Chapter 2

The soft look on his face froze over.

He grabbed my left hand. Ripped the ring off my finger. Looked down at me like I was a dog that had bitten him.

"Mia. You spent twenty-two years in a life that was supposed to be hers. You can't throw her a bone?"

"You know what she went through growing up. One engagement party. One. Can you not let her have this?"

I looked at him, and I almost laughed.

What she went through.

Freshman year of college. Sebastian showed up one day with this girl. Said she was on a scholarship, working three jobs to stay in school. He felt bad for her. He got the Blackwood Foundation to sponsor her tuition.

Then he started slipping her five grand a month. "Spending money," he called it.

Then an apartment in Tribeca. She was an orphan, he said. She needed a safe place to land.

Then he put his family's PI on it. Found her "biological parents." The Hartleys. My parents.

And he called that what she went through.

Sophomore year, I picked up her Birkin at brunch. Thirty grand bag. Louboutins. Cartier. The whole look.

I remember saying it carefully. "Seb. Scholarship kids don't walk around in six figures of leather."

He got irritated with me.

"That stuff's from me, Mia. Can you not do this? You've had everything your whole life. She's had nothing. Just let her have this."

After that, every single thing I'd ever worked for turned into something Lily could ask for and get.

My Yale Law recommendation. The one I'd spent three years earning. She teared up and said "Seb, I want to go to Yale too," and that spot was hers before I finished my coffee.

My birthday gift from him, the one I'd been hinting about for months. Gone.

Every single time, all she had to do was blink wet eyes and whisper "Seb, I want that too," and he'd rip it out of my hands and put it in hers. Smiling the whole time.

He mistook my face for softness.

"That's my girl. Smile. We can forget this whole thing happened."

He grabbed Lily's hand and walked out.

A whole wedding party's worth of people trailed after him. Left me alone on the podium with broken glass and scattered photographs.

I sat down on the edge of the dais and pressed a hand to my stomach. I was going to throw up.

That's when my mother finally showed up. Late, as always. She took in the wreckage and ran to me, panicked.

"Where's Lily? Isn't she here?"

My face felt like paper.

"Sebastian left. He took her with him."

Her heel hit the floor hard. "Mia, what the hell is wrong with you? Your own engagement party, and you let it turn into this?"

"How are you ever going to get a man like Sebastian to marry you if you can't even hold a dinner together?"

"I'm not marrying him. We're done."

Her face locked up.

She knew. She knew Lily had been behind every single one of the fifteen cancellations. She knew that at some point along the way, my engagement had turned into a game Sebastian and Lily played, and the whole world was watching them play it.

She sighed. Reached out and smoothed my hair. Then she opened her mouth and ruined me.

"Mia. Your sister just came home to us. She was skin and bones when they found her. You can see what she's been through just by looking at her."

"Don't do this to her. Go home, apologize to Lily, don't call off the engagement. She'll blame herself. Can you do that for me?"

I tipped my head back. Stared at the ceiling. Would not let the tears fall.

She watched me not cry. Then she patted my shoulder and stood up.

"Come home and apologize. I promised Lily I'd take her shopping."

She left.

I pulled the ring off and let it hit the floor.

Ten years. Falling with it.

I went back to the penthouse. Started packing.

My eyes caught on the framed photo by the bed. Our engagement portrait. The glass had cracked straight down the middle months ago when a housekeeper knocked it off the dresser.

I'd begged Sebastian to replace the frame. He wouldn't.

"It's just a frame, baby. Lily said it doesn't matter."

Lily said.

I called the movers. By midnight, every trace of me was in a truck headed for storage.

I was dragging the last suitcase to the door when it swung open.

Sebastian. Drunk. Cigarette dangling from his lips.

The second he saw me, he dropped the suitcase and wrapped himself around me.

"Baby. God, I missed you. I love you so much."

My throat closed up. I'd never been able to stand cigarette smoke. In ten years, he had never once lit one inside. He'd always sit on the back steps and chain-smoke until I came and let him in, pathetic and apologetic.

I looked at the face I'd loved for a decade and forced the words out.

"Sebastian. Who am I?"

He blinked. Grinned. Blew smoke in my face.

"My jealous little brat. You still not over tonight?"

My eyes burned. Brat had been his thing in high school. Nobody else got to call me that.

I shoved at his chest, and he caught my wrists, laughing.

"Stop, Lil."

Everything went still.

Static in my ears.

"What did you just call me?"

"Lil. Lily, baby—"

His lips grazed my cheek, warm, and I'd never been so cold in my life.

I shoved him with everything I had.

Smack.

His face snapped sideways. The haze cleared out of his eyes a little.

He wiped his mouth. Dropped the cigarette on the hardwood and ground it out with his shoe.

"Mia. Are you out of your fucking mind?"

"Get out."

I pointed at the door and I screamed it.

"Get. Out."

His mouth opened. His phone buzzed before he could speak. He glanced at it.

"Lily says she's scared of the dark. I need to go sit with her. We'll talk about this tomorrow."

The door shut behind him.

I slid down the wall and sobbed into my knees.

Don't bother coming back.

Sebastian, I don't want you sitting with me anymore either.