Chapter 1

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When Mrs. Cooper handed me a check for five million dollars and told me to leave Natalie Cooper, I didn’t hesitate for a second.

I had spent five years by Emily’s side, giving her the best years of my life. Five million? It wasn’t nearly enough for what I’d sacrificed.

Word of this reached Emily soon enough.

I later heard that on the day she found out, she skipped the most important meeting of her career just to come find me.

When Natalie Cooper stormed into the apartment she had bought for me, I was in the middle of packing my things.

“What’s the meaning of this?”

Her face was dark, her expression colder than I’d ever seen it. After years of being with her, I knew what this look meant—she was furious.

“Ms. Cooper,” I said with a calm smile, trying to look composed despite the mess around me. “Five million dollars to leave you—what’s there to misunderstand?”

That only made her angrier. Her jaw clenched, and I could see the fire behind her eyes.

“Once you walk out that door,” she hissed, her voice low but sharp, “don’t come crawling back.”

With that, she turned and slammed the door behind her.

To be fair, Emily had been good to me over the years—at least, in a material sense. She showered me with gifts: luxury cars, designer watches, all the trappings of a kept man. If I’d stayed, those five million dollars would’ve been just a fraction of what I could’ve gotten.

But lately, I’d grown tired of it all.

And besides, word had it that Andrew was coming back from abroad. Andrew—the man Emily’s family had always wanted for her. Her fiancé. The man who was my reminder of what I really was: just a stand-in.

It didn’t take me long to pack up my things. Within half an hour, I was out the door with nowhere to go.

I ended up crashing at my buddy Matthew’s place. Unfortunately, his new girlfriend was there too. They were wrapped up in their little love bubble, making me feel like the third wheel.

Matthew gave me an apologetic look, but I hadn’t called ahead, so I couldn’t really blame him. I excused myself and checked into a nearby hotel instead.

This hotel wasn’t unfamiliar. Emily and I used to stay here often. On nights when her business deals turned into boozy work dinners, she’d book a room nearby to rest.

Emily could hold her liquor well—she rarely lost her cool in public, no matter how much she drank. But on the rare occasions she did get drunk, she was impossible to handle. No one could deal with her when she was like that—no one except me. Her assistant would always call me to come and take care of her.

As I checked in, the woman at the front desk recognized me.

“Ms. Cooper didn’t come with you this time?” she asked with a polite smile.

I shook my head and replied casually, “Emily and I aren’t together anymore.”

She blinked, clearly taken aback by how easily I said it. After all, everyone in the city’s elite circles knew about us. Natalie Cooper, the famously unattainable CEO, and me, her kept man—a detail that had always been a source of gossip.

Once I got my room key, I poured myself a drink and turned on some heavy metal—the kind of music I loved but rarely got to listen to.

Emily hated rock music. She said it was too loud, too chaotic. Whenever we were together, I’d play the soothing acoustic tracks she preferred.

But now, as I sat alone in the hotel room with an expensive drink in hand and the music blasting, I realized something felt… off.

Something was missing.

I stayed in that hotel for three days, doing nothing but drinking and trying to drown out the silence.

On the third day, Matthew showed up. He’d heard about my breakup with Emily and had taken time off from his girlfriend to help me “get back on my feet.”

His grand plan? A road trip. Just the two of us, hitting the open road to clear my head.

But the day before we were supposed to leave, Matthew got called into work for some emergency at his company.

And just like that, our “bro trip” turned into a solo adventure.

So, I packed my bags and went to Emberwood, alone.