The icy, impersonal words in the report slammed into Ethan like a sledgehammer, knocking the wind out of him and crushing his chest.
It was true. Vesper's engagement to Conrad was real. She was really cutting him loose.
A wave of raw panic and crushing despair swallowed him whole.
Memories he had long ignored, things he had taken for granted, flashed through his mind with terrifying clarity.
Vesper dogging his steps, stubbornly foisting gifts upon him. Every offhand wish he had ever muttered, delivered with relentless cheer despite his frosty rejections.
Every deal he wanted magically greased by the Lynd name.
He remembered how their social circle had practically worshipped him, not for who he was, but because he was the Lynd heiress's childhood sweetheart and future husband.
Even t
