Chapter 2

1

The day Silas went to pick up his first love from the airport, I was at the office.

I was busy scrubbing photos of him with some young model from the internet.

In the pictures, a young, pretty girl was clinging to his waist.

Silas had a cigarette in his mouth, looking indifferent as usual.

But he didn't pull away when her red lips moved toward his face.

I pushed down the dull ache in my chest.

Silas had hated me for years.

Sometimes he'd call me in the middle of the night just to handle some scandalous headline.

"Giana Shaw, isn't this your job? Why do you look so pathetic?" he'd say.

I took a deep breath and handed the final plan to my assistant.

In the breakroom, a group of employees were whispering.

"Do you think Mr. Sterling is serious this time?"

"Looks like it. He's had so many flings, but he's never gone public. I heard this one is his high school sweetheart."

"Then hasn't Manager Shaw just been a placeholder all these years?"

I looked down at my finger, which had been cut by a cracked mug.

This mug was a birthday gift Silas had given me years ago.

It had cracked without warning, just like our relationship.

Someone gasped when they saw my hand bleeding.

I ignored them and looked at the tablet screen instead.

Silas was holding a woman.

Instinctively, my brain started calculating the PR response.

I grabbed my phone to tell my team to bury the search results.

But then, the cold, powerful man choked up on live television.

He held her hand tightly. "Macy Taylor is the only woman I've ever truly wanted."

I felt like I was standing in a freezer.

If she was the only woman he ever wanted, then what the hell was I?