Chapter 2

2 I rarely attended Lynnea's social gatherings.

Her friends despised me and never bothered hiding it.

Tonight's humiliation was far from an isolated incident.

Chad, Preston's loyal follower, always instigated the attacks.

They hated me simply because they believed I was beneath Lynnea.

Lynnea, Preston, and the rest of their circle had grown up together in elite private schools.

Preston was the dazzling golden boy from an old-money family, excelling at everything.

I, on the other hand, was just a hearing-impaired orphan who relied on scholarships to get through college.

Without my hearing aids, I could barely manage basic conversation.

Lynnea was also born with a silver spoon and possessed striking beauty.

People like them were destined to be the center of the universe.

Their golden fairytale was supposed to have a picture-perfect ending.

However, fate played a cruel joke on them.

The Sinclair family collapsed, saddling Lynnea with astronomical debts that seemed endless.

Preston ran away.

The loan sharks who hunted her down became not just her nightmare, but mine as well.

One night, Lynnea was beaten bloody.

Dragging a broken leg, she crawled to the door of the convenience store where I worked, begging for help.

I was not even supposed to work the night shift that day.

Later, I thanked God countless times for swapping shifts with my coworker.

If I hadn't, I couldn't imagine what would have happened to her.

I hid Lynnea in the back storage room.

The debt collectors followed the blood trail into the store, every one of them towering over six feet with massive arms.

When I claimed I hadn't seen her, they raised their fists to beat me.

I yanked out my hearing aids, held my chin high, and stared them down while quietly dialing 911 behind the counter.

Terrified of getting caught by the police, they turned and fled.

Only after making sure they were gone did I tremble as I rushed to the back to check on Lynnea.

She had already passed out from severe blood loss.

After handing over my shift, I rushed her to the emergency room and drained my entire bank account to cover her medical bills.

When she woke up, she asked me who I was.

I knew she didn't remember me.

Yet I had never forgotten how, back in college when bullies called me deaf and tossed my hearing aid around, she had stood up to them and retrieved it for me.

I took care of her day and night for three months.

The way she looked at me gradually shifted from unfamiliarity to deep dependency.

Later, I stood by her side through every grueling day of debt repayment.

In a moment of tender vulnerability, she pulled me into her arms.

"Heath, once this debt is fully paid, I will marry you in the grandest wedding imaginable."

A cold touch brushed against my skin as she slid a simple silver band onto my ring finger.

She kissed me softly, promising she would replace it with the biggest diamond one day.

Eight long years passed, and she finally cleared all her debts.

We were finally on the verge of getting married.

And yet, Preston returned.