Chapter 2

I stopped by the office to print the paperwork I needed to prepare.

By the time I got home, it was the middle of the night.

I'd barely reached the door when I heard blaring music and raucous laughter coming from inside.

The moment I pushed the door open, I froze.

Ethan's friends were throwing a party in my apartment.

Champagne and beer were spilled all over the floor. Pizza boxes, bottles, cigarette ash, and packaging were scattered everywhere.

When they saw me come in, not a single person in the room looked the least bit sorry.

Mia stumbled over, grabbed my arm, and said with a tipsy grin:

"Emma, you really are something. Even while you were with Ryan, you didn't forget to keep a backup plan."

As she spoke, she pulled a charm out of her pocket and dangled it in front of my eyes.

It was the protective charm Ethan had gone up the mountain to pray for, the night before my surgery years ago.

It had been pouring that night.

He'd driven for hours, climbed the mountain in the rain, and rushed back before dawn.

When he walked into the hospital, his clothes were soaked through, his shoes caked with mud, and he looked like an absolute wreck.

But his eyes were blazing bright.

He pressed the charm into my palm like a boy who was childish and devout all at once.

"Emma, God promised me. Your surgery is going to go perfectly."

I'd ruffled his hair and laughed, calling him an idiot.

In the end, I hadn't even been wheeled into the operating room before he collapsed from exhaustion.

After the breakup, I'd thrown away everything connected to Ethan.

This charm was the only thing I'd kept.

Not because I couldn't let go of him.

But because those bright eyes, on that night, had once made me believe that even when you're young, someone can love you with a fierceness and sincerity that's entirely real.

I snatched the charm out of Mia's hand, my chest heaving.

"Who said you could come into my home?"

Ethan's gaze landed on the charm. The corner of his eye softened with the faintest trace of a smile.

"Didn't think you'd still have it after all this time."

He started to walk toward me, but Mia had already hooked her arm through his.

She turned to the room and announced:

"Friends, you want to know what a top-tier gold digger looks like? This is it. Always keeping a backup ready. Incredible."

Then she looked at Ethan, her voice dripping with exaggeration.

"Ethan, seeing this charm, I bet you're about to cry, aren't you?"

The softness that had started to creep into Ethan's eyes vanished in an instant, replaced by cold.

The others, as if suddenly catching on, started whistling and egging things on.

"Classic Emma. If Ryan dumps her, she can just turn around and go to Ethan with this little trinket."

"Then Ethan sees it. Some worthless little thing from when he was young, and the girl he liked has treasured it all these years. He'd be a goner."

"Then they get married, and the small-town girl becomes a trophy wife overnight. Brilliant."

One comment after another, and in no time they'd spun an entire story out of thin air.

I walked to the window, tore the charm to pieces, and flung them out into the night.

The instant the fragments were swept away by the wind, the look on Ethan's face turned absolutely grim.

"Emma, what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

I clenched my fists, and spoke slowly, word by word.

"It means get out. Get out of my home."

Ethan looked like he wanted to say something.

But Mia beat him to it.

"Ethan, this is called playing hard to get. I bet you anything, if you propose right now, she'll say yes on the spot."

She smiled lightly.

"On one condition, of course. You have to share everything the Shaw family owns with her."

Ethan's face darkened.

"Emma, don't push it. Whatever you want, I can give it to you. But I hate it when people play games with me."

Ryan, who'd been riding the wave of mockery the whole time, chimed in too.

"Emma, Ethan's already said all that. Maybe it's time to drop the act."

I took a deep breath, about to call the police.

Then several officers appeared at the door.

One of them rapped on the doorframe, his tone stern.

"We've received multiple noise complaints about disturbances late at night. We're going to need everyone's cooperation for an investigation."