Chapter 2

Olivia took the serum and placed it on the small coffee table. She didn't look at it.

"I love it," she said, her voice flat.

He looked confused. She didn't pick it up, didn't turn it over in her hands. She remembered a time he'd given her a fifty-dollar phone case. She had treasured it, refusing to use it, scolding him for spending money they didn't have. She had been such a fool.

"What' s wrong?" Liam asked cautiously. "Are you upset about something?"

Olivia forced a casual tone.

"No. You just don' t need to buy me expensive things. Weren't you saving up? For our wedding?"

Her act seemed to work. He relaxed, the tension leaving his shoulders. He wrapped his arms around her from behind, burying his face in her hair.

"Don' t worry about saving money for me," he whispered. "I' ll give you a good life. You' ll be able to bathe in this stuff if you want."

Olivia hid the sneer that wanted to form on her lips. She gently pushed him away and walked into her small bedroom, closing the door behind her.

She pulled out her phone to book a moving company. While she was on it, she saw a new social media post from Chloe.

"Thanks to a certain someone for personally dropping me off at the hotel. This presidential suite is so shabby, though. Next time, book a better one."

The picture showed Chloe in a luxurious hotel room. A standard room there cost five thousand dollars a night. Lined up next to the huge bathtub was a row of high-end skincare products. And right there, among them, was the same bottle of serum Liam had just given her. It was the least impressive item in the whole collection.

It was a free hotel amenity. He hadn't spent a single cent.

She should have been heartbroken. She should have screamed, cried, cursed him for being so heartless. But she felt nothing. No anger, no sadness. No desire to confront him at all. Her heart had died in that restaurant. She might be poor, but she had her dignity. She refused to be a toy for these rich, bored people. Believing Liam was in her world, that he was one of her own, was the biggest mistake she had ever made.

She didn't see Liam for the next week. He texted, saying Chloe was going on a trip and he had to go along to make sure she was safe. But Olivia had seen the notifications on his phone before. She knew the truth. He had arranged for 520 bouquets of flowers to be air-freighted to every city on Chloe' s travel route. He was planning to propose.

Olivia didn't call him out on his lie. Instead, she went to her university and finalized all the paperwork for her European exchange program.

A few days before she was set to leave, Liam came back. He looked a mess. His forehead was hot to the touch, and his eyes were bloodshot. He stumbled into the room and collapsed against her, sobbing.

"Do you know how much I' ve done for you? You love flowers, so I had them flown in from all over the world. You love diamonds, so I bid a hundred million for a ring. I invited all my friends to be there when I proposed. But why? Why did he just cough, and you ran to take him to the hospital?"

His voice was thick with despair.

"I' ve loved you for over a decade. I swallowed my pride and became a bodyguard for your family. Can' t you see how I feel about you at all?"

Hot tears soaked the shoulder of her shirt. It was the first time Olivia had ever seen Liam look so pathetic. So broken. She felt nothing. He was delirious with fever, and he thought she was Chloe. Clearly, his grand proposal had been a failure.

The room was dim. It suddenly occurred to her that every time they had been together, every time they had been intimate in this dark little studio, he probably couldn't see her face clearly. Who was he thinking of in those moments?

Liam pushed himself up, his swollen eyes trying to focus on her. Olivia thought he was coming to his senses. She was about to speak, but he reached into his ears and pulled out what she had always believed were his artificial cochlear implants.

He cupped the small, metallic devices in his palm and held them out to her.

"Chloe," he slurred, "I never loved Olivia. Look. These earpieces… they' re filled with your voice."

Olivia froze.

Her hands trembled as she took the objects from his hand. They felt impossibly light. The tiny machines slipped through her fingers and clattered onto the floor. In that brief moment before they hit the ground, she saw them clearly.

They weren't hearing aids. They were just a pair of Bluetooth earbuds.

His "congenital hearing loss" was a lie.

An imported set of artificial cochlear implants cost $150,000. She had earned that money. She had worked until she was dizzy from low blood sugar, until her stomach bled from stress and missed meals. And all that time, he had been with her, listening to another woman's voice.

Olivia's hand shot out, and she slapped him hard across the face. The sound echoed in the small room. She left him there, feverish and mumbling, and walked out of the mansion without looking back.

Liam ended up in the hospital with pneumonia.