Chase Sterling and I were purely platonic friends for twenty-six years. We were inseparable, but he was a relentless player who couldn't stand being alone. So, whenever he got a new girlfriend, I would proactively distance myself and cut contact. On my twenty-seventh birthday, Chase—likely annoyed by his family constantly pressuring him to settle down—showed up at my front door bright and early. "Quinn, why don't we just make do with each other?" I was just about to curse him out when he added, "I'm serious." For the first time ever, Chase crossed the boundary and held his hand out to me. I looked at him and thought about it for a few seconds. "Chase, if we cross this line and become a couple, we can never be friends again if we break up." He gave me his signature, cocky grin. "We’re not going to break up. I couldn't bear to lose you." And so, I took his hand. That "making do" lasted for three years. At our engagement party, Chase and his frat brother, Tyler, sneaked out to the balcony for a smoke. "Chase, I know you originally asked Quinn to be your cover because you were terrified your grandfather would go after Lily. But looking at her today... I think Quinn is actually genuinely in love with you." "You didn't... forget to tell her this was all just for show, did you?" The hazy cigarette smoke obscured Chase’s face. His voice was cold and indifferent. "I was in a rush that day. I forgot." My footsteps came to a dead halt right around the corner. In my hand, I was holding the cold medicine I had just bought for him. Tyler sounded horrified. His voice spiked as he called him a bastard, then leaned in closer to ask: "So what the hell is the situation with you and Quinn now? Are you actually marrying her or not?" "Because just yesterday, right before your engagement, I saw Lily post on her private story. You were at her apartment in the middle of the night, wearing nothing but a bathrobe, cooking her late-night snacks." Chase let out a low chuckle. "Lily is my real girlfriend, obviously." "As for Quinn? She's just a strategic business merger. What's the difference between a real marriage and a fake one?" "I knew she liked me a long time ago. Giving her a picture-perfect marriage and the title of my wife... I'd say I'm treating her pretty damn well." The glass of water in my hand grew so hot it burned my palm. I lowered my head, feeling incredibly pathetic. I realized the cold medicine tablets I was holding had already started melting into my sweaty skin. But what burned hotter was my face. It was the absolute, crushing humiliation of having my secret, years-long crush exposed, only to be mocked and trampled on. "You know what? Quinn is actually pretty clueless. I've been around the block enough times to know that nobody's breathing hitches and refuses to make eye contact when they hold hands with a purely 'business' partner." "She always acts so cool and indifferent, but she's actually incredibly patient. She lets me get away with everything." Chase coughed softly, a hint of smug bragging in his voice. "Two days before the engagement, I lied and told her I had an emergency business trip. She didn't suspect a thing. She even packed my suitcase for me." "Last night, Lily and I got a little crazy by the window. When I got home at 3 AM, my head was pounding, but all my meds were expired. Quinn literally threw a winter coat over her pajamas and ran out into the freezing cold to buy me medicine. Then she brewed me ginger tea and coaxed me to sleep." "She woke up every half hour to feel my forehead, terrified I was running a fever." "I don't even think she realizes how obsessed with me she is." Tyler sucked in a sharp breath. "Chase, she's treated you like gold for years. I refuse to believe you haven't caught even a tiny bit of feelings for her?" I stood outside the door. I felt like the biggest joke in the world. My eyes burned, and the tears threatened to spill. But I didn't leave. I wanted to hear Chase’s answer. Without a single second of hesitation, Chase replied with dripping sarcasm. "What kind of stupid question is that? Of course I don't." "I've known Quinn for nearly thirty years. If we were going to happen, it would have happened a long time ago. I wouldn't have waited until I was twenty-seven." "My type has always been the sweet, innocent, soft girls. Quinn is a tough, cold badass. She completely misses every single box on my checklist." "Love is something that hits you at first sight. I don't believe in 'growing to love someone over time.' Even if you gave me another thirty years, I would never fall for her." He took a deep drag of his cigarette, sounding completely self-righteous. "But Quinn is my best friend for life, and soon she'll be my family. Even if I don't love her, I'll definitely make sure she's taken care of." "I want her, and I want Lily." My heart felt like it was being squeezed in a vise. But