Chapter 1
ELARA
My boyfriend, Jasper Lennox, swore he'd make Tallulah Rowley pay for humiliating me.
His plan: build her up, then tear her down. Give her my VP title, a sports car, a condo—so the fall would hurt more. "Be patient, babe. It's all part of the game."
So I was patient. Even when Tallulah whispered that my five-year-old sister, Marnie, was secretly my illegitimate kid, and Jasper stopped asking about Marnie's heart.
Then Marnie needed surgery. Jasper promised me the money. I waited at the hospital from dawn till dark, and it never came. When I finally called him, Tallulah answered.
"An advance? So you can grab the cash and skip town? Find a better sob story."
Marnie died waiting.
That night, Jasper called. "Push the surgery back two more days. Then Tallulah loses everything, and we'll throw a huge wedding. Marnie can be our flower girl!"
He doesn't know she's gone.
In two days, I will be too.
"You're saying yes? Elara, that's amazing! You can start in two days!"
Fiona, the London firm's HR director, could barely contain herself. They'd courted me for five years, each offer bigger than the last.
"Yes," I said. In the hospital morgue, my voice echoed.
I took one last look at Marnie's small, gray-blue face and signed the forms. The funeral home needed two thousand dollars up front for the cremation.
Marnie's bills had drained my savings. My whole life had revolved around Jasper, and since my demotion, even my coworkers avoided me. There was no one left to ask.
I looked at my bracelet—a delicate gold chain with a single diamond. Jasper bought it with five months' wages the night he first said I love you, back when that was all he had. "You're priceless to me," he'd whispered, fastening the clasp.
When Marnie first got sick, a jeweler offered five grand. It wouldn't even make a dent in a hundred-grand surgery, so I kept it.
Now it felt like a sign. I listed it for two thousand—cheap enough to sell fast. A buyer messaged within the hour.
Rushing out to meet the buyer, I was knocked flat by bodyguards storming the ER.
Behind them, Jasper wheeled Tallulah in, doctors swarming. His face was tight with worry. His eyes met mine—and slid away.
"Must be nice," a nurse muttered as she helped me up. "Three doctors for the CEO's girlfriend's sprained ankle, but billing won't even clear a kid's heart surgery. What a joke."
Minutes later, Jasper came back and steered me down to the garage.
Alone in his car, his jaw tightened. "Are you following me now?" he snapped. "Is that where we're at? You don't trust me, so you stalk me for a check?"
He pinched the bridge of his nose, exhaling sharply. "Tallulah twisted her ankle. Look, I'll wire you the money—just leave before she sees you."
He called her a drama queen, but his eyes were soft with indulgence.
He used to fuss over me like that—once spending a whole day making me soup for a stomachache and burning his hands raw.
My phone chimed. Payment received: $500.00 from Jasper Lennox.
"Tallulah checks my accounts," he said with a smile. "If I send more, she'll be upset. Get Marnie something nice, okay?"
I was his girlfriend, and I was the one sneaking around.
I laughed without humor and sent the money back.
Reaching for the door, he sensed something was off and patted my hand. "I know this is hard. But she has to have everything before losing it can hurt. That's how I get justice for you."
But I was the one who'd lost everything.
Two years ago, Tallulah Rowley arrived as the CEO's new executive assistant, announcing she was here to fix the company's toxic culture. She needed an example. She picked the vice president. Me.
Asked to print a document, she said she'd been hired for real work, not errands. When I asked my assistant for coffee, Tallulah threw the cup in my face in front of everyone and told me to get my own.
Then she sat on a ten-million-dollar contract I'd spent a month landing, claiming I might be siphoning company assets. The client walked straight to a competitor.
That was when Jasper locked in his endgame. It was a sick but simple strategy: put her on a pedestal just to kick the legs out from under it. Let her soar, then cut the strings.
At first, he'd wink at me whenever he praised her in public, and I'd play the beaten-down ex-favorite to feed her ego.
But the act got more real every day. His admiration for her was genuine. His coldness toward me wasn't acting.
She wouldn’t let it rest, constantly whispering poison into his ear. "Look at the girl. Are you sure that’s her sister? She’s young enough to be a daughter, and honestly—who knows who the father really is? Just don't end up raising another man's mistake, Jasper."
Jasper went from scoffing, to silence, to treating Marnie like a stranger. By the end, I had to beg before he'd even ask how she was.
A year ago, I lost my VP title.
A week ago, Marnie's heart started failing. The surgery was routine—nearly a hundred percent success rate. She died because her useless big sister couldn't scrape the money together.
And the man beside me had stopped loving me long ago.
"Jasper, I think we should—"
His phone rang before I could say break up. He stepped out, turning his back.
He used to take every call in front of me, even on speaker. Now he leaned against the door, toying with his cuff, smiling to himself.
Suddenly his voice rose. "Your ankle's hurt—don't come looking for me!"
Too late. Tallulah came limping in, and Jasper rushed to steady her.
She spotted me in the passenger seat, smirked, and yanked me out of the car.
"Who said you could sit in Jasper's car? Begging again? Bleeding your ex dry—have you no shame?"
Staking her claim, she snatched his phone from his pocket. One glance at the transfer, and she smashed it to the ground.
"I do everything for you, and you still can't let her go? Forget the doctor. I hope my leg is broken!"
She stormed off. Jasper, whose word was law at the office, followed without a word.
Two steps later, he turned back and swung my hand a little. "Just two more days, Elara. I'll make it up to you, I swear."
His favorite move—boyish, pleading. It used to melt me. Now it made my skin crawl.
Then he was gone.
I stood there, wiping the back of my hand on my shirt, over and over.
Two days, Jasper. In two days, I'm gone.
And I don't want you anymore.
