Chapter 3

The day Amber came in for her company interview, she performed terribly. Liam was openly dismissive of her.

I didn't pay much attention to this underqualified and underperforming candidate either.

But for some reason, she was eventually hired anyway, against all odds.

She even slowly transformed from an insignificant nobody into Liam's personal assistant.

I only truly started to notice something was wrong when *our* matching rings, the ones only Liam and I shared, appeared on Amber’s hand.

At first, when I confronted him, Liam would patiently explain things and try to appease me.

But over time, he just grew impatient.

My repeated reluctance, tolerance, and efforts to please him only made his favoritism toward Amber more blatant.

At company dinners, he'd only order Amber’s favorite dishes.

Amber only worked half a day a week; the rest of her time was spent playing around with Liam.

And all of Amber’s actual assistant work? Liam pushed it onto me.

Liam mentioned her more and more in front of me.

At first, it was unconscious praise and admiration.

Later, he’d compare me to her, complaining I wasn't as understanding or considerate as she was.

It came to a head during a company afternoon tea. Liam said his coffee tasted good.

Amber said she wanted to try it, and without a word, Liam handed his coffee to her.

Amber took a big sip from the straw Liam had used, without him even bothering to change it.

He even took the coffee back and continued to drink from it, right where her lipstick print was.

In that moment, my heart felt like it was being squeezed by an invisible hand, a raw, aching pain.

From then on, his so-called 'best girl friend' Amber crossed more and more lines.

Afraid Liam would get sunburned, she’d brazenly rub sunscreen all over his body.

I’d make him packed lunches, and she’d make them too.

She’d always eat *my* packed lunches, under the pretense that my cooking was just "too good" to resist, and then make Liam eat hers.

Even my birthday celebration, which Liam had promised, was canceled because Amber claimed she had a cold.

But every time I expressed my unhappiness about these things,

Liam would impatiently say,

“Chloe Miller, your mind is just so dirty, everything looks dirty to you. Amber and I are just friends; don’t taint it with your twisted mind.”

But as time went on, he said it with less and less conviction, his voice wavering.

The most disheartening moment was a major industry event.

The organizers required attendees to bring a partner, but Liam didn’t tell me at all. He just took Amber.

I only found out afterward, when several people repeatedly asked if Liam and I had broken up.

When I confronted him, Liam was even angrier than I was.

“I was just helping Amber expand her network, and training talent for the company. Why are you so petty?”

That time, we gave each other the silent treatment for a long time.

So long that I truly thought we would part ways then.

Until he sent me a text late one night:

“Babe, my stomach hurts so much.”

All my carefully constructed indifference crumbled in an instant.

And so, the terrible cycle started all over again: I’d question him, he’d get angry, I’d apologize, he’d "forgive" me.

I closed the ring box and tossed it into the trash.

Deep in my drawer, there was still a letter of apology Liam had written me when he was eighteen, because he’d forgotten to reply to one of my messages.

He really cared about me back then.

But now, he only cared about Amber.

I took out the apology letter, tore it into pieces, and threw it in the trash.

After decades of memories were completely cleared out, the house felt much emptier.

My heart felt empty along with it.

The company group chat was still flooded with photos of Amber celebrating Liam’s birthday and making him laugh.

Knowing Liam’s blatant favoritism towards Amber, colleagues eagerly chimed in with compliments.

“Oh my god, Mr. Donovan and Amber are so perfect together!”

“You should find a girlfriend like Amber, not a petty, moody one like Chloe Miller.”

“Chloe Miller only gets by because of her family. Unlike our Amber, who got to this position all on her own. There’s no comparison between the two.”

Too disgusted to look anymore, I called my lawyer and instructed him to withdraw all my investments from Donovan Corp.