Chapter 1
"Good morning, Annie," my assistant, Lillian, greeted me with a warm smile as I walked into the office.
I couldn't help but return the gesture, the heavy fog in my mind lifting just a tiny bit. "Hello, Lillian. You seem to be in an exceptionally good mood today."
"Why wouldn't I be? It's payday," she said excitedly, giving a dramatic little dance that made us both laugh.
I had honestly forgotten about the one day of the month I usually looked forward to the most. My mind had been completely consumed by other things lately, leaving my thoughts messy.
Lillian leaned against the edge of my desk, her expression shifting into a look of disdain. "So... how are things with Josh?" She asked.
I let out a heavy sigh, shifting a stack of papers just to keep my hands busy. "Still the same."
"Why would a man propose to you and then just completely ghost you for a week?" Lillian scoffed, crossing her arms. "If I were you, I'd cancel the engagement and dump his ass."
"It's only been a week," I mumbled, trying to find some sort of excuse for his bizarre behavior.
"Yeah, a week," she said, pointing a finger at me. "Long enough to find another man."
I opened my mouth to defend him a, but a sharp knock on the office door cut me off.
"Delivery for Annie Lin." A delivery woman stood in the doorway, practically swallowing the frame behind a massive bouquet of pink flowers.
"That's me," I said, blinking in surprise.
The woman nodded and, with a loud groan of difficulty, hoisted the heavy arrangement onto my desk. "You lovebirds should really consider the middlemen in your relationships," she muttered, wincing as she stretched out her lower back.
"I am so sorry about that," I said, offering her an apologetic smile.
"No problem. Just tell him to take it easy on the size next time. Sign here, please."
The moment the delivery woman left the room, Lillian practically pounced on the desk, her eyes wide. "I wonder who this is from."
I gave her a warning glare. "It's from Josh, of course."
"Oh, really?" she said, rolling her eyes.
Ignoring her skepticism, I stepped closer to the bouquet, a genuine hint of happiness blooming inside my chest. Peonies. They were lush, fragrant, and absolutely beautiful. They were my favorite flowers.
But a small chill settled in my stomach. Josh had never given me peonies before. In the entire year we had been together, he always bought roses. That was because roses were his mother's favorite, and every time he bought flowers for me, he simply ordered a duplicate arrangement to save time. I had tried telling him countless times that I preferred peonies, but he always brushed it off, saying it wasn't a big deal.
Yet, looking at this giant bouquet, I wanted so badly to believe he had finally listened. It filled a quiet void in my heart.
"Oh, look," Lillian pointed, breaking my train of thought. "There's a card attached." Before I could even reach for it, she snatched it up and glanced at me playfully. "May I?"
"Go ahead," I sighed, amused.
Lillian cleared her throat and read in a dramatic voice: "'Dear Annie, I can't wait to be by your side, for it is all I've ever wanted. — X.'" My cheeks warmed instantly, a sudden spike of heat rushing to my face.
"A little cringe," Lillian mused, tapping the card against her chin, "but that's actually really romantic."
"See?" I said, a relieved smile breaking across my face as I looked at the beautiful arrangement. "Josh isn't so bad after all."
"Josh?" Lillian scoffed, rolling her eyes so hard I thought they might get stuck. "It's clearly from a secret admirer. Stop fantasizing about that man, Annie. He couldn't possibly have thought to do this."
"You need to start giving my fiancé some credit," I countered, crossing my arms defensively.
"And you need to stop making excuses for him. If it's from Josh, then why on earth does the card say 'From X'?"
"Maybe it's the name of the flower shop?" I offered weakly.
Lillian gave me a completely deadpan look. "Girl, be serious!"
"Hey!" I suddenly raised my voice, snapping my fingers to startle her out of her interrogation. "Where is the document I asked you to prepare yesterday?"
Lillian’s eyes widened, and she immediately began taking a slow step backward toward the exit. "Huh? What did you say? I can't hear you, Annie. You'll have to speak up."
"Don't you dare try to escape, Lillian."
