Chapter 4

### Chapter 4

I came home carrying my resignation letter.

Delivery bags were piled at the front door — flowers, all sorts of little trinkets and skincare.

Every one of them was a holiday gift Felix had bought me before. Cheap, all of it, and yet I'd guarded it carefully for years, kept it looking brand new.

Before I could react, Felix noticed me first and offered an explanation. "Olive hasn't been feeling well these past few days. She might stay here for a while, so I'm having the place tidied up."

I said nothing. I watched him tell the staff to take away my usual meal plan and replace it with high-protein shrimp and steak.

He'd forgotten that after crying myself sick the night before and spending the whole night in the living room, I'd caught a chill.

With this cough, I couldn't eat any of that.

Then, afraid the smell of perfume might bother Olive, he threw out every one of my scented candles without a second thought, never mind that they were what I needed to calm my nerves and help me sleep.

The truth was that Olive had slipped into my life with Felix a long time ago, without a sound.

The gardenias that had always sat in the house were swapped out for jasmine. Felix said Olive had recommended it — a lighter scent, more refined and gentle.

The closet filled up with pale-colored nightgowns he never once would have tried before. He explained that Olive said light colors were more cheerful, that they lifted the mood of whoever wore them instead of weighing them down.

I watched him sitting on the sofa, that familiar delivery app open on his phone.

He was picking out stretch-mark oil for her.

The next second, a voice message popped up.

Felix tapped play on reflex.

Olive's soft, girlish voice came through. "Felix, honey, you told me last time that my sister's sensitive and ticklish, so I had someone buy a few little things that won't do any harm. They'll definitely bring you and my sister closer…"

Felix caught himself in time and cut it off, then looked at me with a rare flicker of guilt in his eyes.

All I felt was the blood in me going cold all at once, my fingertips trembling and refusing to stop.

"Felix, so even the most private things between us are something for you to chat and joke about with her?"

He panicked visibly, tried to explain, and I cut him off.

"I'm not gossip for the two of you to laugh over."

Maybe the line struck something he didn't want touched. Felix frowned.

"Leila, Olive is your own sister. What's so wrong with talking about that kind of thing? She's just sick and staying a couple of days, and she thought of bringing you a little gift because she didn't want to intrude. It isn't nearly as serious as you're making it out to be. Stop being so petty about everything."

I tugged at the corner of my mouth. It was absurd.

Even now he thought I was sulking, competing for his affection.

Honestly, I'd never understood how Felix could tell his fiancée to take care of his pregnant mistress without so much as a change in his expression.

But by now the disappointment had piled up enough that explanations no longer mattered.

I took a deep breath and said quietly,

"Felix, we're done here."

"What did you say?" He froze for a moment, and his face darkened all at once.

But I acted as if I hadn't seen it, staring at him and spelling it out word by word.

"I said, we're over."

Felix looked at me.

The air went solid.

Before long the menace drained out of him, leaving only a deep weariness.

He lifted a hand and rubbed the space between his brows.

"You won't be satisfied until it comes to burning every bridge?"

He frowned, staring at me, his voice full of exhaustion and irritation.

"Leila, are you sure you can get by without me? Where would you go if you left? Off to save your father's hollow shell of a company?"

He sighed. "Leila, you aren't half as sweet and easy as Olive."

My gaze settled on his eyes, and no matter how I tried, I couldn't line up the man in front of me with the boy who once had eyes only for me.

Six years ago, when the company was surging ahead, a rival who couldn't get a grip on Felix turned on me instead. They grabbed me while I was out and dragged me to an abandoned warehouse.

To save me, he gave up a project worth hundreds of millions and rushed to the warehouse alone. When he saw the thugs manhandling me, even with three ribs already broken, he threw himself over me and shielded me with his own body.

Afterward, he blamed himself more than once, so much that no matter how busy work got, he never missed a single combat class after that.

He said he had to protect the one he loved.

Until Olive came along, and made a stubborn man who would never bend his own rules bend them for her, over and over.

I laughed to myself inside. "Felix, do you have any idea? All those times you missed the date to get our marriage license so you could keep Olive company, my father and I were out begging people, spending the last of our connections to open doors for you."

"When you were racking your brain over some intimate little surprise for her, I was handling every headache at home alone, not daring to slow the company down even when my fever hit a hundred and four."

"So the one who poured out her heart to lift up your career and never once asked for your company doesn't know how to behave, and Olive, who only needs you to spend money coaxing and keeping her company and doesn't share a shred of the pressure, is the sweet and easy one. Is that right?"