Chapter 1 The Ring on the Table
When Sean Scott's company was drowning in a PR crisis, I signed up for a volunteer teaching program.
The day the media reported that I, his fiancée, was heading to Beattyville, the poorest town in the state, to teach, his company's stock finally stopped crashing and began to climb.
I spent five years teaching in that forgotten town. And for those same five years, Sean carried on with Sophia White, a young woman from Beattyville whom I had personally helped leave the mountains.
On the last day of my service, a flash flood buried me beneath a mudslide. A drone search was the only way to find me.
But every drone in the city had been reassigned by Sean, just so he could stage a birthday light show for Sophia at Empire Shore.
The spectacle dominated the trending charts for 40 hours straight. Only after the buzz died down did rescuers pull me from the flood debris.
When I finally made it back, I discovered that Sean and Sophia had legally married five years earlier.
"Her family has a strange rule," Sean said casually, spinning the wedding ring on his finger. "She had to marry the first man she met after leaving the mountains at 18, or she would be cast out of the family."
"I did it to help her. Don't you always want a wedding? Fine. The wedding can still be yours. We'll sort out the paperwork later."
He expected me to react the way I had five years ago, crying, arguing, refusing to let it go.
Instead, I opened an email from UNICEF inviting me to become an overseas rural education field officer.
I accepted the offer and booked a one-way ticket abroad.
"You can give her the wedding instead," I said. "This time, I'm not coming back."
Sean gave a small shake of his head and laughed under his breath, "Lily, come on. Didn't your volunteer teaching contract already run out?"
"It did. That doesn't mean I can't renew it." I slid the plain band from my finger and set it in front of him.
With a faint smile, I said, "Besides, isn't this exactly what you wanted? A wedding feels a lot more proper when it's with the woman you're legally married to."
Sean was quiet for a beat before launching into the same explanation.
"Sophie met me first after she left town. If I hadn't married her, her family would've disowned her. I was helping her, nothing more. Why do you always..."
The words trailed off. I finished them for him in my mind.
'Why do I always insist on reading something into their relationship?'
Realizing how it sounded, Sean let out a weary sigh. "She was your student. She worked so hard to escape the poor town. As your fiancé, was it really wrong for me to look out for her?"
I stayed silent.
Sean pinched the bridge of his nose. "Then what am I supposed to do? Divorce her? Let a young woman fresh out of college carry the stigma of being divorced?"
I met his gaze evenly. "I'm not asking you to do anything. Just enjoy planning your wedding. If I happen to be free, maybe I'll send a gift."
The color drained from Sean's face. I rose from my seat.
"Lily." His voice stopped me, a slight tremor impossible to miss. "The wedding is on the anniversary of the day we met."
My heart skipped. "What date?"
"July 20th," he replied without hesitation.
A hush fell over the room.
After a moment, I forced a faint smile onto my stiff lips. "Sean, that wasn't the day we met."
His face went rigid.
I stopped and turned back to him. "When did you first meet Sophia?"
His Adam's apple shifted, but he stayed silent.
I didn't let it go. "There's one thing I've never understood. How did you end up being the first man Sophia met after she left town?"
The remote mountain town where I taught was 2,300 kilometers from Sean's city. The roads were rough and winding, strewn with rocks. Only top-tier off-road vehicles could get through.
In all five years I was there, Sean never visited me once. His answer was always the same. He was too busy.
So how had he managed to be the first person Sophia saw after leaving the mountains?
Sean's lips twitched before he finally spoke. "That was the day you called me and begged me to take you to see your mother."
At last, the final weight pressing against my heart crashed down, leaving a dull ache behind.
July 20th was the anniversary of my mother's death.
Five years ago, in the early hours of July 20th, the hospital called to tell me my mother was dying. Sobbing uncontrollably, I phoned Sean and begged him to pick me up at the foot of the mountain and take me to the hospital.
He said yes. That night, I made the 30-mile journey down the mountain. I waited at the foot of the hill from dawn until dusk. But he never showed up.
By the time I managed to catch a ride to the hospital, another day had already begun. I never got to see my mother alive again.
Later, Sean told me something had held him up. I was buried in funeral arrangements and never asked any questions.
Now I finally figured out why.
Sophia had stumbled over a pile of rocks on her way out of town. Sean happened to come across her, picked her up from the roadside, and drove her to the hospital. The place where he found her was less than five hundred meters from where I had been waiting.
The irony was almost enough to make me laugh.
"Sean, she skinned her knee, and you rushed her to the hospital. Meanwhile, my mother waited there all day. She died without ever closing her eyes." I stared at him. "You should marry her. She's the only one who deserves you."
Sean reached out to grab my hand.
I yanked it away.
"Don't touch me." The words came through my clenched teeth. "You're not worthy of me."
As I pulled back, my elbow caught him square on the nose. He stood there, stunned.
I turned and went into the bedroom to pack. There wasn't much left. One suitcase wasn't even half full.
Sean stayed on the couch, silent the entire time.
Only when I rolled the nearly empty suitcase past him did he finally speak. "If you walk out that door, don't come back."
His eyes flicked to my bare fingers, and he let out a derisive laugh. "This is all you're taking? Don't tell me you'll call me to deliver whatever you forgot."
I laughed too. "This is everything. Didn't you burn the rest of my things long ago?"
