Chapter 1

On the day he promised to meet my parents, Chase kept his phone turned off for nine straight hours.

When I finally got through on my thirty-third call, his childhood crush answered:

"Chase didn't mean to ignore your calls, Chloe. I had too much to drink and accidentally dropped his phone. Did you have something really important going on? You called more than thirty times..."

I looked at the table full of food my mom had spent all afternoon preparing. My voice was dead cold.

"Tell him this: if he really doesn't want to meet my parents, we are done."

The girl sounded terrified, bursting into tears and sobbing that she would never bother us again.

Then Chase snatched the phone away.

"It's not like your parents are on their deathbeds! What's the big deal if we see them a little late?"

I hung up. Then, I dialed a number I hadn't touched in years.

"You once begged me to marry you. Does that offer still stand?"

"Young people are always busy with work. I get it. Eat up, please, don't be shy."

Seeing Julian, the tight frown on my mom's face finally melted into a smile.

Laddling a bowl of soup for him, she chuckled. "Back then, you claimed you were a hospital orderly. I knew you looked too sharp for that. Looking back, it had to be Chloe's idea."

My mom had no idea I had changed boyfriends. Her memory was stuck on my college days.

Back then, Mom had been critically ill, but she forbade me from skipping classes to stay at the hospital. So, Julian had pretended to be an orderly just to take care of her for me.

I carefully picked at my food. Seeing that rare, genuine smile on my mom's face made my throat tighten with an ache.

Ever since she was diagnosed with cancer, she had developed severe anxiety.

She constantly feared a relapse, and the thought of leaving me all alone in the world kept her awake at night.

I knew this, which was why, after I started dating Chase, I had repeatedly tried to bring him home to meet her.

He never believed me. Right after I hung up on him earlier, he had blasted me with furious voice memos:

"Guilty, aren't you? I knew it! You always use your parents' health to guilt-trip me."

"Do you have any idea how hurt Rachel is right now?"

"She thinks she's a homewrecker! She's threatening to quit her job and move out of the city! Why would you say that to her? Do you know how degrading that word is to a girl?"

He ranted on and on. Over twenty voice notes, demanding I apologize to her.

What did I do wrong?

She knew he had a girlfriend, yet she constantly threw herself into his life. What else was she if not a homewrecker?

"Try the soup. Chloe told me it's your favorite. I even asked the restaurant for their recipe. Does it taste right?"

Mom and Julian were laughing and talking, and I suddenly felt sick at the thought of wasting another second on Chase's texts.

I set my phone down. Just as I reached for the ladle, Julian placed a fresh bowl of soup right in front of me.

"Fish soup is good for you. Have you been staying up late again?"

In his eyes, I had always come first.

He was the one who had stayed up for two weeks straight in the hospital for my mom. He was the one who absorbed all my breakdowns and held me together.

It was precisely because Julian was so good, so endlessly gentle, that when he broke up with me back then, I blamed myself for everything.

In my next relationship, I had become completely submissive, doing everything I could to please Chase.

When Chase didn't want to work, I coaxed him. When he refused to meet my parents, I accommodated him.

Even when he stood me up over and over again because of Rachel, I always wondered what I had done wrong—wondered why he was so reluctant to take that final step with me.

Rachel wasn't short on friends.

She didn't need him to carry her to the ER for a twisted ankle. She didn't need him specifically to search the streets for her lost dog.

He could have easily asked someone else to help her. Yet every single time, he bailed on me at the last minute, leaving my parents staring blankly at a cold dinner table.

"My mom's anxiety is getting worse."

After dinner, I insisted that my parents stay inside, finally finding a moment alone with Julian to apologize.

"I couldn't bear to let them down a seventh time. That's why I called you out of nowhere."

"Name your price. I want to hire you as my boyfriend for a while."

He was the one who had initiated our breakup years ago.

Dragging him to meet my parents under these circumstances had to make him uncomfortable.

Julian looked down at my hands, which were clenched tightly in nervous anticipation. He let out a soft chuckle.

"There's a jewelry boutique nearby that carries that ring you've always loved. Let's go look at it tomorrow."

That night, I didn't go back to the apartment I shared with Chase.

The next day, after running some errands, I found myself walking past the boutique Julian and I had agreed to visit. Without thinking, I stepped inside.

"Chloe? Are you here to pick out a ring too?"

I had barely taken two steps when Rachel's gloating voice echoed across the showroom.

She was standing by the glass display counter, her arms draped with designer shopping bags. Chase was carefully sliding a ring onto her finger.

"Rachel came with me to buy a new phone today, and this jewelry shop was right next door. I figured I'd get her a little gift."

Chase noticed me. His voice dropped to a cold, flat rumble.

"I assume you saw my Ins story and tracked me down here because you finally realized your mistake and came to apologize to Rachel?"

That ring was not cheap. I had mentioned it to Chase multiple times, telling him it was the exact ring I wanted for our wedding.

I thought he had actually listened.

Now I realized, just like my hints about my mom's health, he had never cared enough to remember.

"Why don't you get down on one knee right now?" I said, letting the sheer mockery drip from every word. "Propose to her, then pick a good day to go meet her parents."

Chase's face shifted, his mask of indifference cracking.

"Are you seriously throwing a tantrum right now? Just because I bought Rachel a ring?"