Hilda startled, quickly averting her gaze.

She'd long since steeled herself for the inevitable reunion with Jasper. She just hadn't expected it to come so soon.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught him trying to move toward her.

Her chest tightened. She stepped back instinctively, and at that exact moment, her father appeared at her side and took her hand.

"Hildie." His eyes crinkled with barely contained joy. "Come on, sweetheart. Let me introduce you to a few of my old friends."

Hilda exhaled in relief and fell into step beside him.

Vivienne followed the direction of Jasper's stare, glancing left and right, utterly baffled by what could have made him look like his soul had left his body.

"Jasper! What's wrong with you? Get a grip!"

She clamped down on his wrist, refusing to let him leave her side.

Jasper was frantic. He pried her off and snapped under his breath, "Let go."

Vivienne stumbled, unprepared, her hip slamming into the corner of the table hard enough to drain the color from her face.

A champagne tower shattered on impact. Glass and liquid sprayed across the floor, and every head in the vicinity turned.

Jasper's gaze swept the crowd. Hilda was already gone.

"Jasper."

Vivienne's forearm was pressed into the broken glass, blood streaming down her skin. She reached for him and grasped nothing but air. The amused, pitying stares from the guests around her burned like needles in her back.

"Jasper!"

He didn't look back. He plunged into the crowd, chasing the direction where Hilda had disappeared.

After meeting her father's friends, Hilda made an excuse and slipped back to her room.

The noise from the grand hall drifted up in waves. She turned over the dazzling array of jewelry her father had laid out for her, and a hollow ache settled in her chest without warning.

The alley where she'd grown up was in an old village on the outskirts of the city. There had been no shortage of girls her age among the neighbors, but most of them had been married off young, their futures decided by their parents.

Only Hilda had made it through the doors of a high school, carried there on the pennies her grandmother scraped together, one recycled bottle and one flattened cardboard box at a time.

She could count on one hand the number of times she'd seen Grandma Nora cry in her entire life. The only time was when Hilda had gotten into a top high school but started talking about dropping out because of the staggering cost of tuition and textbooks. Her grandmother had slapped her across the face, tears streaming down her own cheeks.

Then she'd pulled Hilda into her arms and sobbed. That night, Grandma Nora had gone deep into the back of the old cabinet and brought out a tin box. Inside was a small gold locket engraved with the character for "Summers."

That was the first time Hilda had ever touched the secret of her own origins.

But reality didn't leave room for dwelling on it. The little locket became numbers in a bank account, carrying her through high school and then through college.

She didn't know when her father had come in. He picked up the photograph of her and Grandma Nora from the table and studied it for a long time.

"I searched for you for over twenty years."

His eyes were rimmed with red. "After your mother passed, I was a wreck for a long time. I neglected you, and that's how they got the chance to take you."

Hilda looked at the silver threading through his hair. After a long silence, she asked, "How come you never remarried?"

This enormous house was so empty. The housekeeper only came on Sundays. Every other day, her father lived here alone.

He blinked, then smiled. "I was waiting for you."

"I was afraid a stepmother wouldn't treat you right, so I stayed single. And then after you went missing, I had even less heart for it. All I could think about was finding you and bringing you home."

Hilda's nose stung.

After Grandma Nora's death, after the man she loved betrayed her, after the car accident left her lying on the operating table, she had genuinely wanted to die.

It was her father who had kept her alive. He'd flown in equipment from overseas, tracked down the best surgeons from every corner of the country, and fought with everything he had to pull her back.

She owed it to him to live well from now on.

Calvin wiped his eyes, then said suddenly, "That young man from the Fairmont family came looking for me just now."

"He seemed like he knew you pretty well. Kept asking if he could see you. Do you two know each other?"

Hilda's chest seized. The color drained from her face.

Calvin caught the shift in her expression and sensed something was off. He was about to go back downstairs and turn the young man away himself when Hilda stood up.

"We've met in passing, that's all. I'll go see what he wants."

The gala had ended and the last of the guests had gone. Only Jasper remained, waiting alone.

He sat hunched forward, shoulders slumped, and the instant his ears caught the sound of footsteps behind him, he shot to his feet and lunged toward them.

"Hilda!"

The chair legs scraped across the floor with a piercing shriek.

"It really is you. It's really you. I knew I wasn't seeing things. It's really you."

Hilda stepped aside, dodging the hand he reached toward her.

"My father doesn't know about you and me. Don't come looking for me again."

Jasper's pupils trembled. His lips went white. "Hilda, you can't do this."

"You have no idea how long I've been searching for you. When I found out what happened, I nearly lost my mind. You can't even imagine what people have been saying about me behind my back. Hilda, look at me."

"I'm begging you. Look at me."

Hilda didn't so much as flinch. The fear that rose inside Jasper was unlike anything he'd ever felt, and his voice shook with it.

"Hilda, I know you resent me. And yes, it was my fault. But I'll make it up to you. All of it."

"Whatever you want, I can give it to you. I'll start planning the wedding right now, okay? We can go back to the way things were. We can just—"

Hilda cut him off. She couldn't stand another word.

"Jasper. Why?"

He blinked. "What?"

Every syllable fell like a stone. "Why do you assume that an apology entitles you to my forgiveness? Why do you take it for granted that I still want to marry you? Why, after you destroyed everything, do you have the nerve to stand in front of me?"

"So tell me, Jasper. Why?"

His mouth opened. Nothing came out.

Hilda turned and walked away, but for reasons she couldn't fathom, Jasper followed, trailing her like a shadow that refused to detach.

