“Now that I've found Lois, I finally understand. She's the one I love.”

My face was draining of color, and he could see it.

Lois stepped forward and cut him off. “Enough, Rick! Can't you see how awful she looks? Stop talking……”

She turned to me, all worry and warmth. “Aggie, don't listen to him. He's just messing with you. Tomorrow's your wedding……”

I lifted my eyes and stared at the woman in front of me through swollen, reddened lids.

My best friend. Or so I'd believed.

When she had nothing left and nowhere to go, I'd wired her every last cent I had so she could make rent.

Her first job was one I'd found for her.

When a mugger came at her with a knife, I threw myself in front of it without thinking.

I was covered in blood, and she held me and cried and swore we'd be best friends for life.

This best friend.

She stole my boyfriend and drove the knife in when I was at my weakest.

“Lois, what wedding are you even talking about?”

“Didn't you hear him? The person he wants to marry is you.”

“Drop the act. It's sickening.”

Lois's eyes brimmed with tears. “Aggie, I……”

“Who are you calling sickening? Don't push your luck, Agatha.”

Rick's expression shifted first. He pulled Lois behind him.

“I'm the one who doesn't want to marry you. If you want to hate someone, hate me. Leave her out of it.”

I shook my head with a bitter half-laugh.

Then I looked down, slid the wedding ring off my finger, and held it out to Lois.

“This belongs on your hand anyway.”

Lois frowned slightly and glanced back at Rick.

“Your castoffs? Why would you give those to her—she's not here to pick up your trash.”

Rick scoffed, snatched the ring, and stuffed it back into my pocket.

“If there's nothing else, you should go. We have a party to get back to.”

Telling me to leave. Not even pretending otherwise.

I let my gaze travel around the room. Every pair of eyes was on me.

Some pitying. Some mocking. Some just there for the show.

I gave a dry, self-mocking smile and left them with one last thing.

“Rick, I put two hundred and thirty thousand into renovating this apartment. Four hundred thousand toward the down payment. I want it back.”

Rick laughed like I'd told the funniest joke he'd ever heard.

“You're seriously keeping score with me, Agatha?”

“Why wouldn't I? You're the CEO of Northstar Group. Don't tell me you can't even come up with that.”

The moment the words left my mouth, his expression turned ugly.

“Watch what you say.”

He grabbed my arm and shoved me toward the door. “These are all people from the same circles, Agatha. You spread lies like that, how am I supposed to show my face here?”

“Whether it's a lie or the truth, you know better than anyone.”

I raised my voice on purpose. “Go ahead, Rick. Add it up yourself. Five years together—how much of your money did I spend, and how much of mine did you spend?”

“Can you even do the math?”

“If there's no wedding, fine. Then let's settle every last cent.”

I dropped those words, ignored the look on his face, and walked out.

I didn't sleep that night.

By the time the sky turned gray with dawn, I was sitting up with dark circles under my eyes, dialing a number.

“Dad. I'll do it. I'll come home and get married.”

My father was quiet for a long time after hearing that. When he finally spoke, it came out as a sigh.

“Agatha. You've finally come to your senses. Though I wish it hadn't cost you five years to figure it out.”

“A girl like you, raised with everything, sheltered your whole life. You've never really suffered.”

“You and a man like Rick Graves, someone who clawed his way up from nothing. You were never the same.”

“You two were never meant for each other.”

“Now that you've come to your senses, pack your things and come home.”

I nodded, swallowing hard against the lump in my throat. “Okay.”

Five years my father told me Rick Graves was wrong for me. Five years I didn't listen.

When I first met him, he was nobody. A broke kid with nothing to his name.

These last couple of years he'd ridden the boom and made some fast money, but even so, not a cent of it was ever spent on me.

He couldn't even buy our wedding apartment without me covering half the down payment.

Whenever I was tight on cash, he'd hold me close and say, “Agatha, the company's still in its growth phase. There are so many places the money needs to go.”

“I promise, everything I earn in the future will be yours.”

“We're a team, right? What's the difference whose wallet it comes from?”

I'd nod and think that made sense.

So I kept handing over money, again and again, like a fool.

Never knowing that in some bar I'd never set foot in,

Rick talked about me the way you'd talk about an idiot.

“Agatha's such an idiot. She believes anything I tell her. Last month I dropped tens of thousands on a Chanel bag for Lois.”

“Meanwhile she's had a Coach bag sitting in her cart for over two weeks and still can't bring herself to buy it.”

The night I found out, I was ice-cold when he walked through the door. I asked him why he'd said those things.

Rick just pulled me into his arms with an explanation ready. “Agatha, I had no choice. That crowd is full of sharks. The clients are just like that.”

“I have to match my words to whoever I'm dealing with—that's how you close deals, how you make money, how we pay for the apartment.”

And once again, I was naive enough to forgive him.

Only now did I finally understand what everyone had been saying all along.

