Maud Matthews was the one Alfred loved.

And sure enough, over the eight years that followed, he proved that suspicion right more times than I could count.

"Maria?"

Alfred frowned and waved a hand in front of my face, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"What's wrong with you? You're white as a sheet."

He reached out and took my ice-cold hand.

"Did something happen?"

I forced the corners of my lips upward and slipped my hand free of his without making a scene.

"It's nothing. I think my period just started. I'm not feeling great."

Alfred relaxed. He pulled out his phone and tapped the screen a few times.

"I ordered some delivery for you. Pads, some hot cocoa, things like that. Hopefully it'll help."

With that, he left my apartment.

I watched his retreating figure. He never once looked back.

The bitterness crept in again, slow and familiar.

How easy it was to fool him.

If Alfred truly cared about me, he would have noticed that my period had already come and gone last week.

A lie that flimsy, and he believed it without question.

It only proved one thing: after three years together, he had never really known me. Never really cared to.

My hands were freezing. I gripped my phone and headed upstairs.

All I could think about was getting the apartment lease terminated before next week so I could wrap up everything here and go home to Harbor City.

But just as I stepped onto the stairs, my phone rang.

It was Sophie Chavez, an old college classmate I'd been close with. When I picked up, her voice was buzzing with excitement.

"Maria, have you heard the news?"

"Maud Matthews is back in the country!"

I already knew, of course.

But hearing that name spoken aloud still sent a jolt through me.

My silence must have given Sophie the wrong idea, because she launched into an eager explanation.

"Don't tell me you forgot who Maud Matthews is! Drop-dead gorgeous, killer figure, voted the most beautiful girl on campus? Ring any bells?"

I tugged at the corner of my mouth. A bitter smile escaped.

How could I ever forget?

Before I could get a word in, Sophie barreled on.

"Plus, she's Alfred's childhood sweetheart. Back at Cloudvale University, everyone who saw them together called them the golden couple."

"People swore up and down they were dating. The rumors were everywhere."

"But the two of them never said a word about it. Flat-out denied the whole thing." She paused for dramatic effect. "Maria, do you think it was actually true?"

Sophie was an old classmate, but we'd been living in different cities for years.

She had no way of knowing.

About my three-year secret relationship with Alfred.

I nodded, even though she couldn't see it. "Yeah, I know who she is. But whether they were together or not, I really couldn't say."

Maud Matthews.

I turned the name over in my mind, and the bitterness swelled again.

When I was nineteen, I saw it with my own eyes: how close Alfred and Maud were. How deep that childhood bond ran.

When Maud got her heart broken by another guy, Alfred was the first one there, offering his shoulder to cry on.

When Alfred got into trouble, Maud was the first to come running.

Their relationship was intimate. More than that, it was something hard to define. More than friends, not quite lovers. A bond that lived in that impossible space between.

Back when I used to trail after Alfred like a shadow, he always turned me down with perfect, gentlemanly politeness.

"Maria, you're a wonderful girl. But there's already someone I like."

He told me he was saving all his firsts for the girl he loved.

Then, the year we graduated from college, Alfred bought nine hundred and ninety-nine roses and started setting up a confession.

Only to catch Maud kissing another man.

Alfred lost it. He charged forward like a man possessed and slammed his fist into the guy's face.

But in the next second, Maud stepped in front of the man, shielding him, her brow furrowed in irritation.

"Alfred, what the hell is wrong with you? You're acting like a rabid dog!"

Alfred stood frozen, disbelief etched across his face. "You're defending him. Over me."

"Defending him? He's my boyfriend."

Maud looked at him like he'd lost his mind. Then she looped her arm through the other man's and walked away.

After that, Alfred watched helplessly as the girl he loved drifted further and further from his world.

Maud started wearing high-end makeup, spending more and more time with men outside their circle.

She even—

He saw her with his own eyes, climbing into a Porsche late one night.

They had the worst fight they'd ever had, followed by a brutal cold war.

"Maud, what happened to you? You've become so shallow, so materialistic. You're not even the same person anymore."

"Who are you to judge me?" Maud shot back with a bitter laugh. "Alfred, take a good look at yourself. You're acting like you own me. Am I your girlfriend? Because last time I checked, I'm not."

"I'm not your girlfriend. Save your breath."

In a blaze of anger, they severed ties completely.

The day Maud left the country, she walked into the airport on another man's arm, laughing and chatting without a care in the world.

Alfred stood not far from the entrance, watching her silhouette disappear. The rims of his eyes were red.

His knuckles were white from clenching.

That night, he drank himself into oblivion.

He was dead weight, slumped like a ragdoll. I tried to get him home but couldn't carry him no matter what I did.

In the end, I booked a room at a nearby hotel.

The moment I hauled him through the door, Alfred found some reserve of strength I didn't know he had. He pinned me against the wall, then pressed me down onto the bed.

His voice came out raw and hoarse.

"Maria. Be my girlfriend."

"I can tell. You like me."

"You've been by my side all these years because you wanted this, didn't you? Well, here's your chance."

That day, I genuinely believed that fate had finally tipped in my favor.

But it wasn't long before Alfred looked at me with that cold expression of his and said, "Let's keep this between us."

I didn't quite understand. "You mean... a secret relationship?"

