Chapter 1

When we got married, the only thing Rocco Visconti asked of me was to blow fifty million dollars within a year every

Chapter 1

The moment the car threw her through the air, Elena had only one thought: "Finally. A reason good enough to see my husband."

But even after she woke up in the emergency room of a private clinic with twelve stitches in her temple, Dante, the head of the De Luca family, still hadn't come.

Elena called his encrypted number. She heard the sound of a running shower, and then Bianca's breathy laugh.

"Dante's in the shower... Oh, wait. He's handling Family business.

"The clinic called about a car accident? You sounded fine, so I told him it wasn't urgent."

"You're not actually going to cry, are you? I'll be sure to remind him once he's out."

He Told Me to Leave, So I Did

Chapter 1

My fiancé, Elliot Hayes, hosted a late-night relationship advice show.

Every day, he told listeners to communicate before it was too late and not to give up on a relationship too quickly.

But whenever we fought, all he ever said to me was, "Can you grow up?"

Before our wedding, I hid my name and sent the story of our seven years together to his listener advice inbox.

The night he read my letter live on air, he gave his answer almost immediately.

"That man doesn't love you anymore."

"He missed your birthday. He left you ill and alone to go comfort a female coworker. It wasn't because he was busy. Someone else was simply more important."

I sat there by the radio, frozen for a long time.

So he understood everything.

His co-host asked, "Then why hasn't the woman left him?"

Elliot gave a short laugh.

"Because she's too attached to the seven years she's already invested. She can't bring herself to admit she chose the wrong man."

"Someone like that is easy to win back. Give her the silent treatment for a few days, buy her some flowers, and she'll come back on her own."

After the show ended, Elliot texted me.

[Still mad?]

[I bought you flowers. I'm on my way home.]

[I'll go to your bridal fitting with you tomorrow morning.]

He had no idea that the man he'd analyzed sentence by sentence was himself.

And I had already decided to take his advice.

Seven years was a long time.

But I wasn't going to waste the rest of my life on it too.

---

Not long after, I heard the lock turn.

Elliot walked in carrying a bouquet of white lilies and held them out to me.

My nose started itching almost immediately. I turned away and sneezed. A moment later, my throat began to itch too.

I pushed the flowers away at once.

When we'd first started dating, we'd once passed a flower shop and I'd sneezed a few times outside. Elliot had immediately taken my hand and led me across the street.

Back then, he'd been more nervous than I was, asking over and over if I felt okay.

"Lilies always made me feel unwell"

Elliot froze for a few seconds and looked down at the bouquet.

"Sorry. I've been busy with the listener event. I forgot."

He carried the lilies out to the balcony and handed it to me with a glass of water.

He finally remembered why I avoided lilies.

A card slipped from the wrapping paper.

[Wishing Elliot and Nora a lifetime of happiness. - Paige Lawson]

I stared at the card as the warmth slowly drained from my fingertips.

"Paige picked the flowers?"

"The show ended late, so I asked her to choose something for me."

Elliot bent down and picked up the card.

"She didn't know this. She meant well."

"You even had her choose the flowers you were giving me?"

His brows drew together.

"I paid for them, and I brought them home. Does it really matter who picked them?"

I looked at him and managed a bitter smile.

Only a few hours ago, he'd laughed on air about how easy I was to win back.

Give me the silent treatment for a few days, buy me flowers, and I'd come back on my own.

And now, he couldn't even be bothered to put any thought into placating me.

I set the card back on the table without answering.

Elliot nudged the glass of water toward me.

"Take it. You still have your bridal fitting tomorrow morning."

Then his phone rang.

Paige's tearful voice came through the speaker.

"Elliot, a pipe burst in my apartment. My living room is flooded."

"I can't get through to building maintenance, and I can't find the main water shutoff valve."

Elliot grabbed his car keys immediately.

"Don't step in the water. Go wait outside for me."

He hung up and headed for the entryway.

"We still have my bridal fitting tomorrow morning," I said.

"I know."

He bent to change his shoes.

"I'll shut off the water and deal with the mess. I'll be back when it's handled."

"Building management is probably already on the way."

His hands paused.

"By the time they get there, the unit downstairs could be flooded too."

He opened the door, then glanced back at me.

"Take it and get some sleep."

The door closed, and pain clenched hard inside me.

At dawn, Elliot sent me two messages.

