Chapter 4

I looked down and restored his phone to its factory settings. After it restarted, I checked to make sure nothing remained.

A hand suddenly caught mine as I swiped across the screen.

Ethan’s trembling voice came from above me.

“Chloe, let me explain—”

“Ethan, did you have fun in Miami?”

I pulled free and looked up at him.

A faint smile touched my lips, but it never reached my eyes.

He looked as if someone had grabbed him by the throat. His eyes reddened, and every word he wanted to say caught in his mouth.

My smile disappeared. I shoved the phone into his hand.

“Ethan, we’re done.”

I’d rehearsed those words in my head for two weeks. At last, I’d said them.

I stepped around him and headed for the door.

He hurried after me. “Chloe… We can’t just break up like this.”

“Ethan, she burned me! You can’t leave with her!”

Natalie’s furious voice rang out behind us.

His hands curled into fists at his sides, his knuckles cracking.

I turned to look at him. He’d stopped dead.

I sighed, then couldn’t help laughing.

At myself, for all the excuses I’d made for him.

When my department manager saw my resignation letter, she went quiet for a long time.

Finally, she voiced her suspicion.

“Are you resigning because you and Mr. Bennett are finally getting married after eight years? Do you need time to plan the wedding?”

I glanced down at my bare ring finger and smiled calmly.

“No. We broke up.”

Natalie had been hospitalized for her burns, and Ethan spent the next few days at the hospital.

I returned to the home we’d shared for four years, packed my things, and rolled my suitcase out of the city I’d lived in for just as long.

Back in my hometown, I quickly found a new job through a referral from my friend Sophie.

Time flew. Before I knew it, a year had passed.

I went with my boss to a hotel to discuss a deal. As his assistant, my job was to handle the drinks and say all the right things.

Several rounds later, we finally closed the deal.

After seeing my boss off at the hotel entrance, I turned away from the wind and pulled my coat tighter.

I took out my phone to ask Sophie when she’d arrive. Behind me, the revolving door turned.

I glanced over—and found myself looking straight at the man walking out.

Someone beside Ethan was talking to him, but he stopped in his tracks.

For that brief moment, even the dust drifting through the air seemed to slow.

I calmly looked away and walked out into the cold wind.

I’d only taken a few steps when someone grabbed my hand from behind.