Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I stared at the screen for a long time before typing back a single word: "Yes."

The message was from Luke Callahan.

Luke and I grew up next door to each other; he was five years older and had watched me grow up from a scraped-knee girl.

Everyone in our social circle knew he was in love with me, except me―or rather, I had chosen to play blind.

Back then, my eyes were glued to Shane, and I dismissed Luke as an overbearing, nagging older brother.

He was five years older, and I found him stiff, nagging, and constantly raining on my parade whenever Shane and I were head over heels.

When Shane and I first started dating, Luke warned me countless times that Shane was calculating and untrustworthy.

I had screamed at him in a furious rage:

"You're just jealous! You're jealous because Shane is passionate, ambitious, and actually knows how to make me happy!"

Luke's face had turned pale with hurt, but he had still reached out to stop me.

"Audrey, please open your eyes before he ruins you!"

I had slapped his hand away and run straight into Shane's arms, convincing myself that Luke was just bitter and rigid.

Three months ago, Luke cornered me outside my building with dead seriousness in his dark eyes.

"Audrey, let's make a bet. Let's bet on whether Shane stays faithful to you. I bet he strays."

I had scoffed, finding the idea utterly ridiculous.

"Luke, are you out of your mind? Shane loves me more than anything. He would never!"

He looked at me with an intensity I couldn't decipher.

"If you lose, you give me one real chance―a chance to court you openly."

Blind with wedding fever and determined to prove him wrong, I blurted out:

"Deal! There's no way in hell he'd ever cheat on me!"

Looking back, his gaze hadn't been smugness; he had simply seen through Shane long before I did, while I chose to drown in my own delusions.

Taking a deep breath, I set my phone down and began cleaning up the torn paper and debris.

Then, I called a premier real estate agency to schedule an urgent appraisal.

Since Shane left me the penthouse, it was mine to deal with.

To me, every square foot of this place felt like a scorching brand against my skin; liquidating it into cash for a clean slate was the only sane choice.

The second I hung up, my phone vibrated again with Luke's number.

"I'll be downstairs in thirty minutes to pick you up."

Looking at his text, the suffocating knot in my throat loosened slightly, replaced by a sudden wash of relief.

I remembered how fiercely he used to defend me in school, while I had repaid his protection with insults and accusations of jealousy.

How much unconditional love had I blindly thrown away over the years?

I texted back: "Okay. I'll be waiting."