[It's still not taken care of here.]

[Go to the fitting without me. Just send me pictures.]

My throat felt stuffed with cotton.

Right then, the bridal boutique called.

"Ms. Bennett, are you and Mr. Hayes on your way?"

I stared at Elliot's messages and wiped my tears away.

When I spoke again, my voice was strangely calm.

"There's no need to wait for us. Please cancel the appointment."

After hanging up, I took the lilies and the card downstairs and threw them away.

Then I packed my laptop and documents and checked into a nearby hotel.

I opened my message thread with the project lead at Harborview Documentary Unit.

[Hi. Is the associate producer position you mentioned before still available?]

Chapter 2

The next morning, I returned to our condo to pack the rest of my things.

I had just put my documents into my suitcase when I heard wheels rolling outside the door.

Elliot came in with Paige.

"Her apartment still isn't fixed. She's staying in the guest room for a few days."

The guest room was full of wedding invitations, favor boxes, and guest gifts.

Without asking me, Elliot moved everything into the storage room.

A stack of invitations slid to the floor.

As Paige stepped backward, her shoe landed directly across Elliot's name and mine.

"Nora, I'm sorry. I didn't see them."

She quickly lifted her foot, but a gray shoe print remained over the gold-foil lettering.

Elliot bent down, picked up the invitations, and tossed them back into the box.

"We'll reprint the dirty ones. They're just pieces of paper."

Paige walked to the shoe cabinet, pulled a pair of pink house slippers from the bottom shelf, then opened the sideboard and took out her own mug with practiced ease.

"You've stayed here before?" I asked.

Paige pressed her lips together.

"When you were away on business, sometimes we finished recording too late. Elliot worried about me going home alone, so he'd let me stay here."

Elliot was making up the guest bed for her. He didn't even look up.

"She stayed a few nights. I didn't need to report every little thing to you."

I stood frozen.

Anyone who didn't know better would've thought they were the family here.

Paige pulled a photo album from her suitcase.

"Elliot, I brought the pictures we need for the listener event."

They sat on the carpet and flipped through the pages together.

Their first broadcast together. Their first award. Every celebration afterward.

They remembered all of it.

Elliot and I had been together for seven years, yet we barely had a handful of decent pictures together.

He always said he hated taking photos.

But he and Paige had already filled two entire albums.

Paige turned to a birthday photo and suddenly laughed.

"This was my work anniversary. You ordered the cake a week ahead and lied that the station had arranged it."

The date printed in the corner was my birthday last year.

That night, He'd said she'd just gone through a breakup and needed someone there.

I had sat alone in a restaurant until closing.

But in the photo, Paige wore a paper crown while Elliot stood behind her, lighting the candles on her cake.

My eyes turned red as I stared at it.

"So you ordered that cake."

Elliot reached over and pulled the picture away.

"That was a year ago. Why are you digging it up now?"

Another photo slipped from the album.

The date was the night I'd needed him most.

The timestamp said ten p.m.

The broadcasting awards had ended at eight.

He had seen all seven calls.

Paige laughed casually. "I told you that night you should go check on Nora."

"You said she had doctors taking care of her and she'd be fine."

The warmth slowly disappeared from my fingers.

Elliot frowned and shoved the photo back into the album.

"You were fine in the end, weren't you?"

"Paige had just gotten an important opportunity. I couldn't walk out on her at the happiest moment of her career."

Every bit of care and companionship I'd never gotten from him, he'd given Paige without fail.

When Paige closed the album, a black voice recorder rolled across the floor and stopped by my foot.

Engraved on the back were words I'd written myself.

[May your voice reach more people.]

I'd bought it for him with three months' pay when he hosted his first show.

Two years ago, he'd told me he'd lost it during an interview.

I'd searched our entire home and blamed myself for not taking better care of it for him.

Paige picked it up and held it toward me.

"So you gave him this."

"If you want it back, Nora, I can return it."

Elliot took it from her before I could and placed it back in her hand.

"You don't take back a gift after you've given it away."

"Don't make it sound like she stole something from you."

I slowly withdrew my hand.

"I don't want it."

If something had already been dirtied, I would throw it away even if someone returned it to me.

The recorder was like that.

So was Elliot Hayes.

When I returned to the bedroom, Harborview Documentary Unit had replied.

[The position is still open. You need to start within three days.]