In those people's eyes, that's exactly what I was: stupid, gullible, and still tripping over herself to throw money at a man who never spent a dime on her.

But this time,

the doormat opened her eyes.

First thing the next morning, I packed two full boxes and threw every last thing into the dumpster.

The cleaning lady's eyes went wide.

“Sweetheart, you're throwing all of this away?”

She fished through the boxes, pulling out brand-new thermoses and handbags. “These are perfectly good. What a waste……”

My voice was calm. “I don't want any of it.”

“Take whatever you like.”

These were every gift Rick had given me over five years. Nothing expensive, but there were a lot of them.

Look closely, though, and every single one was cheap. The kind of thing you'd be embarrassed to show anyone.

I turned and walked away. Behind me, the cleaning lady was still shaking her head and muttering.

“Kids these days. No sense of how to hold on to things.”

I'd already booked a flight for three days from now.

Until then, I had to resign from my job and give up my lease.

After finishing the paperwork at the office, I thought about asking a friend to walk around Liberty Square with me, clear my head. But the moment I opened my chat window, I froze.

In this entire city, my only close friend was Lois Sullivan.

I put the phone down and went alone.

Then I heard the cheering up ahead.

In the center of Liberty Square, surrounded by balloons, Rick was down on one knee, gently sliding the ring he'd had custom-made for me onto Lois Sullivan's finger.

The crowd erupted. “Say yes! Say yes!”

I stood where I was, perfectly still, and felt my eyes blur with tears before I even realized it was happening.

Then someone in the crowd spotted me and shouted.

“Isn't that Agatha?”

“Knew it—total doormat. She slammed the door yesterday like she was really done, and here she is again, pathetically showing up on her own.”

“Don't tell me she's trying to get him back?”

Rick heard the murmurs too and turned, surprise flashing across his face.

“Agatha, what are you doing here? Don't tell me you came to cause a scene. I already told you I was proposing to Lois today……”

“Who you propose to has nothing to do with me anymore.”

I glanced down at the diamond ring and let out a cold, scornful laugh.

“I just feel sorry for Lois. Even her proposal ring is one I didn't want.”

Lois frowned slightly. “Agatha, you're mistaken. This ring……”

Rick cut her off with a derisive scoff.

“Agatha, why don't you flip the ring over and look inside. Is your name on it?”

My heart dropped. Only then did I think to turn the band over.

Engraved inside were Lois Sullivan's initials.

The ring had never been made for me. Not from the very beginning.

I turned to leave, but Rick grabbed my wrist.

“Agatha, just behave. Don't make a fuss.”

“I'll keep things the way they were. Set you up in a villa, keep you fed and clothed for the rest of your life. You won't have to worry about a thing.”

“The only thing you can't have is the status of wife.”

“Other than that, whatever you want, I'll give it to you. Five years as my girlfriend—I have to say, you performed very well. Quite memorable.”

His gaze drifted over me, lazy and appraising, like a man sizing up something he owned.

“You and Lois were best friends for years. I'm sure she wouldn't mind.”

I wrenched free of his grip and stumbled back a step, unable to believe what I was hearing.

“In your eyes, that's all I'm worth? Being the other woman?”

Rick laughed, short and cruel.

“Your mother was a mistress. Why can't you be one too?”

I froze where I stood, something sharp twisting into my chest.

After my mother's divorce, she'd been forced into being another man's mistress. It was the most painful secret I'd ever carried.

I had never told a single soul.

Only when things between Rick and me were at their best, when marriage felt close enough to touch, did I finally lay it all bare.

I never imagined he'd turn it into a blade and drive it straight back into me.

“My mother is my mother. I'm me. It's not the same……”

Beside him, Lois's laughter grew sharper.

“How is it any different?”

“A whore trying to put up a chastity arch. You knew full well Rick didn't want to marry you, and you still clung to him like a leech.”

“Agatha, doesn't that make you even cheaper than your mother?”

Her eyes roamed over me with that same lazy contempt, then stopped at my chest.

“What's that?”

Before I could react, she snatched the necklace from around my neck and ripped it free.

“Give it back.”

Panic flooded through me instantly.

But Rick stepped in front of me, blocking my way.

“She just wants a look. What's the rush? It's not going to kill you.”

I looked at Rick, nearly begging.

“Please, make her give it back. It's the only thing you ever gave me……”

If even that was taken from me, then those five years I'd thrown away were nothing but a complete and total joke.

Rick stared at me for a moment, something almost amused flickering behind his eyes.

“You really do treasure that thing.”

“It's the key to a safe.”

He'd held me in his arms back then and told me the safe was filled with everything he'd prepared as my wedding fund.

My mother had become a mistress and stopped caring about me entirely.

To be with Rick, I'd nearly severed ties with my father.

Because he felt for me, Rick had promised to fill a safe with my wedding fund for the day I married him.

He'd even had the key made into a pendant and hung it around my neck himself.

He'd said, “Agatha, this is the confidence I'm giving you. Your backing and your safety net.”