Chapter 2

2

I stared at that pale mark on my finger as memories flooded back like a tidal wave.

Everyone said Finnick Foster was the golden boy of the city, born with a silver spoon.

They didn't know that when he was eight, I found him curled up next to a frozen dumpster.

I stood at the mouth of that alley, my feet feeling like they were nailed to the ground.

The next second, I ran over and grabbed his ice-cold wrist.

I dragged him home without letting him say a word.

That night, I gave him every single meatball in my bowl.

He kept his head down, silent, but I saw his throat move as he swallowed his pride along with the food.

Later, I learned his parents' marriage was just a business deal with zero love.

At three, he was dumped on his father, treated like a ghost, even bullied by the nannies.

From that day on, I made sure to accidentally pass by that alley every day.

He was a boy of few words, but he started following me, making sure I got home safe.

Eventually, we became inseparable.

I was the only girl in his world.

The year of the SATs, he was the top student in the state, but he vanished on move-in day.

I went crazy looking for him.

Finally, my father used his connections to find out his stepmother had kidnapped him to protect her inheritance.

When I found him in that abandoned warehouse, he was covered in bruises but hadn't shed a single tear.

I cried and begged my dad to save him.

My father traded a hundred-million-dollar deal for his freedom and sent him to college.

He paved the way, introduced him to the right people, and helped him climb to the throne of the Foster Group.

Finnick was the most brilliant person I'd ever met.

If he wanted something, he got it, and he was always the best at it.

I used to look at him with stars in my eyes.

"You're so amazing. Someone as capable as you should be my husband."

My father wasn't just being a saint.

I had zero talent for business, and he needed someone he could trust with the family legacy.

On the day Finnick officially became the heir, my father asked if he'd marry me.

He didn't hesitate.

He knelt before me with a ring he had made himself.

"Wren, this isn't about the business. I truly want to marry you. You will always be my wife."

The ring was rough, but my heart was overflowing with sweetness.

I thought that was our forever.

But the universe loves a cruel joke.

In college, I saw my roommate, Quinn Quincy, struggling to even buy a meal, so I decided to help her.

I brought Quinn home with me.

The day she met Finnick at my front door, he froze.

There was a look in his eyes I had never seen before―pure, raw shock.

I found out later that when he was kidnapped, Quinn was the one who had risked everything to bring him water.

From that day on, I treated her like a sister, paid for her school, and brought her into our inner circle.

I thought I was helping him repay a debt.

I never imagined that in paying that debt, I would lose my own place by his side.