I accepted the offer and bought a one-way ticket.

Then Elliot knocked on the bedroom door.

"Tomorrow night is the show's fifth-anniversary listener event. The sponsor wants us to bring our partners. You already promised you'd come. Don't be late."

Chapter 3

Before the listener event began, Paige stopped me backstage.

She held out her phone. My anonymous letter was on the screen.

"Nora, I recognized it last night."

"Don't worry. I won't tell Elliot."

"Imagine how embarrassed he'd be if he found out you sent your private relationship problems to his show and made him analyze himself in front of all his listeners."

She lowered her voice, but her smile only deepened.

"Elliot was right, you know."

"If a man truly loves you, he doesn't leave you in the hospital to go stay with another woman."

"But you didn't even have the nerve to ask him these things to his face. You had to send them anonymously to his show."

She leaned close to my ear.

"You stayed with him for seven years, Nora, and he couldn't even recognize your pain."

"Isn't that pathetic?"

I closed my eyes for a second, then stepped away.

The production staff heard the commotion and gathered around.

Paige's eyes turned red. Tears began spilling down her cheeks.

"Paige was just trying to talk to her. How could she treat her like that?"

"She was only trying to help. Even if Nora didn't want to listen, she didn't have to treat her that way."

"Her fiancé and his co-host work together. What's there to make a scene about?"

"Just because she's Elliot's fiancée doesn't mean she gets to bully people backstage."

Paige shook her head quickly through her tears.

"That's not what happened. Nora didn't mean it."

"She's just been under a lot of pressure lately. She got the wrong idea about me."

The more she defended me, the colder everyone's expressions became.

"She did that to you, and you're still saying she didn't mean it?"

"Paige is the victim, and she's still protecting her."

"This is the show's fifth anniversary. Why does someone have to ruin a perfectly good event with drama?"

Elliot strode over.

The second he saw Paige's red eyes, he pulled her behind him protectively.

"Nora Bennett, have you lost your mind?"

I opened my mouth, but he cut me off coldly.

"I don't care what she said. You had no right to treat her like that."

"Apologize."

Paige grabbed his sleeve, her eyes still wet.

"I'm okay. Nora just cares about you too much."

Elliot looked at me without a trace of warmth, as if I were a stranger.

"If you can't even control your emotions, we're postponing the wedding."

I parted my lips.

Forget it.

Nothing I said would make him believe me anyway.

After the event began, Paige took her place at the host desk with red-rimmed eyes.

During the listener Q&A, she suddenly removed her headphones.

"Tonight will be my last time hosting this show."

With tears in her eyes, she bowed to the audience.

"For five years, Elliot and I have only been coworkers and co-hosts."

"But if our partnership is hurting his relationship with his fiancée, I'm willing to leave."

"I don't want to be the reason they keep fighting."

Someone in the front row suddenly stood.

"Paige, why aren't you telling the truth?"

"I saw how Elliot's fiancée treated you backstage."

Another listener immediately called out, "Are you quitting because of her?"

The venue went silent.

Paige shook her head in a panic.

"No. Don't make assumptions."

"Leaving is my decision. It has nothing to do with Nora."

Murmurs surged through the room.

"She bullied Paige into quitting?"

"She humiliated Paige and Paige is still defending her."

"Does a woman like that even deserve to get married?"

Elliot took the microphone from Paige.

"Paige isn't leaving."

"She's poured five years into this show. She hasn't done anything wrong, and she shouldn't have to give up her career because someone else decided to make a scene."

The livestream chat flooded almost instantly.

[APOLOGIZE!]

[NORA BENNETT, COME OUT AND APOLOGIZE!]

Every word seemed to close in around me.

Everyone was trampling me into the ground.

And the man I'd been with for seven years, my fiancé, was standing in front of all of them, defending another woman.

I slowly released my grip on my skirt, stood, and walked out of the venue.

Then I immediately changed the flight I'd booked for three days later.

After the hundredth time I was forced to reject my fated mate, Declan, so he could mark my adopted sister, Cassia, for the so-called future of the pack on the very day of Cassia's mating ceremony-my mother, Genevieve, backed me into the shadows of the terrace. Her cold fingers brushed my cheek, her whisper a silver thorn in my ear.

She told me that while I might share her blood, Cassia was the only daughter in her heart. My very existence was an inconvenience.