"Yeah."

He took a sip of his drink, his tone still detached.

"I'm not ready to announce it to everyone. We'll wait for the right time."

He knew that whatever he asked of me, I'd agree.

So keeping our relationship hidden—

I wasn't going to refuse that, either.

Like a fool, I savored my hard-won happiness in secret, tasting every stolen crumb of it.

Until the night we were tangled together, and Alfred let a name slip from his lips without thinking. "Maud..."

It hit me like a bolt of lightning.

The whisper was barely audible.

But I heard it. Every syllable. It was Maud Matthews' name.

My boyfriend, in our most intimate moment, had been fantasizing about another woman.

Sophie kept chattering away on the phone, jumping from one topic to the next.

"Maud just got back to the States last month. Word is, some of the old classmates are throwing a reunion. You'd better not skip it."

"Besides, Alfred was basically the golden boy of Cloudvale University. I heard he's going too."

I looked around my apartment at the boxes packed to the brim.

"I probably... won't be able to make it."

"I'm heading back to Harbor City before the end of next week."

Sophie's interest perked up instantly. "Harbor City? What for? Oh wait, that's right, Harbor City is your hometown, isn't it?"

"We went to college here in Cloudvale. I honestly thought you'd stay here forever after graduation."

That had been the plan.

Alfred was a Cloudvale native. After college, my family called me back to Harbor City time and again to take over the family business, and I refused every single time.

I didn't want to leave Alfred. I was foolish enough to believe we had a future together.

But eight years of chasing him, three years of being his secret—none of it was enough to make Alfred forget Maud. None of it made him truly fall in love with me.

So I gave up.

And the reunion that had been organized specifically to welcome Maud back from overseas? I had zero interest in attending.

Three days later, though, Sophie showed up uninvited, taking a cab straight to my apartment building and physically dragging me out.

"Come on, Maria, just go! The more the merrier."

"It's been years since any of us have seen each other. When are you going to get another chance like this?"

She shoved me into the car before I could even protest. I had no room to refuse, so I gritted my teeth and went.

The reunion was packed. Loud. Everyone was in high spirits.

They were playing truth or dare.

I sat in the corner.

I watched as the crowd pushed Alfred and Maud together, cheering and whistling.

"You know, back in the day, these two were Cloudvale University's golden couple. And now, after all these years, here they are again—both single, right?"

The guy speaking shot knowing glances around the room, clearly angling to play matchmaker.

I lifted my gaze and watched Alfred quietly. He glanced at me, just once, his expression flat. Then he looked away.

"Cut it out."

Alfred held his glass up. "Whatever the punishment is, I'll down three drinks instead."

He raised the glass to his lips, but someone next to him grabbed his arm.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa—no way. Just drinking? Where's the fun in that?"

The guy looked between the two of them with a sly grin.

"How about you two kiss? Then we'll call it even."

Alfred's eyes flicked instinctively toward Maud. She covered her face, laughing with exaggerated helplessness. "I knew it."

She took a deep breath, steeled herself, and stood.

"Fine. We're both single. Who's scared?"

Alfred didn't refuse. She rose on her tiptoes. He leaned down.

A quick, featherlight kiss.

The room erupted.

I kept my head down. My nails dug into my palms until crescent-shaped welts carved themselves deep into the skin.

A few more rounds passed before it was my turn.

Someone studied me with a thoughtful expression. "Maria, you're such a pretty girl. How come you've been single all these years?"

I smiled and shook my head. "I'm not."

"What?"

Alfred's entire body went rigid. His phone was in his hand instantly, a message firing off to me: "Don't forget what you promised me. Don't say anything stupid."

Then another: "And about what just happened—don't be jealous. I'll explain when we get home."

I let out a quiet, bitter laugh.

Every single time. He was always terrified I'd slip up in public, that I'd let our secret relationship spill out.

Especially when Maud was around.

That probably had him in a cold sweat right now.

Alfred assumed I was jealous over the kiss. But I couldn't have cared less.

I didn't look at his messages. I just smiled and swept my gaze across the room.

"I'm getting married next week. I just haven't had the chance to tell everyone yet."

Dead silence.

Alfred's hand froze mid-air. His head snapped toward me.

For the rest of the evening, his body stayed coiled tight, his gaze drifting to me again and again when he thought I wouldn't notice.

I laughed and chatted with other classmates like nothing had happened. When the reunion finally wound down and I stepped outside to call a cab—

A hand shot out and pulled me into the shadows.

I opened my mouth to scream, but then I caught it: that familiar scent of pine.

Alfred.

"Well, well. Our little Maria's learned how to lie."

His gaze swept over me, half-scrutinizing, half-amused.

"What, just because I haven't come to see you for a few days?"

"Is that really worth throwing a tantrum? Making up some story about marrying someone else, right to my face?"

He stepped closer, his voice dropping. "Or is this your way of telling me you want us to get married?"

So he didn't believe a word of it. He thought I was simply bluffing to get his attention.

I didn't bother explaining.

I lowered my head, reached into my bag, and pulled out a small gift box, no bigger than my palm. I held it out to him.

"I've been meaning to give you this."

"Consider it a belated birthday present. For your twenty-seventh."

"Just promise me you won't open it for three days."