: One

In the spring of my third year with my childhood sweetheart, Shane Sinclair, we came to Aethelburg.

Shane Sinclair held my hand.

"Cece," those handsome, captivating eyes looked especially affectionate in the darkness.

"Would a setting like this work for a proposal?"

My heart stopped in that instant.

The Iron Tower, the Serene River, spring in Aethelburg, our clasped hands—it was all as perfect as a scene from a movie.

I opened my mouth, joy nearly overflowing from my throat.

I wanted to say, "I will."

I wanted to say, "I've been waiting for this moment for so long."

But before the words could leave my lips, Shane Sinclair leaned in intimately beside my ear.

"I think a place like this is just right for proposing to Tanya Gable."

The world fell silent at that moment.

All I could hear were Shane Sinclair's careless words:

"You should get together with my brother. That way, Tanya Gable will marry me."

1

I stood frozen in place.

Shane Sinclair was still looking at me, a gentle smile in his eyes. "Do you think Tanya will like it here?"

Tanya Gable is my older sister.

The Gable and Sinclair families have been friends for generations. Back when our mothers were pregnant, they arranged a marriage pact.

The Gable family had Tanya and me; the Sinclair Family had Julian and Shane Sinclair.

Tanya's light shone so brightly, it easily cast me into the shadows. Everyone adored Tanya, and Shane Sinclair was no exception.

Growing up, Shane Sinclair's attention was always fixed on Tanya.

He gave her the best of everything, always trailing behind her, endlessly calling, "Tanya! Tanya!"

Until one day, in front of everyone, Tanya Gable threw everything he had given her into a trash can.

"Shane Sinclair, you're such a pest! Stay away from me!"

That day, with red-rimmed eyes, Shane Sinclair found me reading in a corner of the Gable family's garden.

He said gruffly, "Acknowledge me as your leader, and I'll have your back." I refused.

When I was seven, I accidentally fell into the pond in the Sinclair's backyard.

The water covered my mouth and nose. I struggled, but only sank deeper.

Just then, a hand grabbed me and pulled me forcefully onto the bank.

Coughing, I opened my eyes and saw Shane Sinclair. In the sunlight, he looked as if he were outlined in gold.

"You're okay now," he said. "Be more careful from now on."

From then on, I became Shane Sinclair's little shadow.

If he got in a fight, I'd hand him a brick. If he skipped class, I'd cover for him. If he was punished by being made to stand, I'd sneak him food.

Everyone said that the Gables' younger daughter was the second Sinclair son's most loyal shadow.

In junior high, I was bullied. A group of girls cornered me in the bathroom.

The next day, Shane Sinclair somehow heard about it. He got into a fight at the school gates with the ringleader and the boys she brought with her. His lip was bleeding and his uniform was filthy, but he fiercely wiped the blood away:

"As long as I'm here, I'd like to see anyone try and bully her."

I stood behind him, my heart pounding like a war drum.

On a rainy night three years ago, we drank too much at a party.

Shane Sinclair walked me home, and there, in the empty living room of the Gable house, he kissed me.

From then on, we did everything a couple could do.

Everyone assumed we would get married sooner or later. Even both sets of parents tacitly approved.

Even our elders would often laugh and say, "Once Cece and Shane get married, our generation's greatest wish will be fulfilled."

I had always believed it too.

Until this moment, when all my illusions were shattered.

My nose stung, and my vision started to blur. I hung my head in misery. "I'm sure my sister will love it."

Shane Sinclair seemed completely oblivious to my distress. He tousled my hair and said smugly, "Of course she will. I mean, just look who has such good taste. I even arranged for fireworks."

: Be Obedient

I imagined fireworks exploding across the sky above The Iron Tower. I pictured Shane Sinclair getting on one knee to propose to Tanya Gable, and my stomach churned.

"What's wrong? You seem a little down." Shane Sinclair finally noticed my silence and leaned in to look at my downcast face.

I forced a smile. "Maybe I'm still jet-lagged."

"Fair enough," he nodded, then excitedly launched into his plan again. "Once my workaholic brother marries you, you'll be so free! All he ever does is attend meetings and read financial statements. He probably won't even lay a finger on you. You'll be able to do whatever you want. Isn't that great?"

I snapped my head up.

The pain, slow to arrive, finally spread from my heart through my entire body.

I took a step back, dodging the arm he habitually tried to sling around my shoulder. My voice held a sharp edge I hadn't even realized was there. "That's right. I'll use your brother's black card to order a dozen male models every day!"

Shane Sinclair froze.

In the darkness of the night, his expression was momentarily unreadable.

Then he chuckled softly, reaching out to cup my face and force me to look at him. "After seeing a face like mine, you think you'd still be interested in other male models?"

His thumb caressed my cheek in a familiarly intimate gesture.

We were too close. So close I could smell the faint scent of his cologne—the one I had given him for his birthday last year.

"Shane Sinclair, you—"

His kiss cut off my words.

My back pressed against the cold railing of The Iron Tower, his burning body flush against mine.

The gasps of tourists echoed from a distance as the first firework shot into the sky.

Shane Sinclair finally let me go.

Amidst the deafening roar of the fireworks, I heard myself whisper, "Shane Sinclair, I love you."

He didn't hear me. He was looking up at the sky, his profile bathed in a soft glow from the fireworks, a gentle smile on his face.

