Chapter 1
The day of our engagement party arrived, and Leo Gray, the man I had loved for ten years, ghosted me completely.
I sat alone in that restaurant for eight hours, staring at the door without ever seeing it open.
When night finally fell, his call came through with a voice that dripped with half‑assed regret.
"Nova, my bad. I got held up," he said. "Tell me your folks didn't waste their time waiting?"
My legs screamed from sitting too long, but I bit back the sting in my voice and lied. "They left."
Exhaustion weighed down his next words. "Let's push the party to next week, yeah? I'll smooth things over with your parents myself."
Then my phone buzzed, and my screen lit up with another sickeningly sweet post of Leo and Ella standing cheek to cheek.
The comments section had turned into a parade of heart‑eye emojis with people writing, "Twenty‑five gifts? He is obsessed with you!"
The grand finale was his dumb self flying in at the last minute like some romantic comedy hero – just not for me.
A moment later, a text from Ella Vance popped up with venom dripping from every word.
"Still playing fiancée, Nova Reed? Newsflash: his 'I'll be there' texts are all mine now. Keep the ring. It is as fake as your relationship."
I locked my phone with a sharp click and did not send any demands or hysterics.
Instead, I typed just three cold words to Leo: "We are over."
I was not marrying Leo anymore.
I turned to my father and said, "Dad, I'll take the arranged marriage. I will marry Chase Ford.
"Smart girl," my father said with relief bleeding through his words. "Love is a gamble. You have to know when to cash out."
The clock on the stove ticked away the seconds while I cooked a three‑course meal with soup by pure muscle memory.
Then he barged through the door holding those awful white asters.
"I went out of my way to get these for you, so stop being mad."
Usually, I'd have happily run over to take the flowers and leap into his arms. But this time, I just quietly kept eating.
"Still pissed off?" he offered while shaking water from his hair like some shampoo commercial. "I'll flood this place with flowers all week."
I stacked the plates with military precision and walked away without looking back. "Save your money."
He followed me, groveling in a way that was completely out of character for him.
"Come on, Nova. I screwed up by missing the party, but I said I was sorry. You know how crazy rescue shifts can get."
I snapped back at him, "Don't blame the rescue team. Your only emergency was Ella's birthday cake."
His jaw clenched tight, and his eyes darted anywhere but toward my face.
"Nova, you know how she is," he started to say.
"Leo," I said, making each word land like an icicle, "this is not the first time."
On my birthday, he took her to see shooting stars instead of celebrating with me.
On our anniversary, their so‑called friendly dinner came with tablecloths and candle wax.
For five Valentine's Days in a row, the sky over the bay burned bright with fireworks, and every single time, they were for her.
The air between us turned arctic as I inhaled a sharp breath.
"You see her games, and you play along every single damn time."
For eight solid hours, I had stood frozen at our engagement venue like an i***t, waiting like a discarded doll that he had tossed aside.
My vision blurred with tears that I refused to let fall, and words suddenly felt pointless.
Leo's brow furrowed as he fished a crumpled pouch out of his pocket.
"Nova, look, I messed up. I even got you this."
Inside the pouch lay a pitiful necklace – some free gift that had come with Ella's designer birthday haul.
A sharp ache pulsed behind my eyes, and I dug my nails into my palms to keep myself from screaming.
No matter how deep our love had once run, Ella always stood between us, sharp and unyielding as a knife.
Leo had been orphaned young and raised by her family, and on the day we made it official, he had sworn that he owed them a debt he would repay for life.
I never protested that debt, but for her sake, he kept choosing to break me again and again.
Every damn time I tried to confront him, he would just shrug and say, "Ella is clueless about romance. She is still a kid."
So I asked myself then: what about him? Did that man even know what love was at all?