"I never realized the great Jasper Fairmont was this shameless. Or maybe I wasn't clear enough. Which word didn't you understand?"

His voice was raw with grief. "Hilda, please don't talk to me like that."

"I'm begging you. Don't speak to me this way. I can't take it."

In every memory he had of her, Hilda had always spoken to him softly, gently. In all their years together, she had been the one to back down after every argument. He simply could not absorb the distance between who she'd been and who stood before him now.

He wanted to keep trying, but his phone buzzed in his pocket.

He had no choice but to stop. He looked at Hilda with an expression that was equal parts desperate and pleading.

"I'll make this right. I mean it, Hilda. Wait for me."

Hilda didn't turn around.

She had far too much to do, too much to learn. But the person who came looking for her before Jasper could try again wasn't who she expected.

It was Vivienne.

"Hilda?"

Hilda turned. Vivienne stood three paces away.

She wore an all-white suit today, her makeup immaculate, but no amount of concealer could hide the bruised shadows beneath her eyes.

"It really is you, Hilda. You're actually—you're actually her!"

Her jaw clenched. Her entire body trembled with fury. "You're the daughter the Summers family found!"

"No wonder Jasper looked like someone had ripped his soul out at the gala. You're back."

Hilda offered a thin, indifferent smile. "It's been a while, Vivienne."

Vivienne's voice shot up an octave. "Hilda! You knew about your real family all along, didn't you? You hid it on purpose! You wanted Jasper to go crazy over you! You showed up at the welcome gala deliberately. This is revenge. You're punishing him. You're punishing both of us!"

"You must be so pleased with yourself. After you vanished, Jasper tore this city apart looking for you like a man possessed. He even risked offending my parents just to postpone the wedding!" Her voice cracked, sharp and jagged. "You ruined my entire life!"

Hilda stared at the woman in front of her, baffled by the sheer absurdity of it all.

"Vivienne," she said, "six months ago I was lying in the ICU waiting to die. I wasn't nearly as busy as you seem to think."

Vivienne froze.

Hilda held her gaze, reading the hostility burning there, and almost laughed at how ridiculous it was.

"You know what I kept thinking back then? If I died, who would even care?"

"Not Jasper. He was too busy playing house with you. My grandmother was already gone. My friends had no idea where I was. It seemed like there wasn't a single person on this earth who'd shed one tear for me."

"But now?"

"Now I have a father. He has money. He has connections. And if he wanted to, he could make life very, very difficult for the Fairmonts and the Blakes. Maybe not bring them to their knees, but enough to cause a world of trouble."

The color drained from Vivienne's face.

Hilda shrugged. "Do I need to spell it out for you, Miss Blake?"

She looked Vivienne dead in the eye.

"My father knows nothing about what happened between Jasper and me. And I have zero interest in telling him."

"Because I already died once. You and Jasper are nothing more than insignificant remnants of a life that's already dead and buried."

Vivienne's face flushed an ugly, mottled red.

"You—"

The driver pulled the car over to the curb. Hilda pushed the door open and left Vivienne with one final remark.

"I hope that after today, things go exactly the way you once told me they would."

"This is the last time we see each other, Vivienne. Keep yourself in check. And keep Jasper in check."

Jasper refused to give up. He cycled through phone number after phone number trying to get Hilda to meet him, and when nothing worked, he played his last card: Grandma Nora.

Hilda sat in the café, frowning at the man across from her. He'd dressed himself up to the nines, practically preening. She cut straight to the point. "Where's the necklace?"

Hurt flickered across Jasper's face. He pressed his lips together, then slowly, almost reluctantly, reached into his pocket and placed something on the table with painstaking care.

It was the necklace. The one he'd thrown off the bridge. The one that had caused her accident.

"Hildie." His eyes rimmed red. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been so reckless. I searched that bridge for days and nights, and these were the only beads I could find. This was the best I could get it repaired."

Hilda drew a long breath, picked up the necklace, and said, "Fine. I'm leaving."

Jasper choked. His hand shot out and caught her arm.

"Hilda, let me make it up to you. I'll buy you another one. Something nicer, something more expensive."

Hilda tilted her head and looked at him. A bitter smile crossed her lips. "Jasper, there's no need to trample all over my grandmother's love like that."

His expression changed.

"She had those two necklaces made with every penny she'd saved over her entire life, while she was already sick. Her wish was for you and me to live happily ever after." Hilda's voice was steady and merciless. "You lost the right to wear that necklace a long time ago."

Jasper's lips trembled, but not a single word came out.

"I still remember you asking me why I couldn't understand you."

Hilda ran her thumb along the fracture lines in the beads, and a strange, hollow smile surfaced on her face. "So tell me, did you ever once try to understand me?"

"I gave you seven years. I knew the pressure from your parents was enormous, so I gave up my career. Gave up my future. I learned flower arranging. I learned etiquette. I learned how to become the kind of high-society wife who'd be worthy of standing next to you."

"My hands were torn up by thorns. My feet bled through my heels. I swallowed every whisper from colleagues, every pitying look from friends, and I told myself you loved me. That you were just in a difficult position."

"And what did you do?"

"You got engaged to Vivienne behind my back. You let her destroy my reputation in front of my grandmother. You left my grandmother standing outside your company while she was humiliated, and even though you knew she was sick, even after she collapsed, you couldn't be bothered to spare her a single glance."

"When Grandma died, I called you, Jasper. Do you remember where you were? You were in bed with Vivienne."

Something cold slid down Hilda's cheek. She didn't know when the tears had started.

She lifted her hand, wiped them away, and kept going.

"Our baby died that same day, Jasper. Are you satisfied now?"