Chapter 4

Five years ago, Blackwood Inc. was framed, and its finances plunged into a major crisis.

My father, unable to bear the burden, jumped to his death.

My mother, unable to cope with the shock, developed severe depression, requiring expensive treatment every month.

At that time, Dominic Thorne had just been accepted to a prestigious business school in the U.S.

I didn’t want to be a burden to him, so I forced myself to break up with him.

Back then, Dominic loved me to the core.

He was willing to give up everything for me.

But I was no different.

When he pressed for a reason, I used differences in social status and family background as an excuse.

“Love without money is like a pile of loose sand,” I’d sneer, quoting some trashy romance flick, “doesn’t even need a strong wind, just a couple of steps and it’s gone.”

“Dominic Thorne, what makes you so confident you can give me happiness?”

He cried then, promising me, “Aria, please believe me, I’ll make sure you live a happy life with my own two hands. Just wait for me, okay?”

I believed him, of course I did.

He was destined to shine, a star just waiting for its moment.

Provided, of course, that I wasn’t dragging him down.

I pointed to the clothes on my body. “This one, thirty-five thousand; this one, fifty thousand; even my hair tie costs five thousand. And you? Your whole outfit probably doesn’t add up to two hundred, does it?”

“Dominic Thorne, what makes you think I should trust you? We’re not the same kind of people. Some people spend their whole lives trying to reach Rome. I was born there.”

Dominic looked at me in disbelief, as if he’d never known me.

“Then what was our past? What were all those vows we made?”

Seeing him in such a hysterical state,

my heart felt as if it were being gnawed by a thousand ants.

I forced back the pain and sneered, “It was just for kicks, why are you making such a big deal out of it?”

Those eyes, once bright as stars, were now filled only with despair and hatred.

It chilled me to the bone.

I wanted to tell him everything, then throw myself into his arms and cry out all the grievances I’d bottled up.

But I could only watch helplessly as his desolate figure vanished from my sight.

After he went abroad, the debt collectors hounded me everywhere.

My mother’s exorbitant medical bills crushed me daily, making it impossible to breathe.

In less than a month, I lost twenty pounds.

In the dead of night, I would think of Dominic Thorne until I felt like I was going insane.

Many times, I stood on the rooftop, listening to the whistling wind around me.

I wanted to be a free bird, to just leap.

But each time, my mom in her hospital room, Dominic with his hair flying in my mind’s eye, they were like threads behind me,

pulling me back.