I couldn't stop myself from smiling a bitter, hollow smile. What did Chase see me as? A convenient object he could just pick up and mold to his liking? Pick it up when he needed it, toss it aside when he didn't. Just how pathetic and low did he think I was, to assume that marrying me was some kind of generous charity? Out on the balcony, Tyler sighed and patted Chase's shoulder. "Let's go back inside, man. The party is starting." "So tonight, the plan is to introduce Lily as my cousin, right?" I turned my back and quickly hurried down the stairs. I sprinted into a vacant bathroom and dry-heaved over the sink. The tears fell faster than I could wipe them away, completely ruining my carefully done makeup. The emotions I had harbored for years suddenly felt like a putrid, suffocating swamp, pulling me under and making me physically sick. My phone buzzed constantly with group chat notifications. [It's the engagement party! Where are our main characters?] [Chase and I are walking in now. My cousin is coming tonight too.] [Since when do you have a cousin, Tyler? Where's Quinn? She’s been MIA.] I found an empty guest room. I washed my face clean and reapplied a light, sharp layer of makeup. For years, whenever Chase dated someone new, I proactively cut contact. Tonight, I wanted to see exactly what kind of girl had stolen his heart. As for him and me? I used a cotton swab to meticulously wipe away a stray tear from the corner of my eye, making sure my foundation was flawless. Chase probably thought I was joking when I told him on day one: If we break up, we don't stay friends. But I, Quinn, have never been desperate for friends. And I absolutely refuse to spend another second of my life standing beside someone who doesn't love me. "Baby, what took you so long?" The second I sat down in the VIP room, Chase leaned in, whining and acting cute. "I haven't taken my meds tonight, and my cough is getting worse." He blinked his puppy-dog eyes and nuzzled his face into my shoulder. There wasn't a single trace of the cold, calculating bastard from the balcony. His friends around us started hooting and hollering. "Get a room! Leave the PDA at the door!" "You two are sickeningly sweet! If you weren't so perfect for each other, I would have kicked you out of the group chat years ago!" "This is what you call a fairy-tale ending! Childhood sweethearts to soulmates! Chase played around for his whole life, but now he's utterly whipped by our girl Quinn. It actually makes me believe in love." The sticky, gross residue from the melting medicine tablets was still on my palm. I suppressed my nausea and offered a faint, detached smile. I leaned forward smoothly to grab a sparkling water from the table, expertly dodging Chase's touch. "Where's Tyler?" Chase had been about to lean in again, but hearing me ask about Tyler made him freeze. "He went to pick up his little sister! Oh, speak of the devil." Tyler walked in, followed by a slender, fragile-looking girl in a white sundress. They sat down a few feet away. "You lucky bastard, Tyler. Your sister is gorgeous. You gonna introduce her to the single guys here?" one of the guys joked. Tyler shot an awkward, nervous glance at Chase and replied, "This is my sister, Lily." "She's a little shy and not used to this kind of scene, so go easy on her." Amidst the roaring laughter, I looked at Lily. Her large, doe-like eyes were already locked tearfully onto Chase. The man who had just been trying to nuzzle into my shoulder quietly put some distance between us, leaning back against the armrest. That dull, throbbing pain flared up in my chest again. No matter how hard I tried to suppress it, the grief and fury were overwhelming. Lily hadn't learned how to hide her feelings. Or maybe, because she was the one who was truly loved, she felt entitled to be bold. Her gaze lingered on Chase with reckless, unapologetic longing. My best friend, Zoe, instantly noticed I was unhappy. She didn't hesitate. She smiled sharply and said, "Little girl, you shouldn't be staring at that one. He's getting married." Lily's face instantly flushed crimson. She quickly averted her eyes, forcing an embarrassed, fragile smile. "I'm sorry. I already have a boyfriend." Chase still had a smile on his face, but his tone carried a sharp, defensive edge. "Zoe, you like to mess around, but not every sweet, innocent girl is like you." Zoe’s temper flared instantly. She stood up, ready to smack him. I grabbed her arm, holding her back, and smiled directly at Chase. "You talk like you're some saint. At least Zoe has never two-timed anyone." Chase froze. He instinctively avoided my gaze. He forced a nervous chuckle to cover his panic. "I haven't either, baby. Why are you suddenly getting mad at me?" Seeing my visibly icy expression, Chase grabbed a shot of liquor and downed it. "My bad, I phrased that wrong. I apologize to Zoe. Let's drop