Chapter 2

I stared at her in disbelief.

What did Rachel mean by that?

It was one thing to have seen my photo.

Why go out of her way to emphasize that Julian threw the album in the trash?

Beside me, Amber shot to her feet in fury.

Her face was bright red, glaring daggers at Rachel.

I gently tugged Amber’s hand.

Catching my warning, Amber stuttered, "I-I'm Amber!"

She flopped back into her chair, fuming.

Amber understood what I meant: don't make a scene. At least, not in front of him.

I owed him this. I knew he had brought his wife tonight just to humiliate me, and I had to take it.

It was a debt five years overdue.

...

The rest of the dinner tasted like ash.

I didn't even register what everyone was gossiping about.

Though the conversation always seemed to revolve around one person—Julian Hayes.

When we finally walked out, I clutched my stomach. A burning pain tore through my gut.

Amber said goodbye to a few decent classmates, and the moment she saw me leaning weakly against the wall, she rushed over.

Her voice was laced with worry and mild scolding. "Nora, why were you shoving food down like that? Did your gastritis flare up again? Come on, let me take you to the ER."

Beads of cold sweat formed on my forehead. All I could do was press hard against the throbbing ache.

I forced a faint smile. "I'm fine. Just ate too fast. Just sit with me for a minute, okay?"

Amber supported me by the arm. "Okay, let's go sit on the bench over there."

I leaned heavily on Amber, eyes squeezed shut, grimacing through the pain.

Suddenly...

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Amber barked.

I opened my eyes and found Julian standing right in front of me.

He was dressed in an impeccably tailored suit, a seven-figure luxury watch gleaming on his wrist.

He looked down at me, his expression cold as ice.

"Nora, how did you manage to reduce yourself to such a pathetic mess again?"

I knew I must look pale, haggard, and utterly wretched right now.

Still, whatever mess I was in, what did it have to do with him?

Nothing. We had been nothing for five whole years!

Even so, my voice carried a lingering shred of our past warmth. "None of your business."

Julian's voice was frigid. "I couldn't care less. Rachel was just worried you’d drop dead right here and told me to check on you.

"After all, we were classmates once."

A bitter, metallic taste rose in the back of my throat.

Ha. So his wife sent him over out of charity?

"Your wife is remarkably generous," I said, looking down. "Knowing our history in college, she still sends you over to check on me?"

I lowered my gaze, whispering, "Thank her for me. I'm fine. I won't drop dead just yet."

Julian stared coldly at my face and uttered six words that shattered me:

"She's not my girlfriend.

"She's my wife."

A high-pitched ringing pierced my ears, fading in and out, feeling both distant and deafeningly close.

I bent over, racked by a violent fit of coughing.

My heart felt like it was being brutally squeezed in a vice.

When I pulled my hand away from my mouth, faint traces of blood stained my palm.

"Nora!"

"Nora..."

I had no memory of what happened after that.

All I remembered was collapsing into a broad, warm embrace before darkness completely swallowed my consciousness.

When I opened my eyes again, the first thing I heard was Amber cursing someone out.

I caught Julian's name in her tirade.

A nurse's stern voice told her to keep quiet, and Amber’s shouting abruptly cut off.

I couldn't believe it. Julian Hayes had literally stressed me into the hospital.

Yet he hadn't hurled insults at me.

He had only stated the cold, hard facts.

Tears soaked my pillow. Staring up at the sterile white ceiling with blurred vision, memories of our college days flooded back.

Back then, Julian would wait outside my dorm building every morning like clockwork.

Wearing a crisp white button-down,

radiating warmth like the sun, he’d grin and say, "Little Nora! Let's grab breakfast bagels from the corner deli today."

That sweet, simple warmth shattered during our junior year when my mother was diagnosed with a vascular hemangioma.

That was when my temper began to fray.

I stopped greeting him with a smile each morning. I stopped caring what breakfast he brought me.

I began making up every excuse in the book to cancel our dates.

I ran around borrowing money from anyone I could.

I worked multiple part-time jobs around the clock.

I even started skipping classes, constantly thinking about dropping out.

Until the day his mother, dressed in a sharp designer suit, sat down at the diner where I was waitressing.

That was the day I sank completely into the abyss.