Chapter 2

2.

The next morning, the entire city was buzzing with the news. The young CEO of the Leigh Group had been reunited with her long-lost first love.

Giant LED billboards over Times Square were plastered with photos of Seraphina and Weston looking head-over-heels.

People stopped in the streets to gush about how perfect they looked together and how romantic Seraphina's devotion was.

I walked through the crowd, listening to the strangers' blessings, and felt a lump in my throat.

When Seraphina and I first started dating, I posted a photo of us on my social media.

She called me immediately and screamed at me until I was deaf.

"Kaelen Reed! Do you have any idea what my status is? Do you know what kind of rumors this will start?! My competitors will laugh me out of the boardroom!"

I swallowed my pride and deleted every trace of her from my digital life. I never posted another photo.

We didn't even have a wedding. She said she didn't want the media digging into her private life.

Our wedding photos were hidden in a dusty guest room because she didn't want her friends to see them.

But her office desk always had a framed photo of Weston.

Whenever I brought it up, she would just give me a cold, hard look.

"Kaelen, don't forget who gave you everything you have today."

She was right.

Back in college, when I was trying to launch my tech startup and every investor turned me down, Seraphina was the only one who held out a hand.

She wrote me a five-million-dollar check without blinking.

"I believe in this project," she had said casually. "Just do your best. If it fails, consider it a learning experience for me."

When I was at my lowest, she was my only hope.

But that hope had become a cage that kept me trapped by her side for years.

Looking up at that massive billboard now, I realized the dream was finally over.

Helping her bring Weston back was my final payment. I had settled my debt to her.

This was the last thing I would ever do for her.