PROLOGUE: The Woman Between Us
Three Months Earlier
The crystal chandelier cast a warm glow across the private dining room, reflecting against polished marble and expensive glassware.
Every table in Étoile was occupied by politicians, CEOs, celebrities, and heirs to fortunes older than the country itself.
Yet no one commanded more attention than the young man seated by the window.
“Amari Virel.”
The hostess had whispered his name the moment he’d stepped through the doors.
Managers had personally welcomed him.
Waiters moved with quiet precision around his table.
The Virel name carried a kind of power money alone could never buy.
Across from him, Evelyn stirred the ice in her drink.
“…and then my mother insisted we spend Christmas at her villa again.” She laughed softly. “Can you believe that?”
No response.
She smiled anyway, pretending not to notice.
“…Amari?”
“Hm?” Amari murmured.
“You weren’t listening.”
“I was,” he said distractingly.
“You weren’t.”
He offered an apologetic smile before reaching for his wine.
“I’m sorry,” Amari said.
She wanted to believe him.
She always wanted to believe him.
His phone vibrated against the white tablecloth.
A single notification appeared.
Cece Beaumont posted a new photo.
His thumb moved before he even realized it.
The screen illuminated.
There she was.
Standing in front of a children’s hospital overseas, dressed in a cream-colored suit, a bouquet of white lilies cradled in one arm while smiling warmly at a little girl hugging her waist.
It wasn’t a glamorous photo.
There wasn’t anything provocative about it.
It was… her.
Without thinking…
He smiled.
Not politely.
Not out of amusement.
It was soft.
Warm.
Almost… relieved.
Evelyn watched him from across the table.
Her heart dropped.
You’ve never smiled at me like that.
“What are you smiling at?” she asked quietly.
Amari blinked before locking his phone.
“Nothing,” Amari said.
Nothing.
Such a simple word.
Yet it somehow hurt more than the truth.
“I’ll be right back.”
She excused herself before he could answer.
The restroom was empty.
Evelyn stared at her reflection in the mirror.
You’re overthinking.
He’s tired.
You’re imagining things.
She took a slow breath, carefully touching up her makeup before forcing a smile at her reflection.
You’re imagining things.
You have to be.
When she returned…
He was looking at his phone again.
The same gentle smile lingered on his lips.
As she reached the table, her eyes caught the screen for only a second.
Long enough.
Cece Beaumont.
The article headline read:
“Beaumont Heiress Opens Children’s Education Initiative Overseas.”
That was all.
No messages.
No calls.
No hidden conversations.
Just…
Cece Beaumont.
She didn’t confront him that night.
Or the next.
Instead…
She started noticing.
Whenever Cece Beaumont appeared on television
Amari stopped whatever he was doing.
Whenever an interview was released
He had already watched it.
Whenever someone mentioned the Beaumont family…
His attention shifted almost instantly.
It wasn’t obvious.
It wasn’t dramatic.
If you didn’t know him…
You’d never notice.
But Evelyn did.
She knew every version of his smile.
The polite smile.
The business smile.
The fake smile he wore at galas.
The tired smile he forced around reporters.
None of them looked like the one he wore whenever Cece Beaumont appeared on a screen…
The weeks blurred together.
Headlines.
Interviews.
Charity galas.
Magazine covers.
No matter where Cece Beaumont appeared…
Amari looked.
That was when the realization finally settled into Evelyn’s heart like a slow winter.
She wasn’t competing with another woman.
She was competing with a memory.
Rain poured relentlessly outside Amari’s penthouse the night she finally ended it.
He stood near the windows overlooking the city.
She stood behind him.
Neither of them spoke for a long time.
Finally…
“I spent three years trying to become the woman you smiled at.”
Silence.
“You never cheated on me.”
His shoulders remained still.
“But your heart was never mine.”
He slowly closed his eyes.
“I kept wondering what I was doing wrong.”
Her voice cracked despite every attempt to keep it steady.
“I bought the clothes you liked.”
“I learned your favorite wine.”
“I memorized every little thing about you.”
A tear escaped before she could stop it.
“And none of it mattered.”
Still… He said nothing.
She gave a sad smile.
“The first time I saw you smile like that…”
She swallowed.
“…you were looking at Cece Beaumont.”
His jaw tightened almost imperceptibly.
“So I watched.”
“I watched every interview, every news report, every article and every single time…”
She laughed bitterly through her tears.
“ your whole face changed whenever she appeared.”
Silence stretched between them.
“You don’t love me.”
He didn’t deny it.
“You never did.”
She walked toward the front door before stopping beside it.
Without turning around, her voice trembled.
“Do you know what hurts the most?”
“It isn’t that you never loved me.”
“It’s that I spent three years trying to become someone you were never looking at.”
The apartment door closed softly behind her.
Amari remained exactly where he was.
Minutes passed.
Maybe longer.
Finally…
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
His thumb moved almost automatically.
Instagram.
Search.
Cece Beaumont.
Her profile appeared instantly.
The newest photograph filled the screen.
She was laughing.
He had spent years remembering her face, yet memory had never done her justice.
Her rich, deep brown skin carried a quiet warmth that no photograph had ever captured. Beneath the afternoon sun, it seemed to glow effortlessly, as though light had chosen her long before it touched anyone else.
Her vivid blue eyes were as striking as he’d remembered, but they weren’t what held him captive.
It was her smile, gentle, and unforced.
The kind that softened every sharp edge of the world around her.
Long, untamed curls framed her face, dancing freely in the breeze, and for one absurd moment he found himself jealous of them. They brushed against her skin with an intimacy he had spent years dreaming of.
Every year had made her only impossible to forget.
If anything, time had only made her more impossible to forget.
He stared at the image.
Minutes slipped by unnoticed.
Then, almost inaudibly, he whispered to the empty apartment,
“I’ve been waiting for you my whole life.”
The city lights shimmered beyond the glass.
He never once looked toward the front door.
His relationship had ended.
But the only woman occupying his thoughts…
had never known he existed.
End of Prologue…
