Chapter 2

Five years ago, I had just started college.

As Jake put it when he was pursuing me, I was "so innocent it almost hurt."

He genuinely loved me back then.

And he spoiled me rotten.

He cherished me as if I might melt in his mouth.

I was even his longest relationship.

We got engaged before I even graduated from college.

Too bad.

Now, my personality and style were completely different from before, and my reputation was in tatters.

Everyone in Newport City knew it.

They knew how many shameful things I'd done to hold onto my incredibly wealthy boyfriend.

Back then, he'd told me he was tired of my purity and innocence.

To please him, I forced myself to change, to fit into his sordid circle.

I indulged his twisted desires.

He wanted sophistication and sex appeal, loved passion and daring.

I endured the humiliation and satisfied every whim.

But my efforts to please him ultimately earned me only his scornful remarks.

"Lana Reed, you’re so cheap."

"Even a streetwalker isn't as uninhibited in bed as you."

"Look at you now. Is there even an ounce of refinement or grace left?"

He broke up with me.

My father, Mr. Reed, then used my young siblings, Chloe and Caleb, to threaten me.

To get him back, I’d cut my wrists, taken pills—I’d done it all.

And now, he was telling the completely changed me that he loved Amber.

He loved that she was so much like the me from five years ago.

I wanted to laugh, but I couldn't.

"I really do love her. I want to give her a proper commitment."

"She's not like you; she's incredibly shy and innocent. I have to be responsible."

I wanted to say something, but my lips felt glued together.

Not a sound escaped.

After a long moment, I forced out a weak smile. "Okay, I understand."

"I can put in a good word for you with your family, the Reeds."

"No, thank you. I'll figure it out myself."

"Suit yourself."

He swayed as he stood, pulling something from his pocket.

It clattered onto the coffee table.

My eyelid twitched violently.

It was the ring we’d exchanged during our engagement, a relic from my birth mother.

What Jake had given me was an heirloom from his mother: a pair of emerald bracelets.

The very ones on my wrist now.

"Take off the bracelets."

"Our engagement is off."

I looked up at him. His usually charming 'peach blossom' eyes were now as cold as frost.

So, when he said he wanted to get married, he hadn't meant to me.

Five years of companionship meant less than a few days of thrilling novelty with someone new.

I thought I’d break down, feel devastated.

But I didn’t shed a single tear.

I just calmly removed the emerald bracelets and returned them to him.

Jake raised an eyebrow, a flicker of surprise in his eyes.

But he took them, then turned and walked away without a backward glance.