingers, along with a caption about how much they had missed each other all these years.

His eyes sparkled with a light I recognized.

It reminded me of the Damian I knew as a teenager.

Back then, that same light lived in his eyes. He and Olivia were the golden couple at school.

They tied for first on every exam. The power couple everyone envied.

Everyone thought they were meant to be.

Everyone except me.

Damian and I grew up together. Somewhere along the way, day by day, familiarity turned into something deeper.

Learning that he and Olivia were together gutted me.

When Damian's mother, Mabel Evans, found out how I felt, she squeezed my hands and swore, "You're the only woman I'll ever accept. Nobody else deserves my Damian."

Selfishness lived in all of us.

I wanted Damian to be happy. But my selfishness won out. When Mabel made her feelings known, the congratulations I should have offered Damian and Olivia died on my tongue.

Fueled by my feelings, Mabel made no secret of her hostility toward Olivia. It led to brutal fights between mother and son, and after every blowup, Damian locked himself in his room and refused to eat.

It broke my heart to see him like that, so I begged Mabel to stop interfering.

She ignored every word I said and kept singing my praises to Damian instead.

After hearing it enough times, Damian convinced himself I was the one putting her up to it. He turned cold toward me and never looked back.

Then Mabel died in an accident. In her final moments, she clutched my hand and begged me not to leave Damian.

I promised her I wouldn't.

Damian and Olivia broke up shortly after. He locked himself away, drowning in tears and alcohol.

I stared at the acceptance letter from a university overseas that had just arrived, then at Damian, who had become a hollow shell since Mabel's death. In the end, I gave up my chance to study abroad.

On Damian's birthday, he held me. I gave myself to him that night. We became a couple.

I knew Olivia still lived in his heart, but I didn't care. I told myself that if I loved him hard enough, he would eventually let her go.

But scrolling through his public declaration of love for Olivia, I knew I had lost. Completely.

I swallowed the searing pain in my chest, pulled myself to my feet, and turned to leave.

On a whim, before walking away, I keyed Olivia's birthday into the door lock.

The cold electronic voice chimed with a crisp click. "Welcome home."

I bought this apartment with my very first bonus. I picked it out for Damian and furnished every corner with my own two hands. It was supposed to be ours.

It sat in the heart of the city's busiest district, the kind of place where even at midnight, the streets below buzzed with traffic and neon light.

But standing inside, I felt like a stranger in my own home.

The layout was the same. My belongings were still there. But scattered among them were things that didn't belong to me.

A silk nightgown was draped carelessly over the sofa. Not mine. Lace underwear hung from the balcony railing. Not mine either.

A stranger had taken over my home.

Our engagement photo had been taken down. I had no idea where it went.

In its place hung a new photo, Olivia and Damian's.

I let out a hollow laugh, shoved the chaos in my heart down deep, and started packing up my things.

I had just rolled up my sleeves and reached for the light switch when I heard it. The front door opened.

Damian and Olivia stumbled in, reeking of alcohol.

The moment they crossed the threshold, they were all over each other.

Streetlight poured in through the windows, catching the flush on their faces and the raw desire tangled in their gaze.

I had never seen Damian like this.

With me, he was always composed, always distant.

Now that composure was gone, replaced by naked hunger.

The wet sounds of their kissing filled the room. My stomach turned.

They were stumbling toward the bedroom when I flipped the lights on.

The harsh light exposed them in full. Damian shoved Olivia away and snapped his head toward me.

The panic in his eyes hardened into fury the second he recognized me. "Elena, what the hell! Can you stop being such a creep?"

Whatever warmth was left in my heart went ice cold.

But even as he glared at me with undisguised irritation, I forced the question out. "Damian, why are you doing this to me? You know that day was supposed to be our..."

Damian cut me off, his tone dripping with contempt. "If it weren't for you, my mother wouldn't have forced me and Olivia apart. You're the reason we lost all those years together.

"I hate you. Gosh, I hate you so much. I know exactly what that day was. I did it on purpose. And when Olivia was in danger, I was going to her no matter what."

Olivia perked up at his words, curiosity flickering across her face.

She squeezed his hand and leaned in. "Was it the day of the earthquake? Honestly, when you showed up, you gave me the will to live. I was ready to give up.

"What was so special about that day? It seems important. Was it because of me?"

Fake guilt settled across her features. The performance was so clumsy even I could see right through it.

But Damian didn't notice. He rushed to comfort her. "It was nothing important. Compared to you, none of that matters."

His cold gaze landed on me, and his next words froze whatever was left of my heart. "Elena, whatever you want to say can wait. Just leave. Stop bothering us."