it." As everyone started laughing and changing the subject, I watched Lily look at Chase with profound, aching heartbreak. It was as if I was some tyrannical villain, ruthlessly torturing the two star-crossed lovers. "Alright, alright, let's play a game! Camera Roll Roulette, how about it?" Tyler jumped in to smooth things over. "If you have anything sketchy on your phone, hide it now! Don't traumatize us." "I'll pick the first date: May 17, 2023!" Everyone pulled out their phones. The rule was simple: if the bottle landed on you, you had to cast your camera roll from that exact date to the big screen for everyone to see. The bottle spun and landed pointing directly at me. I cast my phone screen to the TV. Ocean waves. A sandy beach. A candlelight dinner. And a screenshot of an UberEats delivery confirmation. "That was the year you guys went to the beach for your birthday, right?!" Zoe playfully shoved my shoulder, lowering her voice. "I even asked you if after twenty-eight years of being a saint, tasting a man for the first time was mind-blowing!" I smiled at Zoe. Those memories used to be so beautiful, but looking at them now, they only tasted like ash. One of the guys had sharp eyes and pointed at the screen. "Wait, you guys ordered delivery at 2:00 AM?" "What kind of delivery, Chase?! Was it that kind of delivery?!" The whole room erupted into wolf-whistles and laughter. But Chase, who usually loved dirty jokes, wasn't smiling. He was staring at Lily, whose face had gone completely pale. "No, it was just some cold medicine. Don't be gross." A sudden, vicious wave of malice surged from my chest. "We ordered that medicine because you hurt me, didn't we?" I smiled sweetly, willing to rip my own scars open just to make them sick to their stomachs. "You were entirely too rough. I have no idea why you were so frantic. That dress was incredibly expensive, and I only got to wear it once." "Chase, you acted like you had never slept with a woman before. Your technique was terrible." "Is it because the innocent little girls you usually like never let you touch them?" Amidst the roaring, scandalous cheers of the crowd... I watched Lily lower her head and wipe away tears. I watched Chase's face twist in displeased, suffocating panic. Even though I had gotten the twisted satisfaction of laughing out loud... Why did my chest feel so painfully tight? Why did my nose sting? "Next!" Tyler wiped the sweat from his forehead and spun the bottle again. It pointed straight at Lily. She forced a fragile, trembling smile. "There's nothing interesting on my camera roll." Zoe looked at me, then at Lily, her sharp intuition immediately picking up on the vibe. She frowned. "Little girl, if you can't handle the game, don't sit at the table." Chase frowned deeply. Before he could open his mouth to defend her, I grabbed his hand. I leaned in close to his visibly angry face. From the side angle, it probably looked like we were kissing. "Puppy, I'm a little hungry. Can you go order me some food?" Chase paused for a few seconds, but eventually stood up and walked over to the server by the door to grab an iPad. "I can handle it." I knew Lily had watched our intimate interaction. Her voice was laced with grinding teeth. She glared at me, her eyes brimming with tears. It was the first time she had looked me dead in the eye all night, and her gaze was filled with reckless, undisguised hatred. Her phone screen was cast to the big screen. The very first image was a text message screenshot. One of the nosy guys in the group read it out loud. "'Did you sleep with her? You swore to me it was just a strategic business merger! You promised you wouldn't touch her!'" "'But I was only thinking of you the entire time, my Lily.'" "'I want fries, Quinn!'" The guy's voice reading my food order perfectly overlapped with the last two words of that text message screenshot. The entire VIP room plunged into a suffocating, dead silence. I finished ordering and handed the iPad back to the server. I placed my violently trembling hands under the table and smiled. "What a coincidence." "But listening to that... it sounds an awful lot like Ms. Lily is a homewrecker, doesn't it?" "QUINN!" Chase snapped, shouting my name. Meeting my perfectly calm, dead eyes, he forced an ugly, strained smile. "Quinn. Don't speak to a young girl like that." Before I could even reply, Lily suddenly raised her voice. "I am NOT a homewrecker." She stared directly at Chase, her face full of stubborn defiance. "My boyfriend and I are each other's first loves. We were each other's first everything. The only reason we're separated is because his family is too stubborn and refused to let us be together!" "His relationship with his fiancée is just an open, arranged business merger. She had a desperate, pathetic crush on him, and his parents forced them together!" The young girl recklessly unleashed her