He Thought I'd Stay: His Mistake

e for show, and a passionat

n my ears, a cruel mant

s a quiet architecture student, buried in books, and he was

to my dorm, left coffee for me at the library, and waite

noyingly persistent but with an ea

e afternoon, genuinely baffl

knew were a practiced facade. "Because you' re different, E

on of guys like him. "I don't d

. He was an heir to a dynasty, and I was just... me. An orphan

l diner, sitting in a corner booth for hours, just watching me work. He ditched his fanc

with that kind of grand gesture. I tri

ho had been sending me anonymous threats for weeks, decided to confront me.

you little gold-digge

so fast I barely saw him. He grabbed the leader's wri

r again," he growled, hi

d. "She's with me. If you have a probl

f them, in a last act of defiance, threw a rock. It was a

treaking down his face, before he co

I sat in the stark white waiting room of the hospital, my ha

s look for me. He ignored the doctors, his parents

er?" he whispered,

ed I was holding back

iumphant smile. "See? I

my hand. "Ember Ford, I love you. Let me be with you. I

of love and protection her whole

me from the memory. "Ember, c

rm wrapped possessively around her waist. They stood in fro

amily had formed a semi-circle,

roup, an awkward spectator at the

doration. It was the same look he used to give me.

" a photographer

saw a hint of something-guilt, maybe? But it was gone as quickly

and passionate.

e parody of the moment I had been dreaming of all day. My proposa

shoulder. Chace and Karyn were the stars, locked in a romantic embrace

n and walked over to me. He had the

e were coconspirators. "Just hang in there. Once Karyn and I are m

sing me a future as hi

eak any further, fractured again. No,

to Karyn's side, his atte

t passenger seat. It was a small, meaningless g

houlder. They reminisced about their childhood, shared inside jokes I could

ghts blurring through my unshed tear

ddenly directed at me. I saw her reflection in the window, her eyes sharp an

ined s

d, her tone light and breezy. "He can have his fun, and so

okay to be his mistress. S

irror. "See, Ember? Karyn is very understandin

e of irony. He actually e

rose in my throat, bu

or taking my life and

been reduced to this-a woman who was supposed to be