Chapter 2

Rodney Sanchez was actually my first love.

It was just that later, I couldn't quite handle his overpowering possessiveness.

Now, looking back on it.

Possessiveness—how wonderful.

It's better than having no sense of boundaries at all.

The staff in the VIP area gave me a new boarding pass.

When Leo Gilbert's buddies saw that I hadn't left, they figured I'd resigned myself to it and crowded around me.

Everard spoke up in his sleazy way.

"Come on, don't be sore at us. What you said earlier, we'll just treat it as a joke."

"I heard the hotel we're staying at on the trip is owned by your family."

"We're all buddies here, so why don't you just have your family bump my room up? We'll all be family soon anyway, so we'll just call it a nice experience."

Sid does social media, and his eyes were full of excitement.

"That way I can even work up a rich-heir identity for myself."

"I've already posted my vlog, so you'd better set us up right, Peggy."

"You take care of us, and once you and Leo are married, we'll definitely take good care of you too."

That word he used—"take care of"—I knew all too well what it meant.

Leo comes from a nouveau-riche background, and a lot of his friends are guys he's known since childhood.

When Leo and I were getting ready to get engaged.

This crowd of his friends chipped in with their bright ideas.

Said they wanted to give me an unforgettable engagement.

The result was that on the engagement day itself, they hired nightclub dancers to perform up on the stage.

The banquet tables, which should have been spread with dishes, they swapped out for cheap little snacks—the kind kids buy at the market for a few bucks a pound.

Marianne even snatched the emcee's job outright and ran her mouth up on the stage.

"Doesn't Peggy love a sense of occasion?"

"We're just helping you get back your childhood sense of occasion. Aren't you touched?"

Neither set of parents looked pleased.

Only Leo and that crowd of his clapped and roared with laughter.

"You guys really have some imagination."

"An engagement like this—truly unforgettable for a lifetime."

The farce of that engagement ceremony got around, and for a while I became the joke of our circle.

Over it, my eyes went red with anger more times than I could count.

"A sense of occasion?"

"As if you people deserve one."

"Peggy, that's going a little too far."

Leo frowned, then shifted into a coaxing tone:

"My buddies just wanted to liven up the mood a little. Besides, romance can't put food on the table."

"It's a trip either way, so what does it matter who you go with? If you mind, I'll let them go have their fun first, and I'll mostly keep you company."

Hit you with the stick first, then hand you a sweet date.

He'd leave a promise behind, then turn right around and run off to have his fun.

And if I questioned him, his first move would be to play the pitiful victim:

"Haven't I done everything I promised you?"

"I just step out for a little while, and you have to tie me to your side."

"I'm a person, not some cat or dog you're keeping."

Questioned, blamed.

Back then, I really believed I was the one in the wrong.

I searched myself, wondering whether my need for control really had gone too far.

He was a person, he needed his own independent space.

But thinking about it now—he was the one who made the promise, so why did it become my fault when he was the one who broke it?

I said nothing, but he took my silence as agreement.

He turned and went into the dining area to eat, while new messages kept popping up in the group chat on my phone.

Heaven, grant me a wife like her—rich, gorgeous, and best of all, one who lets her husband go out and run wild.

Peggy used to be way out of reach, and now she's like this—it's all thanks to Leo's skill at managing his wife.

They seemed to have forgotten I was in the group too.

So they went at it even more shamelessly.

Leo, how'd you land a wife like her?

Teach us the method, please.

Leo sent a smiley sticker, and before he could say anything, Marianne jumped in first.

Better than asking Leo, ask me.

The method's simple: it's like raising a dog.

Treat her well, really well, treat her like a little princess. Once she thinks you're her whole world, you go hot and cold, keep her at arm's length, and leave her anxious and insecure.