pent-up emotions, swiping through the photos on her screen. "The day before May 17th, we celebrated his birthday together." "His flight was at 11:00 PM, but he stayed with me until 9:00 PM before he finally rushed to the airport. He almost missed his flight." "Before he left, he bought me flowers. We ate cake together, and we made love for hours." "This is the birthday present he gave me. I just glanced at it on his phone, and he bought it for me instantly." It was a photo of a breathtaking, dazzling sapphire ring. "He told me that in this lifetime, I am the only woman he will ever buy a ring for." I was stunned. I had been at that exact auction. I had wanted that sapphire ring too, but some anonymous buyer had outbid everyone in the room with a blank check. Chase had coaxed me afterward. He promised he would buy me an even more beautiful one. But we were literally engaged now. I rubbed my bare, empty fingers. It suddenly hit me. Chase had never, ever bought me a ring. Lily swiped back to the screenshots from the 17th. As the images flew by, the truth hit me like a freight train. Even though he was physically next to me on that beach, Chase had been texting and coaxing her from morning until night. The beautiful scenery we saw? She got photos of all of it. The gorgeous travel souvenirs I looked at? Chase noted them in his app and had them shipped directly to her. And then, there was a photo of a cake. In the shadowy background of the picture, I could clearly see my own dress and the lower half of my chin. I saw myself, hands clasped together, eyes closed, earnestly wishing that I could stay with the man I loved forever. While he was sitting right next to me, texting Lily: "This cake is amazing. I'll buy you one next time so you can taste it." It was absolutely, sickeningly repulsive. I grabbed Zoe’s leg under the table. From the exact second that cake photo appeared on the screen... She had silently grabbed an empty glass liquor bottle. "Quinn, that's... that's...!" "Don't rush it," I smiled at Zoe. Her eyes were shimmering with furious tears. She muttered a few muffled curses about 'idiots' and 'bitches.' The atmosphere in the VIP room was so tense it was hard to breathe. "Is Ms. Lily finished? Then let's move to the next round." I calmly spun the bottle on the table. "I want to select April 2, 2025." "Who's playing?" For the first time all night, Chase completely lost his composure. He suddenly threw his arm around my shoulders. "Baby, my head is killing me." "I just remembered I'm on antibiotics. I can't be drinking tonight." "Let's go to the hospital, okay?" I methodically peeled his fingers off my shoulder one by one, and smiled. "No." I was the first to cast my phone to the screen. The image was the stark, blinding white walls of a hospital room. It was a photo of the post-op care instructions for a miscarriage. It was the doctor's warnings saved in my notes app. It was a screenshot of texts I sent to my mom. [The doctor said I might never be able to have children again.] [Mom, they still haven't found the driver who caused the crash.] [Let's postpone the courthouse wedding for now.] April 2, 2025, was exactly five days after the accident. On the day Chase and I were driving to the courthouse to officially sign our marriage license. A woman had suddenly sprinted directly into the middle of the road. There was enough distance to brake safely. Chase was an experienced driver; he even knew how to race cars. But he panicked. He panicked so completely that he violently yanked the steering wheel. The entire passenger side of the car—my side—was smashed brutally into the steel guardrail. The baby that had just barely developed a heartbeat was gone. I was critically injured and spent three days in the ICU. When I woke up, I saw Chase kneeling by my hospital bed. He had lost so much weight. He swore to me that he didn't care if we never had kids, but in this lifetime, no matter what happened, he was going to stay by my side. "Let's not look at this, Quinn." Chase gripped my hand desperately, his eyes unable to hide his sheer terror. "I really don't feel well. Let's just leave, please." Lily hesitated, about to disconnect her phone, but Zoe lunged across the table and snatched it out of her hand. With vicious speed, she swiped straight to that exact date. It was a mirror selfie of Lily wearing cheap, novelty lingerie. Followed by a shaky video, the camera pointed at a messy, dirty floor. Amidst the sounds of chaotic, heavy breathing... I heard Lily crying. "You said you hated me! You said you never wanted to see me again for the rest of your life! Why did you come back?!" She was kissed into silence. "I want to fucking kill you!" The man ground his teeth, his voice hoarse as he tried to soothe her. "Lily, that was my baby. Do you know she might never be able to get pregnant again?" "I can give you a baby!" Lily's voice