Chapter 2

2

I was ruthless that day.

“Silas, no girl wants to live in poverty forever,” I had said.

“You spent fifty bucks at a DIY bakery to make this cake yourself. I know it was everything you had.”

“But I want the five-thousand-dollar designer cake and a life of luxury.”

“You’re just a broke student. You can’t give me the life I deserve.”

He thought I was joking at first and asked me to say it again.

I just sneered and wired a large sum of money to his account.

“Take your breakup fee and leave,” I told him.

“I don’t owe you anything. Don’t get in my way while I look for a rich man.”

He looked at the $200,067.13 I sent him, his eyes wide with shock.

For people as poor as we were, that amount was staggering.

“Vivian, where did you get this much money? Please tell me you didn’t do something dangerous!”

His first instinct wasn’t anger, but pure, terrifying concern for my safety.

Even as I was dumping him for being poor, he was worried about my soul.

He was such a fool.

How could I let my broken, dying self drag down a man with such a bright future?

I tilted my chin up, acting as spoiled as possible.

“The money is great, isn’t it? My new boyfriend gave it to me.”

“He has more cash than you could ever dream of seeing in ten lifetimes.”

“I don’t need your cheap, pathetic little cake!”

I grabbed the cake he had spent all night making and threw it directly into the trash.

I watched the color drain from his face until he was as white as a sheet.

I had broken him.

I knew that cake wasn’t just cheap flour and sugar.

He had worked three back-to-back shifts in a freezing warehouse just to afford the ingredients.

When he handed it to me, his hands were covered in frostbite.

Now, Silas’s voice snapped me back to the present, dripping with resentment.

“You’re still obsessed with money, aren’t you? Fine. I’ll pay you three hundred thousand for the divorce.”

“But remember, this money is for Lacey, not you. You don’t deserve a dime.”

“I’m happy to spend it if it means making her happy.”

I laughed until tears blurred my vision.

Even when he was handing me a lifeline, he had to make sure I knew I was just a shadow.

I was supposedly the legendary first love, and Lacey was just the copy.

Yet he loved the copy so much that he wanted the original to bleed for her.

The most pathetic part? I had to say yes.

I desperately needed that money.

The last time I asked him for help, he made me wait outside his office all day.

The nurses whispered and laughed at me, calling me a disgraced wife.

They said I was finally paying the price for dumping him years ago.

Silas had humiliated me that day, making me clean up after him and Lacey.

After all that, he only threw five grand at me.

This time, three hundred thousand was on the table. I couldn’t pass it up.

My doctor told me about an experimental treatment that could dull the pain.

One round cost exactly three hundred thousand dollars.

I was going to die anyway, but I wanted to go out with a little dignity.

I had always loved being beautiful, and I didn’t want to look like a monster at the end.

“Fine,” I whispered. “I’ll be there.”