Chapter 1 Left in the Rain
"No way! You've been gone so long, Emma. You've really loosened up. Still love joking around with me."
My colleague Zoe forced a smile. When she saw how calm I looked, no trace of humor in my expression, her eyes grew uneasy. She laughed awkwardly and took my hand, rattling off old memories, trying to prove her point.
"Mr. Grant used to treat you so well. He was the kind of man who would fuss over every detail, making sure you were comfortable and cared for."
I curved my lips slightly but didn't argue.
That seemed to embolden her. She straightened her chin, her voice rising with the self-assured tone of a judge pronouncing a verdict.
"You have no idea. I once saw Mr. Grant in the office wearing your high heels, getting laughed at by the executives. He just grinned and said your shoes were hurting your feet, so he was stretching them out for you."
"And that pink diamond ring he gave you, worth over a hundred million dollars. Every woman in our office was sick with envy. A man that devoted, that attentive—he just made the kind of mistake every man makes. Emma, don't hold onto it forever."
I listened quietly, giving her none of the regretful look she expected.
"It's all in the past," I said, my smile faint.
But the memories of Lucas Grant surfaced anyway, blurry and unwelcome.
When I was young, he had been like an older brother, someone who loved me and doted on me. As we grew up, our families arranged our engagement. He became my fiancé, sealed and certain. Falling in love should have felt effortless, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
All of that ease, all of that inevitability, shattered the day his childhood sweetheart, Chloe Summers, returned from abroad.
That night, a storm raged. Lucas was supposed to pick me up from work. He never came. I stood outside, watching one coworker after another get picked up by their boyfriends and husbands. By the time Lucas's car finally appeared, the rain had soaked me through.
I rushed forward, thrilled, and pulled open the passenger door.
A cashmere throw was draped across the girl's lap. Her glossy pink lips curved into a smirk that looked both innocent and pitiful. She looked at Lucas and said, "I'm cold."
At her remark, Lucas, who had always adored me, went cold instantly. He glared at me.
"Get in the back," he ordered.
I had never been treated like that in my life. My eyes burned red as I slammed the door and refused to get in, seething.
I had expected him to do what he always did, to grab my cashmere throw, drape it over my shoulders, and coax me into the car with that soft voice I knew so well.
Not this time. Seconds stretched into minutes. The engine roared. Lucas didn't spare me a single glance. He floored the gas and disappeared down the street with that girl. Muddy water splashed over me.
I walked home in the rain, drenched and wrecked. That was when my brother Ethan Shaw told me who the girl was. Chloe was Lucas's childhood sweetheart. She had just flown back that day. He had gone to pick her up; that was why he had been late getting me.