sounded so incredibly wronged and pitiful. "If you really want to make it up to her, just take our baby and give it to her to raise!" A heavy sigh echoed from Chase on the video. "I love you so much... how could I ever bear to let you lose your child?" "Just consider it... a debt she and I owe you." I finished watching the grotesque, humiliating spectacle. I took the last sip of my drink, and set the glass down. It felt as if I was finally setting down thirty years of tangled, miserable history. "Chase, we're done. Let's break up." The exact second the words left my mouth, Zoe smashed Lily's phone against the wall and hurled the heavy glass liquor bottle directly at Chase's head. "CHASE STERLING, FUCK YOU!" Lily threw herself over Chase to protect him. Tyler grabbed Zoe's arms, narrowly avoiding getting his face clawed off by her manicured nails. But Chase just stared at me nervously. His eyes flickered with emotions I couldn't understand, and frankly, had zero desire to decipher. I turned around and took long, purposeful strides out of the VIP room. My driver was already waiting downstairs. We sped all the way back to the apartment Chase and I shared. I pulled out my suitcases and rapidly packed up all my belongings. Even though we had lived together for two years, I was shocked to find that my entire life fit perfectly into just two suitcases. The driver loaded the bags into the trunk and drove me back to my parents' estate. Everything had been such a chaotic blur. It wasn't until I was lying in my childhood bed, staring out at the unfamiliar night skyline, that my heart finally slowed down. And then, the realization hit me. Chase and I were actually broken up. The dull, heavy pain I had been suppressing in my chest completely exploded in the silence of the empty room. I sobbed until my lungs burned. It felt like someone had literally carved a piece of flesh out of my body. Even if you know the flesh is necrotic and rotting, cutting it out still hurts like absolute hell. I don't remember what time I finally cried myself to sleep. When I woke up, my eyes were so swollen they ached. I grabbed my phone. Chase had called me four times. And sent a barrage of texts. [Quinn, can we please just sit down and talk?] [After all these years, even if we can't be together, are we really not going to be friends anymore?] [Quinn, please don't do this.] The timestamp on his most recent message... Was right around the time my driver and I had pulled out of the underground parking garage at his building. So I hadn't imagined it. That really was Chase sprinting desperately toward the elevator banks as my car drove away. I hugged my blanket tight and took two deep breaths. I raised my hand and permanently deleted Chase's contact info. Break up. Two simple words. When I said them, I was absolutely resolute. I just didn't expect the withdrawal period to be this agonizing. The most complicated part of all this was our engagement. Our families had deeply intertwined business interests, and we had just launched a massive joint venture. A messy, public fallout would be catastrophic for both sides. My mother saw the guilt on my face after I explained everything Chase had done over the years. Her tears fell first, her heart breaking for me. "Don't worry about the Sterling family. Your father's lawyers and I will handle everything." "You just focus on resting and healing." I kept my phone turned off for several days until my emotions finally began to stabilize, and then I slowly started checking my messages again. I heard through the grapevine that Chase had shown up at my family's estate multiple times, but the security guards wouldn't even let him through the front gates. "Your mom gave the security team a photo of Chase, and the license plates of every single car his family owns, and put them all on a permanent blacklist," Zoe laughed, trying to cheer me up. "And he caught the family wrath." "His grandfather beat him so badly he snapped a leather belt on him, and now he's under house arrest." "Serves him right!" Then, she scratched her head, looking a little awkward. "But his older brother... the CEO, Pierce Sterling... he asked me for your contact info. He wants to meet with you." "At first, I told him to go to hell along with his brother." "But then he told me some things, and I decided to pass the message along." "Do you want to see him, Quinn?" Chase's older brother? I searched my memory for any impression of him. He was the son of Mr. Sterling and his first wife. He had a quarter European blood and looked like he was sculpted out of marble. In my memory, he had always lived abroad. He was only three years older than our group of trust-fund brats, but he was incredibly accomplished, mature, and ruthless in business. He had already taken over half of the Sterling Group's operations.
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