Chapter 2

I got home and dropped onto the couch, my thoughts a total mess.

Aaron's face — so calm, so entitled — kept replaying in my head. And that line: I'm the interest you've earned.

I was furious. But underneath the anger was something worse: the hollow, aching feeling of being betrayed.

I picked up my phone to block him on everything.

Before I could, his messages started coming in.

One after another, rapid-fire.

"Why are you upset? What did I say wrong?"

"If we get married, I give you everything I am — you handle our finances. Isn't that fair?"

"Is it because you think I'm poor? That you look down on my family?"

"You're a successful woman. Why can't you accept a man who loves you and wants to give you everything?"

"You supported me for seven years. Doesn't that mean you had feelings for me all along? Now I'm here — why are you turning me away?"

My hands were shaking by the time I finished reading.

I couldn't process it. He had a college degree. He had spent four years in higher education. And somehow he'd arrived at this worldview — this grotesque, shameless entitlement — and thought it made perfect sense.

I didn't respond. I blocked his SnapChat, his number, everything.

I thought that would be the end of it.

I was wrong. I had no idea what he was capable of.

The next morning, I pulled up outside my office building and spotted a familiar figure near the entrance.

Aaron was standing at the front door in the same white shirt, holding a cheap bouquet of roses, drawing stares from people heading in for the day.

When he saw my car, he rushed toward it.

I locked the doors and looked at him through the window.

He knocked on the glass, his expression a carefully arranged mix of hurt and devotion.

"Leah, why did you block me? Are you seriously that upset?"

"I'm not giving up. I know you have feelings for me. I know it."

I had absolutely nothing to say to him. I drove down into the parking garage.

By the time I reached my office, I could tell from the looks people were giving me that he'd been out there a while.

A minute after I sat down, the front desk called.

"Ms. Leah?" The receptionist sounded uncomfortable. "There's a man downstairs — an Aaron? He says he's your fiancé and he's insisting on coming up."

"My fiancé." I almost laughed out loud.

"Tell him you've never seen me before. And if he keeps this up, call security and then the police." I kept my voice flat and hung up.

I sat at my desk and stared at my screen and got absolutely nothing done.

At lunch I stayed in, had my assistant bring me something.

I figured Aaron would get bored when no one engaged with him and eventually leave.

He didn't leave.

That afternoon, my assistant knocked on my door, looking genuinely concerned.

"Ms. Leah — you might want to come downstairs. The man from this morning... he's gotten into some kind of confrontation in the lobby."

I got up and took the elevator down.

Aaron was in the middle of the lobby, arguing with the head of building security. The roses he'd been carrying were now thoroughly crushed, but he was still clutching them.

"Who gave you the right to keep me out? I'm here to pick up my fiancée after work! You're interfering with our plans — do you have any idea what you're doing?"

There were people everywhere — our employees, people from other companies in the building. Everyone was watching.

When Aaron saw me step out of the elevator, his face lit up and he broke away from the security guard.

"Leah! You came down! They wouldn't let me up to find you!"

The way he said my name — familiar, affectionate, like we were already something — made my skin crawl.

I stopped walking and looked at him without any warmth at all.

"Aaron. What do you think you're doing?"

He held up the ruined flowers with an expression of wounded sincerity.

"I'm here to walk you out. We agreed — I'm picking you up every day from now on, remember?"

The murmuring around us got louder. I caught pieces of it — fiancé, cougar, toyboy.

My face burned.

I turned to the security team leader. "I don't know this person. He has been disrupting normal business operations on this property. Please remove him immediately. If he resists, call the police."

The security team moved in to escort Aaron out.

Aaron hadn't expected me to be this direct. He started struggling, his voice rising.

"Leah! You heartless woman! You led me on! You called me all the way out here and now you're throwing me away like I'm nothing?"

"You think I'm still that naive kid from seven years ago? I'm telling you — it's not going to be that easy!"

The things coming out of his mouth got uglier.

I'd seen enough. I nodded at the security team leader.

It took a few of them, but they got Aaron moving toward the exit.

In the last moment before they pulled him through the doors, he turned back and looked at me. His eyes were full of poison.

He said each word like he was carving it into stone.

"Leah. You are going to regret this. If I don't get to be happy — neither do you."

That threat lodged in my chest like a splinter.

I knew right then that this was nowhere near over.