Chapter 1

The night I dropped my girlfriend off at her startup training class, my phone buzzed with a charge notice from the Fourth Season Hotel: $8,888 for the premier suite.

I called the hotel manager and demanded to know what was going on. His answer was polite.

"Mr. Finch, your girlfriend, Miss Cobb, checked into room 504 with a guest."

It hit me like a live wire. My hand was shaking as I dialed Rosalind Cobb.

The phone rang a long time before she picked up, and I could hear a man in the shower behind her.

"Julian Chavez just got into Ashford. I'm keeping him company while he settles in for a bit. Since when do you check up on me?"

Through my teeth, I asked her how she could take my money to book a room for another man and still face me.

Rosalind laughed, cold and sharp.

"Julian's got a complete startup plan this time. Once he lands Pinnacle Group's investment, his salary starts at ten million a year, minimum."

"So I catch up with the future boss. What's the problem?"

"A woman who's been protected by a lion isn't about to settle for suffering alongside a stray dog like you."

The line went dead.

On my computer screen sat the startup funding proposal Julian had just emailed me.

I told my secretary to reply and decline the investment outright.

...

1.

I carried our old photo album into the kitchen and turned on the gas burner.

Five years, from our first photo together to the last.

The flame was small. I burned them all night long.

By the time the last photo went up, the sky had gone light, and only then did Rosalind open the front door.

"What are you doing?"

"You've filled the whole place with smoke! Are you sick in the head?"

She kicked off her shoes and dropped onto the sofa, reeking of alcohol.

"Julian just got into Ashford last night. He had nowhere to stay, so I took him to the hotel to get settled."

"Then we had too much to drink and ended up talking about the startup for a while."

"You're a grown man, quit whining. Can't you think bigger than this?"

She grabbed a change of clothes in a hurry, turned, and walked back out without so much as a glance at me.

I checked the clock. Time for work.

I hadn't slept all night, and I sat through the meeting with my head like wood.

When it broke up, I scrolled my social media to shake off the fog.

The first thing on the feed was a new post from Rosalind.

The photo showed a busy shopping street, sunlight falling soft over everything.

She stood beside Julian, a faint smile on her face as she looked at him.

Dead center in the nine-photo grid was the two of them gazing into each other's eyes, easy and intimate.

The caption read: 【So much time has passed, and thank goodness neither of us has changed.】

It felt like someone had stamped down hard on my chest, every organ crushed into one tight knot.

Five years with Rosalind, and she had never once put up a single post about me.

Said I was just a small manager at a branch office. Not worth showing off.

Five years of us, and this was what it meant to her.

I wasn't going to keep playing the fool, and I sure wasn't going to keep bankrolling the two of them, so I canceled Rosalind's supplementary card.

Not half an hour later my phone was buzzing like mad. Rosalind called thirteen times in a row.

The second I picked up, her furious voice came through.

"Milton Finch! You canceled my card?"

"What is your problem? I'm out shopping with a friend. You want to humiliate me?"

"What are you trying to pull? A revolt?"

"I'm telling you, you have ten minutes to send the money. Otherwise we are finished!"

In the background Julian's voice slid in, snide and mocking. "Rose, this is exactly the kind of man you can't keep. You spend a little of his money and suddenly he thinks he's an emperor."

"Once my funding comes through, this pocket change is nothing."

"My salary starts at ten million a year, minimum. You'll be able to spend whatever you want."

"I'll set you up. Come work at my company as my executive secretary. A hundred grand a month, minimum."

"I just got back from overseas, that's all. My dollars aren't easy to use here yet, or a sum like this wouldn't even register."

Then I heard Rosalind's voice go sweet. "Julian's the best! Not like some broke little nobody."

She had never once used that tone with me.

"Milton, let me tell you something. Me spending your money is me doing you a favor!"

The call ended.

I set the phone down slowly, and it suddenly struck me as absurd.

Ten at night, Rosalind finally came home. The moment she was through the door she hurled her bag onto the sofa.

"Milton, you humiliated me today, completely!"

I sat in the dark and said nothing.

"Do you have any idea what it's like, standing in a luxury store, having your card declined while the salesgirl looks down her nose at you?"

"Julian was standing right there. How was I supposed to save face?"

"Did you do it on purpose?"

Her chest heaved with rage. "Milton, how much does a branch manager even make? Let me tell you, once Julian's company goes public, I'll have a job of my own!"

"By then, you could get down on your knees and beg me, and I still wouldn't spend a cent of your money!"

She slammed the bedroom door and locked it from the inside.

I drove my fist into the wall as hard as I could.

Five years. Five years, and all I'd raised was an ungrateful snake.