Chapter 4

I didn't see Adrian for the next two weeks. Chloe's world seemed to have become his whole world.

The gossip about me was everywhere.

"Did you hear? Adrian kicked Evelyn out of Linden Hill."

"It was only a matter of time. He's at the library every day studying with that college girl. When would he have time for her?"

I ignored all of it. I spent my days going over every transfer with Julian and getting my passport renewed on a rush appointment.

My private account already held enough money to keep me comfortable for the rest of my life.

One afternoon, as I was walking out of the passport office, the housekeeper at Linden Hill called.

"Ms. Vale, please come home right away. Something's happened!" She sounded close to tears.

My stomach dropped. I took a cab straight back to the house.

When I opened the door, the living room was a wreck. Cushions were all over the floor. The vase on the coffee table had shattered into pieces.

Chloe stood in the middle of it all, crying with her head down, holding a cameo pendant that had snapped in half. Adrian stood beside her, his face dark.

My eyes landed on the broken pendant, and my mind went blank.

It was the only thing my mother had left me. Even in the worst years, when I had nothing, I never once took it off.

"Who did this?"

My voice came out ice-cold. I crossed the room and snatched the broken half out of Chloe's hand.

One edge had chipped away. It could never be put back the way it was.

Chloe flinched and pressed closer to Adrian. "Evie, I'm sorry..." She was crying so hard she could barely breathe. "I only wanted to help clean your bedroom. I didn't know the box wasn't closed all the way. I picked it up, and it just fell..."

"Clean my bedroom?" I stared at her. "Since when is my bedroom yours to clean? Who said you could go in there?"

I raised my hand and swung at her without thinking.

The slap never landed. Adrian caught my wrist an inch from her face. His grip was so tight my bones ached.

"Have you lost your mind, Evelyn?"

He shoved me away. I stumbled and fell onto the sofa, and the jagged edge of the pendant cut deep into my palm.

"She was trying to help you, and she accidentally broke some cheap pendant. You were going to hit her over that?"

He kept Chloe behind him and looked down at me with disgust.

Some cheap pendant. My mother's last gift to me, and that was what he called it.

"Accidentally?" I laughed, my eyes burning. "My jewelry box has a combination lock. How did she accidentally open it?"

"Mr. Sterling gave me the code," Chloe said quickly. "He said I could look at anything I wanted..."

I whipped my head around to stare at Adrian.

The code was my birthday. He'd handed my private things over to another woman like they were nothing.

"So what?" He looked uncomfortable under my stare, but he didn't back down. "She's never seen nice things. I let her have a look. It's one pendant. I'll buy you ten better ones tomorrow."

"You can't buy that!" I screamed, and the tears finally came. "My mother left me that! Who gave you the right to trample on the one thing I had left of her?"

Adrian froze.

No matter how much he'd taken Chloe's side, I'd only ever answered with a sharp comment. He'd never seen me fall apart like this.

Something like panic crossed his face. He took a step toward me.

Then Chloe pressed a hand to her chest, went pale and crumpled.

"Chloe!" Adrian dropped down and caught her.

"Mr. Sterling... I'm so dizzy... my chest hurts..." She lay limp in his arms, barely breathing.

"Her doctor said her blood sugar drops dangerously low, and she has a heart condition she was born with. She can't handle stress." Adrian turned and glared at me. "If anything happens to her, Evelyn, I will never let this go."

He lifted Chloe into his arms and carried her toward the door.

At the door he stopped, but he didn't turn around.

"When she's better, you're going to the hospital, getting on your knees and begging her to forgive you. If you won't, then get out of Linden Hill."

The front door slammed.

The house went silent.

I sat on the rug, staring at the bloody piece of my mother's pendant, tears falling without a sound.

On my knees. Get out.

This was the man I'd given three years to.

I slowly got up and went to the bathroom. I ran cold water over my hand again and again until the blood was gone.

The woman in the mirror was pale, her eyes empty. And suddenly I wanted to laugh.

I picked up my phone and called Julian.

"Julian, change my flight. Book me the earliest one to Paris tonight."

My voice was completely steady.

I didn't pack my closet. I didn't take a single piece of jewelry Adrian had given me. Into a small carry-on went my passport, a change of clothes I'd paid for myself and the broken half of my mother's pendant.

When I walked out the gate at Linden Hill, the night wind was cold.

I looked back once at the house I'd lived in for three years. It had always been a pretty cage.

Goodbye, Adrian.

"The airport, please," I told the driver.