Chapter 2

When I was sixteen, I was kidnapped by a rival gang.

I managed to escape one night, only to find myself stranded in a rough neighborhood.

Trash and cigarette butts littered the ground, and rats squeaked in the sewers.

Under the dim, flickering streetlights, a drunk blocked my path.

A boy pulled me behind him, shielding me.

It was Sebastian Vance, eighteen years old.

He wore a faded black T-shirt, his arms lean and strong.

When he took the blow of a glass bottle for me, he didn't even utter a grunt.

At the time, I didn't know it was a setup.

I just thought it was a classic damsel-in-distress scenario, and I was falling for my hero.

So, I told my dad when he arrived.

"Didn't you want to find me a bodyguard? I want him."

Bodyguard was just a cover.

Sebastian back then was dirt poor, with nothing but his strength.

I needed an excuse to keep him by my side.

Dad admired him too, saying the young man had a spark in his eyes and would achieve great things someday.

He truly did make something of himself.

After just two years, he was accepted into the same university as me.

The day he received his acceptance letter, his eyes welled up.

"Stella, I owe you and your dad my life."

"If I can, I want to stay by your side forever."

Sebastian would wake up at six every morning, take an hour-long bus ride, and stand in a long line.

All just so I could have a hot breakfast bun before my 8 AM class.

He would spend his entire paycheck just to buy a pretty brooch I'd casually complimented.

Yet, his own sweater, pilled and faded, he wore for three years.

His bag always contained painkillers, band-aids, an umbrella, and sanitary pads, all for my careless self.

He was so good to me, so good that even Dad couldn't find fault.

The year we graduated, he proposed joining the Harrison Corporation.

Dad hesitated, saying he didn't need to repay us.

But Sebastian knelt down.

"I know I'm not worthy, but I love Stella.

"I want the right to stay by her side."

I didn't know then that Dad was already being coerced and falling into a deep abyss.

I only remember he talked with Sebastian in the study for a long time.

When they came out, Dad placed my hand in Sebastian's.

"Sebastian, promise me you'll always keep my girl happy, pure, and honorable."

At 25, I had my master's degree.

Sebastian, through sheer force of competence, had risen to become a core executive at the corporation.

But the higher he climbed, the more distant he became.

He watched me with an unnerving intensity.

Then, out of nowhere, he said,"Sometimes, ,wish I could just walk away from all of this... for you."

But when I asked him what he meant, he said nothing.

Leo cut in. "Did he realize he really loved you, so he wanted to give up his undercover identity?"

I shook my head.

"I don't know, and it doesn't matter."

Whatever momentary conflict he might have felt, it didn't change his relentless pursuit of justice.

When I was 26, Sebastian proposed.

We got the marriage license first and began planning the ceremony.

The wedding day was lavish. I was in a gown of pure white.

And I watched, with my own eyes, as Sebastian flashed his badge and put the cuffs on my father.

Leo leaned forward, aghast. "On your wedding day? That's brutal! Tell me you rushed over and punched him?"

I shook my head again.

"I didn't get the chance. He walked away with my bridesmaid."

"Bridesmaid? Who?"

"His current wife."