Chapter 1

Andrea

I found the guest list on a Tuesday. It wasn't something I stumbled upon accidentally, it was something that was bound to happen after spending each night alone, wondering when my boyfriend of five years was going to come home.

He had always said work was too demanding, and being the chief surgeon was surprisingly hard but like the good girlfriend that I was, I smiled through it all while bringing him a cup of latte each day.

Kane, my boyfriend, always had his study locked. At first, it disturbed me intensely, and he didn't like it whenever I probed further: “I am not keeping anything from you, babe. I just like the quiet, and it's where I can go and think. You understand, right?”

I did understand, until I couldn't anymore. I used the bobby pin I kept twisted in my hair for emergencies, three seconds in, and I heard a soft click, I stepped inside and surveyed the room.

The room smelled like him: antiseptic soap, coffee, the faint trace of the cologne I used to press my face into when he came home late. On the desk sat a leather binder, half-filled with cream cardstock. The heading was printed in a clean, elegant type.

“Smith - Miller Engagement party.”

Oh, I was so dumb and naive. It still feels like a gobsmack joke straight to the face as I stared at the engagement list, my boyfriend of five years was getting engaged to another Alpha's daughter, Olivia Smith.

I had always ignored the suspicious feeling that I felt whenever I saw them together, laughing over a cup of coffee in the break room or whenever they were too close.

I had always tried not to read much into it until now, as I stare at the greatest betrayal of my life. Five years I poured into this relationship and this is how he repays me.

The engagement list consisted of his parents— his mother who has never seemed to like me is suddenly agreeing to an engagement party? Her parents, the whole hospital board.

It feels like a joke, a cruel joke that the universe is playing on me. Those colleagues greeted me each day in the hall, and they were secretly planning this. It feels like a stab straight to the chest.

I did not cry, the rage gradually built up. I was not going to be the woman who stayed in the shadows while he married the hospital director’s daughter, or better still, the alpha's daughter.

I was not going to keep covering his missed shifts, bringing him coffee, smiling through the whispers that I only had my attending position because I slept in his bed. That version of me ended the moment I read those two names side by side.

By mid-morning, I had submitted my resignation to HR. Four years reduced to me just being Kane Miller’s mate, I owed the place nothing.

I packed a box of black trash bags into the trunk of my car and drove back to the apartment we rented in downtown Boston with the intention of getting rid of anything that bonded us together.

I was halfway through emptying a drawer of old T-shirts when the front door opened and Kane sauntered in with a large grin. Once upon a time, that grin made my knees all weak, not anymore.

He was still in scrubs, which meant he came straight from the hospital. He kicked his shoes to one side. “Hey baby, remember that thriller movie that you've been wanting to watch all month? I grabbed wine so we can watch it tonight. Just me and you.” He smiled, glancing at the dark bags and almost cleared shelves. “What's going on? Is it a clean up day or what?”

He was attempting a light joke but I am not smiling. I don't think I'll ever smile at his jokes again.

I ignore him, and continue shoving stuff into the dark bag. He didn't comment on that, he just leaned in and tried to kiss my cheek because it was a tradition between us.

I flinched so hard, my back almost hit the wall. He stared at me with a raised brow, and reached for the mug of coffee on the table, totally dismissing whatever just happened between us.

I kept working. He hovered, still talking, still assuming this was ordinary cleaning. I picked up the Montblanc pen he had given me on our first date and threw it into the bag without ceremony.

The lopsided ceramic mug we had made together on our third anniversary, covered in clumsy handprints and years of private jokes, followed. The small metal love lock from the Harvard Bridge, our initials engraved on one side also landed into the pile.

Kane's voice changed. “Drea. That’s our mug. Why are you throwing that out?”

Oh so now we're getting somewhere.

I didn't answer. From my pocket, I took the tiny silver band he had given me last week. He had called it a promise ring, funny how he also gave an engagement ring to Olivia. Is that all I meant to him? An ordinary promise ring?

“You want to know what’s wrong?” My voice shook, but I wasn't going to allow him to affect me. “You’re engaged to Olivia. You’ve been planning it for months while you were still coming home to me, when you bothered to come home at all. I’m not going to be the secret you keep in this apartment while you marry an Alpha's daughter and climb the ladder. I’m leaving.”

The worry in his face disappeared and what came next was absolute shock, he started rambling at once. “It's not like that, Andrea! The engagement was planned by my family! I will always love you, Drea, and you know that. You're the only woman in my heart.” The words started tumbling over each other, panic stricken in each syllable.

I don't need to hear any of his excuses. “We're done.”

By the time the first bag was full he was sitting on the floor with his head in his hands, repeating the same sentences over and over again.

I carried my suitcases into the guest room and locked the door. He stayed on the other side for a long time, speaking through the wood.

I did not answer. When the sky finally began to lighten I was still awake, staring at the ceiling, already thinking of the last conversations I would have at the hospital before I left the city for good.