Chapter 2

Chloe's POV

Before I could walk two blocks, a car pulled up alongside me.

The driver opened the back door, keeping his head low. "Miss Hayes, Mr. Vance sent me to pick you up."

When I got in, Ethan was already sitting in the back seat, dark circles under his eyes from staying up all night.

The words "pick you up" stirred something in my chest.

I thought that at the very least, he still cared enough to come get me.

I waited for him to say, "I'm sorry about last night."

If he had said that, I would have treated the night as nothing more than a bad fall.

His very first words, however, were to blame me. "There were so many people at the charity gala last night, yet you insisted on making a scene. Chloe, did you want me to lose face in front of everyone that badly?"

I looked down at my hands. "I didn't make a scene. Ethan, let's end this."

This was the second time I had brought up breaking up.

The first time was six months ago, after he hadn't returned to our little apartment for three months straight. I mentioned it over the phone, but he just thought I was throwing a tantrum, coaxed me with a couple of dismissive words, and hung up.

This time, he reacted the same way.

He turned his head, casting a cold, indifferent glance at me. "What you're wearing, where you live, what you use today—which of it wasn't provided by me? If you feel so wronged, you're free to leave."

"Fine," I said. "I'll leave."

Ethan froze for a second, his expression hardening. "Fine, leave. But that apartment belongs to the Vance family, and the card in your wallet is under the Vance account. If you walk away now, you won't have a single penny. Where could you possibly go?"

"That's my business."

He let out a scoffing laugh through his nose. "Your business? Chloe, without me, you're nothing."

I didn't reply.

Outside the window, the city scenery drifted backward. The city I had lived in for seven years suddenly felt completely foreign.

The car pulled up outside the corporate headquarters.

Brooke Sterling was already waiting on the steps, dressed in an elegant designer dress. Seeing the car stop, she walked down briskly and spoke right through the open window before anyone else could. "Oh, I told you Chloe isn't that kind of person! Last night was definitely a misunderstanding. Let me apologize to you on Ethan's behalf."

I lifted my head and looked at her.

Right in front of Brooke, I enunciated every single word clearly: "No need to apologize. I came here today just to make things clear to him. I'm leaving."

People walking up and down the steps stopped in their tracks to stare.

Ethan's face darkened inch by inch.

What he couldn't stand the most was being rejected by me in front of others—a lesson I had learned well over the past seven years.

He didn't touch my things or slam anything around.

Instead, he stepped out, rested his hand against the car door, and in front of Brooke and the crowd on the steps, began calculating everything item by item.

He listed every piece of clothing on my back bought by the Vance family, every month's rent paid for that small apartment, every medical bill covered when I was sick, and every time I had hidden in a corner crying only for him to pull me back out.

He twisted every painful sacrifice I had swallowed over seven years into an enormous charity bestowed upon me by the Vances.

I recognized every single item on that list.

When that money was spent, he never mentioned a single word about what I had shielded him from or what I had endured at his side.

Toward the end, he paused. "Over these seven years, the Vance family has spent a total of two million, one hundred and seventy thousand dollars on you. Chloe, can you ever afford to pay that back in this lifetime?"

The steps fell dead silent.

The people passing by looked at me with eyes full of contempt and disgust.

I stood in the wind and listened to it all.

I didn't talk back.

I used to think that the reason he refused to go public with me was because he hadn't consolidated his power in the family yet, and that all his excuses were sacrifices made for my sake.

Today, I finally understood: those struggles in his mouth turned into my unforgivable sins in the ears of everyone else.

The seven-year devotion I had guarded was reduced to a two-million-dollar bill, read aloud for all to hear.

Someone on the steps muttered under their breath, "Over two million dollars... A woman like that, what else would she be after?"

I listened, my fingernails digging into my palms.

I didn't look back.

Having finished his tally, Ethan wrapped his arm around Brooke beside him and walked into the corporate building without looking back once.

The wind swirled up from the base of the steps, pressing my thin dress against my skin.

I stood there for a very long time, until the crowd on the steps finally dispersed.

Slowly, I crouched down, burying my face in my knees.

The concrete steps were scorching hot from the sun, the heat seeping through my dress, yet my entire body felt freezing cold.

Every burden I had shouldered for him over the years had turned into a debt I owed on these very steps.

I had no intention of carrying this debt any longer.

This time, I was truly leaving.

I stood up from the steps and dusted off my dress.

People behind me pointed and whispered: "Look, that's her."

"Crazy woman, she had it coming."

I walked forward.

I repeated that number in my head once more.

Two million, one hundred and seventy thousand dollars.

I unclenched the fists I had kept balled up the entire way, leaving four crescent-shaped marks indented in my palm.