Chapter 2

2

Jace's cold words hit me like a physical blow, sending me spiraling into a dark abyss.

I stood in the hallway, shaking uncontrollably.

When I didn't respond immediately, he scoffed through the phone.

"Silence? Mentioning the money usually shuts you up, Cassia. Honestly, what is this tantrum even about?"

"I don't even know why I married someone as dramatic as you."

He hung up, leaving me with the piercing drone of the dial tone.

For the first time in my life, I felt true, suffocating despair.

Jace and I were childhood sweethearts.

Our marriage had been an unspoken rule since we were kids.

My parents always told me that Jace was my future, and I had to be his rock.

Caring for him, protecting him―it was my survival instinct.

We got our marriage license as soon as we were legal, but before we could have the wedding, tragedy struck.

My parents were involved in a horrific car accident.

They survived, but they were left in a persistent vegetative state.

With my parents incapacitated, the vultures descended on the Thorne family estate.

Relatives who claimed to love me were the first ones to try and strip me of my inheritance.

If it hadn't been for Jace, I would have lost everything.

He shouldered the grief and the burden of the business, standing as a shield for the Thorne legacy.

Those years were brutal.

We couldn't trust anyone but each other.

At our lowest point, we were almost bankrupt and buried in debt.

Jace became ruthless, clawing back what belonged to us with a ferocity that terrified people.

He used to hold me and say, "Cassia, stay strong for me. I'll protect you just like you used to protect me."

He proved it, too.

One of my disgruntled relatives got desperate and had us both kidnapped.

During our escape, a shard of glass sliced deep into my calf, and I badly sprained my ankle.

I begged him to leave me behind because I was the primary target.

But Jace refused to let go.

"We're a team," he panted, carrying me on his back. "We live together, or we die together."

By some miracle, we made it out alive.

Only then did I see the massive gash on his own leg.

He had carried me through the woods while bleeding out himself.

That wound left a jagged, ugly scar that never faded.

Knowing I had no head for business, I stepped back and became the woman behind the man.

I supported him, loved him, and stayed out of his way as he transformed from a scrappy kid into the CEO of Sterling-Thorne.