Chapter 2

"What are you talking about?" My mind went entirely blank. I could only ask instinctively.

Julian walked over to the sofa and sat down with effortless elegance, crossing his legs. He was back to being the untouchable, elite heir everyone feared.

When he looked at me, it was like looking at an inanimate object.

"To put it simply," he said in a flat tone, as if reading a financial report. "About six months ago, my body was hijacked by a consciousness calling itself a 'Tasker.'

"His sole purpose was to complete a so-called romance quest—to woo you and make you fall in love with him."

A Tasker? A romance quest?

These bizarre words struck my ears like gunshots, leaving me dizzy and disoriented.

"Now, his mission is done. He took his reward points and left. And I, Julian Sterling, the rightful owner of this body, am back."

He paused, his eyes resting on my pale, bloodless face without a shred of pity.

"So, Miss Vance, the last six months were nothing more than a ridiculous play. The man you fell for was just a hollow consciousness—a con artist who did whatever it took to hit his targets.”

“ Now that the curtain has dropped, I expect you to snap out of it and return to what we actually are: business partners."

"No... that’s impossible..." I muttered, stumbling backward until my spine hit the cold wall. "He wasn’t a liar! He loved me! I felt it!"

"Felt it?" Julian scoffed, his laugh laced with disdain.

"Women and their pathetic intuition. Everything he did was purely to check off his mission checklist. Now that I’m back, you’d better erase him from your mind. There will never be anything between us beyond mutual profit."

My tears finally broke free, streaming down my face.

All that suffocating devotion and spoiling... it had all been a calculated lie.

The person I fell in love with didn't even truly exist.

For the next few days, I lived like a walking corpse.

I tried to swallow this brutal truth.

I tried to convince myself that this icy Julian was my real, legal husband.

I forced myself to adapt to his rules. He hated clutter and bright colors, so I quietly boxed up the colorful throw pillows we had picked out together. He demanded absolute silence, so I walked on tiptoe around the house.

Until one afternoon, Martha, our housekeeper, brought out a bowl of fresh strawberries.

Plump, bright red, and smelling intensely sweet. My heart seized in pain.

Strawberries were my absolute favorite. And "his" favorite thing to do was feed them to me by hand, always biting off the green stem and saving the sweetest tips for me.

My eyes instantly welled up.

Sitting across from me reviewing documents, Julian caught the sweet scent in the air and frowned in disgust. "What is that smell? It’s sickeningly sweet."

"Sir, it's... strawberries for Chloe," Martha answered softly.

"Get rid of it," Julian ordered without looking up, his tone leaving no room for argument. "I despise strawberries."

Martha shot me a helpless look.

I sniffled and forced a weak smile. "It's fine, Martha. Take them away."

"If you're that desperate for them," Julian said suddenly, raising his sharp, penetrating gaze to me, "eat them when I'm not in the house."

His words carried a cruel clarity, like he could see right through the grief crashing inside me.

"Chloe Vance," he said, setting his papers down and leaning forward slightly. "You seem obsessed with a phantom. I suggest you get over it. That 'other guy' does not exist. And as for me?"

He pointed a finger at his own chest, his gaze cold and unyielding.

"I will never fall for any woman. In my world, the family empire is the only thing that matters."

When the strawberries were taken away, they took the very last shred of my self-delusion with them.

The man I loved was truly never coming back.