Chapter 2

Damien walked out of the restaurant without bothering to explain anything.

Pushing my chair back quickly, I rushed after him with tears still clouding my vision, aware of the stares following me across the restaurant.

By the time I got outside, he was already beside his car.

“Damien.” My breathing came out uneven as I grabbed his arm. “There has to be an explanation for this. Tell me this is some stupid joke. Tell me it’s—”

He jerked his arm away. “Nora, I know you didn’t go to college, but I’m pretty sure you can still comprehend what you read. You saw the messages.”

He opened the driver’s door. My stomach dropped as I realized he was actually about to leave. “Damien!”

The door slammed shut in my face.

I hurried around the car and reached for the passenger door, but it was locked.

The window rolled down halfway. “What are you trying to do?”

“You can’t just walk away after this. You owe me an explanation. What did I ever do to deserve this kind of wickedness from you?”

He replied with a bored expression. “You got to experience places you normally never would’ve. I’d say you benefited too.”

“Damien… You said you loved me. You proposed to me. Why would you do something like this?”

He sighed. “My problem with you is that you’re too emotional. You kept holding onto this whole no-sex thing, which was literally the only reason this dragged on for so long.”

He started the ignition. “I don’t even know why I bothered waiting. You don’t even look like someone who’d be great in bed. You can keep the ring.”

My hand moved to the ring sitting on my finger as I finally accepted what this really was.

I had been played, and badly too.

Pulling it off, I threw it straight at him.

“You bastard. I don’t ever want to see your face again. Scumbag!”

He chuckled dryly. “You’re calling me names like you weren’t trying to climb the social ladder through me.” He pointed at himself, then at me. “Me marry you? Seriously? How exactly was I supposed to introduce you to my parents? ‘Dad, Mom, meet Nora. The waitress who served me pasta four years ago. I want to marry her.’”

He laughed. “Oh please. Be realistic. You’re just a pretty face, Nora. And trust me, there are plenty of pretty girls out there willing to play.”

The window rolled back up before I could respond, and the next thing I knew, the tires screeched against the road as Damien sped off, leaving me standing there crying on the sidewalk while strangers stared openly at me.

A sharp pain spread through my chest as I wrapped my arms around myself.

The last time something hurt this badly was after Dad died and Noah and I realized we were truly alone.

Tears kept blurring my vision as I wandered down the street with no idea where I was even going. I couldn’t even bring myself to go home. Noah warned me about Damien from the very beginning. I had just been too in love to listen.

The pain in my chest kept getting worse the longer I walked, and my legs started protesting.

When my phone started ringing inside my bag, I ignored it and kept walking. But the calls wouldn’t stop. Annoyance finally made me pull it out without even checking who was calling.

“What?”

“Nora?”

The panic in Craig’s voice instantly made my stomach drop.

“What happened?” I asked.

“It’s Noah. He collapsed outside the house. I rushed him to the hospital.”

Everything inside me went cold as fear crashed over the heartbreak. “What hospital?”

“Saint Laurel Memorial.”

By the time I got there, Craig was waiting in the hallway. Seeing me, he quickly got to his feet.

“What happened?” The words rushed out of me. “What did the doctors say?”

“They’re still checking him.” Concern covered his face. “I came outside to take out the trash and saw him lying there.”

“Thank you for helping him,” I whispered.

Craig shook his head. “Don’t even mention it.”

A few minutes later, a doctor stepped out asking for Noah West’s family, and both Craig and I stood up.

The doctor explained that Noah collapsed from exhaustion. His blood sugar was dangerously low, he wasn’t eating properly, and severe sleep deprivation had pushed his body too far.

“He’s stable now, but this shouldn’t have gotten to this point. He needs proper rest. You people can’t allow him to keep neglecting himself like this.”

“Thank you, Doctor. We’ll do better,” I assured him.

After he left, Craig handed me Noah’s phone. “Found it on the ground beside him.”

“Thank you.”

“Noah would’ve done the same for me.”

A tired silence settled between us before he checked the time. “I should head home. Early shift tomorrow.”

“I understand.”

After Craig left, the hallway grew quiet again, and the heartbreak I had been trying to outrun came rushing back.

Noah’s phone suddenly started ringing, BOSS flashing across the screen.

The call kept coming nonstop until I finally answered, only for an angry voice to thunder through the line before I could even speak. “How long does it take to deliver one damn envelope? If you’re not here in the next ten minutes, consider yourself fired.”

“Shut the fuck up!” I yelled into the phone, my voice shaking with anger.

He stopped talking immediately.

“You finally succeeded, okay? My brother is lying in a hospital bed and all you care about is some stupid envelope! Look at the time! Is he even supposed to be working right now? He should be sleeping, not running around destroying himself for a job that clearly doesn’t care whether he lives or dies!”

When he spoke again, his voice was noticeably lower this time. “Where’s Noah?”

“He’s at Saint Laurel Memorial. Come get your damn envelope yourself, you bastard.”