Chapter 2

Asher leaned over me, his voice dropping to an intimate whisper. "No matter what happens, I will always protect you."

I closed my eyes, forcing a bitter smile.

"It's fine. I don't need it anymore."

He froze. His fingers curled a fraction tighter against my waist, and his tone grew heavy.

"I really don't want us to fight over Natalie, but I need you to understand that someone manipulated her into posting that article. She was just a pawn.

"It's already been wiped from the internet. Nobody is even going to remember it happened.

"She's younger than you. She's clueless about how this industry works. Please, just cut her some slack."

Asher constantly used her age as an excuse, demanding that I be the bigger person.

I was exactly ten months older than Natalie.

Asher had also once confessed that if he hadn't met me, he would have married her.

Natalie had a notoriously tragic childhood. Her mother had passed away early, and her father had brought home a wicked stepmother. Despite her wealth, she was constantly bullied at home.

Asher had always pitied her. When they were teenagers, he had even promised he would marry her one day to save her.

Then I showed up and scrambled his heart.

He strung Natalie along for five whole years before finally making up his mind and proposing to me.

If I had known the emotional baggage that came with him, I would have never accepted his advances.

Unfortunately, I couldn't rewind time.

After we tied the knot, we kept the marriage a secret to protect my acting career.

But Natalie refused to let go, constantly inserting herself into our lives. Eventually, I hit my absolute breaking point. I slapped our marriage certificate right against her chest and told her to back the hell off.

That was the first time Asher and I ever had a screaming match.

He accused me of being too extreme. He claimed that he was planning to let Natalie down gently on his own timeline.

Because of my "cruelty," Natalie ended up swallowing a bottle of sleeping pills.

Asher carried her to the emergency room in the dead of night to get her stomach pumped. When he finally came home, he laid out all the messy history between them.

"In the end, I really let Natalie down," he had whispered with guilt. "Hazel, for my sake, can you just be patient with her? Keep an eye on her so she doesn't do anything stupid again."

From that night forward, I treated Natalie like a ghost.

I stopped asking when they met up.

I stopped listening to his excuses about what they were doing together.

Asher continued to treat me like a queen, and sometimes I would even wonder if he was the same man when he was with Natalie.

That night in bed, despite his persistent advances, I rejected him completely.

A week later, Asher flew back from an overseas trip. The second he heard I had wrapped up a script-reading session, he dispatched a luxury car to pick me up.

In the backseat, he leaned over to buckle my seatbelt, whispering, "I already had a talk with Natalie. She agreed to apologize to you face-to-face."

I leaned my head against the cool glass of the window, thoroughly drained. "I don't want to see her."

He reached out and enveloped my hand in his warm palm. "She knows she messed up, Hazel. She sincerely wants to make things right. I know you've been miserable lately. Once she apologizes, I'll take you on a beach vacation to clear your head."

I lowered my gaze, a mess of complicated emotions swirling in my chest.

I used to believe that because Asher was such a decent man, the people he cared about must be decent, too. I used to think Natalie might actually be capable of a genuine apology.

But after being burned so many times, I had zero faith left in his words.

Asher had booked a private dining room.

Natalie was already there when we arrived. The table was practically groaning under the weight of the food, but not a single dish was something I actually liked.

There was also a beautifully decorated cake sitting in the center. Without asking, Natalie sliced a piece and practically shoved it toward me.

"Asher told me it was your birthday last week, Hazel. I bought this cake specifically to make up for it. Happy belated birthday. One year older," she chirped sweetly.

The cake was stuffed with chunks of fresh mango. I was severely allergic to mangoes, a fact Asher was well aware of.

I didn't reach for the plate.

Asher nudged me gently. "Hazel, you missed out on your cake last week, so why not have a few bites of this one? I only briefly mentioned your birthday to Natalie, and I didn't expect her to go out of her way to remember it."

Hearing that, I let out a dark smile.

How incredibly thoughtful of Natalie to keep me in mind.

I reached out and took the cake from her hands. Then, without a second of hesitation, I shoved it directly into her face.

Thick layers of frosting smeared across her flawless makeup as chunks of sponge cake tumbled onto her designer dress.

Natalie was completely blindsided. She hadn't even attempted to duck. When the shock wore off, a blood-curdling shriek echoed off the walls of the private room.

Asher shot up from his chair. The warm affection in his eyes vanished instantly, replaced by absolute ice.

Maybe it was because I already had my exit strategy in place, but I was completely done swallowing my pride for this man.

I locked eyes with Asher, delivering every word with venomous clarity.

"I told you, I do not ever want to see her face again. If you bring her around me, I'll do exactly the same thing."