Chapter 2

I peeled off my jacket and threw it on the floor, my voice hard.

"Until this account is settled, there's no wedding today."

The guests below erupted.

The buzz of it rolled up onto the stage like a tide.

Something like humiliation flickered across Anne's face.

I looked away, hiding the last flicker of struggle in my own eyes.

The truth was, Anne hadn't always been like this.

Seven years together, and we'd never once fought about money.

Anything I glanced at twice while we were out would be sitting in our living room the next day.

Back then she was always saying it.

"When you love someone, you buy them the things they love most, the very best."

Until the gifts piled up with nowhere left to put them.

Until Jackson came home from abroad.

He started preaching that male-independence theory of hers to anyone who'd listen.

Called a man who accepts gifts like that a kept man, a leech rotting from his own weakness.

Without asking me, he listed every single thing Anne had ever given me on a resale app, dirt cheap.

【My friend bought these for her deadweight boyfriend. Selling them off cheap.】

And every last cent from those sales went straight into his pocket.

Then he set to work getting Anne into the habit, starting with the wedding, of splitting every cost with me.

He clamped a hand on Anne's arm, his tone looking down from on high.

"Long-term dependence on someone else only leaves you unable to stand on your own."

"You need to help him build the habit of independence. Don't let love make him lose himself."

I thought Anne would refuse.

But she took it all in, and then took it further than anyone.

She talked me into it.

"Jack's an expert on men's issues, he knows all this. Listen to him, you can't go wrong."

"Ferdinand, I'm doing this for your own good too."

And now every dollar she'd saved off me had gone straight to Jackson.

Anne pulled the stack of receipts out of my hand, tore them up in front of me, and dropped them in the trash.

"Forget the old accounts."

"Have some sense. Don't embarrass your parents."

I turned toward the crowd on instinct.

At the head table sat Anne's mother and father and Jackson's relatives. The two figures I was looking for weren't there at all.

Something in my eyes went cold.

"Anne, where are my parents?"

She touched the pearl at her earlobe, her tone matter-of-fact.

"They weren't willing to split half the cash gifts with the Delgados."

"They can't eat at this reception for free."

"The Henson side, I talked them all out of coming."

I slowly tightened my fist, the knuckles going white.

"Then why are Jackson's relatives here?"

"More people means the room actually looks full."

"They were kind enough to come and help. Don't keep picking at it."

Behind him, at some point Jackson had slipped the ring off the tray and onto his own finger.

"Nice stone, good fire on it. One day I'll buy myself one off my own back too."

Anne glanced back and didn't stop him.

"If you like it, keep it on a few days for fun."

I went to snatch it back.

My hand had barely reached out when someone slapped it down, hard.

I stared at Anne, my eyes stinging.

"That's my ring."

She held up the receipt and the transfer record and pressed them against my face.

"Half of what's on there is mine. I have the right to decide where it goes."

"Giving it to you doesn't make it all yours."

Jackson stood behind him, holding his phone up, taking selfies.

The ring pressed to his cheek picked up the foundation caked on his skin, thick and greasy, and would never wipe clean again.

My chest heaved a few quick times.

"Fine."

"Then marry him."

But the moment I turned, the room in front of me spun.

I grabbed Anne's arm on instinct, and the next second I dropped into darkness.