I looked up and saw the custom fireworks in the sky spelling out a few words: TANYA GABLE, I LOVE YOU.

The last of the fireworks faded, and the world fell silent once more.

Shane Sinclair turned to me, his tone casual. "By the way, there's something else I wanted to talk to you about."

Still clinging to a ridiculous sliver of hope, I looked up at him.

"My brother is also here on business. You should stick close to him, try to bring him here. I'll get someone to take some cleverly angled photos that look intimate. We'll create a buzz online, saying you're the wife of President Sinclair. Under pressure from public opinion, my dad will definitely make him marry you."

He paused, then added in a placating tone, "You don't even have to really touch him, so it won't be awkward. Be good, okay?"

'Be good.'

That one phrase defined my entire relationship with Shane Sinclair. Be good and act as his little tagalong. Be good and wait for him to finally turn around and notice me. Be good and appear when he needed me, then disappear when he didn't.

Twenty years of companionship, three years of intimacy. It went on for so long that I actually believed we were in love. How laughable.

The lingering smell of gunpowder from the fireworks drifted over, mixing with the mist from The Serene River. I heard my own hoarse voice reply, "Okay."

Shane Sinclair smiled. "Good girl."

The next day, Shane Sinclair dragged me to the luxury boutiques on Elysian Avenue.

"Let me buy you something," he said casually, but his eyes kept darting toward the street outside, as if he were waiting for someone. "I can't have you helping me for nothing, after all."

I smiled bitterly to myself.

'It wasn't even about helping anymore. It was just a transaction.'

: The Third Person

He picked up a beige, wide-brimmed hat and placed it on my head. After fiddling with it for a moment, he nodded in satisfaction, looking like he was trying to suppress a smile. "I'll take the entire collection," he told the clerk.

Just as the clerk was boxing everything up, a powerful shove sent me stumbling to the side.

My heels skidded on the slick marble floor. I staggered a few steps but couldn't regain my balance and collapsed onto the ground.

A sharp pain flared from my elbow and knees. I lifted my head and saw Tanya Gable's exquisite face.

Acting as if she hadn't even seen me, she walked straight up to Shane Sinclair. Her voice was laced with suppressed fury. "Where is Julian Sinclair? I followed him all the way to Veridia, and he won't even give me his address."

Before, whenever I fell or got pushed around, Shane Sinclair was always the first to rush to my side.

He would gently help me up, check me for injuries, and then stand protectively in front of me.

But this time, he didn't.

He didn't even glance my way. Instead, he hurried forward, gently steadying Tanya Gable, who was slightly out of breath from running in. "Careful," he said. "You rushed in so fast. Don't slip."

The tenderness and concern in his voice felt like daggers in my ears.

"I'm never kept in the loop on family business," Shane Sinclair continued, his fingers naturally tucking a stray curl behind Tanya Gable's ear. "I've told you before, my brother isn't interested in you. Why are you forcing it?"

Tanya Gable reacted as if she'd heard the funniest joke in the world, shoving Shane Sinclair's hand away. "He doesn't like me? He won't marry me? What, is he supposed to like Cecilia Gable instead?"

Only then did her gaze finally land on me, still sprawled on the floor.

Her look was dismissive, as if she were inspecting a worthless knickknack. "Sloppy, timid, and utterly unpresentable. How could someone like that ever be worthy of being the wife of President Sinclair?"

It was only then that Shane Sinclair glanced at me, his eyes ordering me to leave.

I quietly scrambled to my feet, brushed the dust from my skirt, and slipped out of the shop, head bowed. Even as I left, I could still hear them talking.

"My dearest sister, you're not going to make me marry Cecilia Gable, are you? Can't you give me a chance, too?"

I heard their intimate banter, followed by Tanya Gable's crisp laughter. "In your dreams."

My elbows and knees still throbbed with a dull ache, but compared to the hollowness in my heart, the physical pain was practically nothing.

My phone buzzed in my pocket—a special notification sound.

The one I had set just for Shane Sinclair.

I pulled out my phone. On the screen was a location pin from Shane Sinclair. "Go here and find my brother. While you're there, find out what his plans are."

I stared at the message for a long time, so long that the screen timed out and went dark. Only then did I raise my hand to hail a cab.

The location pin led to a quiet, residential neighborhood of villas.

As I rang the doorbell, I steeled myself for rejection.

Julian Sinclair—Shane Sinclair's older brother, the true power behind the Sinclair Group—was notoriously cold and aloof.

The door opened.

Julian Sinclair stood there in a simple white cotton shirt and gray slacks, a pair of gold-rimmed glasses perched on his nose.

He had obviously just finished working; his laptop was still open on the coffee table in the living room.

When he saw me, his eyes widened slightly, betraying genuine surprise.

"Cecilia Gable?" His voice was a little deeper than I remembered. "What are you doing here?"

I forced a smile. "I came here on a trip with Shane. Something came up so he couldn't make it, and he asked me to pay you a visit."

A flicker of something crossed Julian Sinclair's eyes, and the hint of a smile at his lips faded slightly. "Is that so." He still stepped aside to let me pass. "Come on in."

The villa's interior was done in a minimalist, modern style. Expansive floor-to-ceiling windows looked out onto a meticulously manicured garden.