chapter 1

"I'm getting married!"

I typed out the post, added a picture of the wedding rings, and hit publish.

In less than a minute, the comments started flooding in.

But I didn't bother reading them. I was too tired to care. I put down my phone and went back to packing.

Brad's word from a month ago still rang in my ears. I shut my eyes tight and pressed a hand to my aching chest.

After a deep breath, I kept folding clothes into my suitcase.

Then I heard the front door being unlocked. Brad barged in, his face twisted in fury.

He exploded the moment he saw me.

"Ellen, what's wrong with you? When did I ever say I wanted to marry you? How dare you post something like that online?

"Do you know how many people are blowing up my phone right now?"

His anger was boiling over. He jabbed a finger at me, inches away from my eyes.

"You think one social media post is going to pressure me into marrying you? Dream on."

My knees gave out, and I collapsed onto the couch, drained.

"I wasn't trying to—"

"Don't even start!" He snapped, cutting me off.

"I'm done with you! You keep pushing this marriage thing like a broken record. How many times do I have to say it? I'm not ready to get married. Why can't you get that through your head?"

Brad's brow furrowed tight. He swept his arm across the coffee table, sending everything crashing to the floor.

The noise rang in my ears.

He kicked my neatly packed suitcase aside. I lowered my head and stared at the floor in silence.

Then suddenly—his phone rang.

Brad impatient scowl vanished the moment he saw the caller ID—his face lit up like sunshine breaking through a storm.

"Lara? You've landed already? Stay put; I'll come get you. Don't wander off."

Without another word, he turned and walked away, not even sparing me a glance.

I saw it clearly—those frosty eyes of his thawed in an instant. Lara Windrow really did hold a special place in his heart.

One second, he was yelling at me. The next, he was wagging his tail like a big puppy who'd found its favorite person.

I let out a bitter laugh and crouched down to pick up the mess he'd left behind.

As I gathered the scattered pieces, a sharp pain shot through my finger. I gasped, looking down to see a small cut blooming with blood—sliced by the shard of the ceramic doll.

Faint fingerprints were still visible on the broken ceramic.

My thoughts drifted. I was taken back a few years, to the early days of my relationship with Brad.

His father had just been exposed in a massive tax scandal. Overnight, his family lost everything, and Brad—once the golden boy of the Capital—was left drowning in debt, scrambling just to stay afloat.

He fell from grace like that, a polished heir transformed into an exhausted drifter; my heart broke for him.

I begged my father to help him pay off his debts, to give him a fresh start.

He did—and with that, Brad and I officially became a couple.

That ceramic doll? We made it together that very night at a street fair.

He had only ten dollars, but he spent it on something silly to make me smile.

I kept that little ceramic doll for years. No matter how many times I moved, I always made sure to take it with me.

But Brad had long forgotten.

Or maybe he never really cared.

Just then, a message pinged on my phone, pulling me out of my thoughts.

When I saw the message on my phone, a wave of conflicting emotions washed over me.

It was a message from Jude Colfield—my blind date.

He'd sent over the engagement details. I stared at it for a moment before sighing.

So be it. Whatever happened with Brad, it's all in the past. I'm getting married. We will now part ways. I refuse to shed any more tears over him.

But there's one last thing I need to take care of before I walked down that aisle.

Back when Brad and I got together, I gave him a family heirloom—an emerald ring set passed down through generations of my family.

Our tradition is clear: only the man who receives those emerald rings is recognized as a true member of the family.

And since Brad won't be marrying me now, I'm taking them back.

With that thought, I grabbed my keys and headed to his place.