Chapter 3

The middle-aged driver up front let out a sigh, half mocking, half sympathetic. "Nine out of ten men cheat. A man and a woman, traveling all that way together, and they call themselves rivals? Rich folks sure know how to have fun.

"What do you think, miss?"

I sat in the back, chilled to the bone, my mind a blank.

I drifted home in a haze.

Pushing the door open, I saw Henry in the room, packing his suitcase.

He paused for a moment, stunned, when he saw me.

Coming back to his senses, he hurriedly hid a photo beneath the clothes in his suitcase.

But I'd already caught a clear glimpse of it.

Under a sky lit up by brilliant auroras, a man and a woman stood side by side, laughing freely and brightly.

"Where have you been these past few days?" I asked, my voice rough and quiet.

Henry stood up, looking calm, and said, "I was on a business trip to Switzerland."

I stared at him, my gaze unwavering, and asked, "Were you alone?"

"Yeah, of course."

He was lying.

While my mother was lying in a pool of blood, and I was on the operating table, he was out there under the auroras, laughing with another woman.

*****

I pulled up the trending topics on my phone and thrust the screen in his face.

His face drained of color, then his brows furrowed with a hint of irritation. "Emily, you don't trust me?"

I pushed him aside coldly and threw the photo he'd tried to hide down onto the floor. "Henry, is this what you call a solo business trip? So tell me, is she your rival or your mistress?"

Henry rubbed his temples, his face full of irritation, and said, "Emily, what are you even thinking?"

He said with annoyance, "We're competing for the same project. The client's boss wanted to see the auroras in the Arctic, and she happened to tag along.

"The boss took the photo, gave me a print, so I brought it home. That's all."

Henry said it with absolute certainty, his tone firm. "You know there's no way anything could happen between us."

It wasn't because he was loyal to me, it was because there was real bad blood between him and Vivian.

Mr. Carter Sr. used to be a top executive at Lane Enterprises, but when Henry was ten, he got fired out of the blue and then ended up jumping to his death.

Mrs. Carter found out from her husband's diary that Richard Lane, Chairman Lane and Vivian's father, was the one who drove him to his death.

Mrs. Carter, overwhelmed by grief and fury, showed up at Lane Group demanding answers, clutching her husband's diary.

But during a tussle with the security guards, she slipped on the stairs, fell from the third floor, and died.

Both of Henry's parents died because of Lane Group, one after another, and he swore he'd get revenge for them.

That was why he and Vivian were always at each other's throats.

Everyone in the business world knew they were sworn enemies, like oil and water.

But somewhere along the way, that hostility started to shift.

I forced down the storm of emotions inside me and asked, my voice hoarse, "Then why didn't you answer my calls these past few days?"

Henry sighed, sounding genuinely frustrated, and said, "I lost my phone as soon as I got off the plane. Being overseas, I had to get a new SIM card."

He handed me his new phone, holding it out for me to check. "Go ahead, see for yourself."

But before I could take it, the phone started ringing and Vivian's name popped up on the screen.

I could hear her crying, helpless and fragile, as she said, "Henry. I got into a car accident. I'm on Hillcrest Avenue."