"Gosh, what is wrong with my ears today?" she mumbled, her hand finding the doorknob behind her back. "What did you say? Did you say take a break?"
"I am not kidding."
"I think I seriously need to see an audiologist. I suddenly can't hear a single thing!" And just like that, she vanished into the hallway, shutting the door tightly behind her.
I chuckled, dropping into my office chair with a loud thud. At least the distraction had gotten her off my back.
Suddenly, my phone buzzed against the wooden desk. Expecting something work related, I picked it up listlessly, only for my breath to catch in my throat. It was a text from Josh.
'Let's meet up.'
My heart sped up, a relieved smile breaking across my face. He hadn't forgotten about me after all.
I arrived at our favorite café shortly afterward, my eyes searching the crowded tables until I spotted him. Josh was sitting in a corner booth, dressed entirely in black and wearing a dark pair of sunglasses.
I skeptically took the seat right across from him, looking at his somber attire.
"What's wrong? Did someone die?" I asked, my voice laced with genuine worry.
"No," he clipped out.
"Are you hiding from someone?"
"No."
"Are you si—"
"Enough questions!" Josh snapped.
His sudden outburst was loud enough to draw the attention of the people at the table beside us. Realizing he had made a scene, he quickly turned to them and offered a tight, apologetic smile.
A sharp sting of hurt flared in my chest. Josh had never yelled at me before. When he turned his attention back to me, he was glaring as if it were entirely my fault that he had lashed out.
"Why did you call me here?" I asked, my voice dropping all its warmth. I wasn't going to tolerate that kind of disrespect, especially when I had spent the last week worrying myself sick over his absence.
He seemed to notice the sharp irritation in my tone, and his tense features softened just a fraction.
"Look, I'm sorry, okay? Things have been really rough lately."
"Tell me about it," I said, rolling my eyes as I crossed my arms tightly over my chest. "You proposed to me and then disappeared without a single trace for a week. Tell me, Josh, who does that?"
"Annie, can we not make this all about you for once?"
The exhaustion in his voice made me feel like I was a burden. A sharp, physical pain settled deep in my chest.
"I'm going through something much worse than a silent week," he muttered, running a hand over his face.
I clenched my jaw, forcing down my rising anger. "Fine then. Let's talk about you."
"Everything is going south in my life," he said, his voice dropping to a panicked whisper. "For the past year, I've lost contracts, clients, investors... It's starting to look like I've been completely blacklisted from the entire industry." He paused, staring blankly at the table. "Everything was going perfectly well until..."
"Until what?" I pressed.
"Until we started dating."
The words hit me like a bucket of ice water. My blood ran completely cold.
"What exactly are you trying to say, Josh?"
"I'm not saying anything."
"I get that you're frustrated, but please be very careful with your words," I warned, my voice trembling slightly. "If your company is struggling, I can always talk to my father and see if he can—"
"There you go again!" he interrupted, his face contorting with anger. "I've told you a thousand times, Annie. I don't want any help from you or your father."
"Why not?"
"Because I won't give either of you the chance to look down on me. The moment I accept a handout from him, he'll see me as less of a man."
I stared at him, unable to believe my ears. "Do you even hear yourself right now? You would rather let your entire life fall apart than accept a helping hand from the family you're marrying into?"
"Yes! Because for all I know, your father could be the very reason I'm in this mess to begin with."
"How dare you?" I stood up slightly, my fingers gripping the edge of the table. "My father would never do something so petty."
"The man doesn't like me, for God's sake, Annie!"
"That's because you haven't given him a single reason to!"
"Oh, please. As if anything I ever do will be enough to please a man like him."
"That man is my father," I hissed through clenched teeth. "You will show him some respect."
Josh let out a dry, bitter chuckle, shaking his head. "It's all a mistake."
A tight knot formed in my stomach, making it hard to breathe. "What do you mean by that?"
"I should have never dated you."
I felt a piece of my heart shatter.
"I'm sorry to be blunt, Annie, but you're nothing but bad luck," he said coldly, standing up from the table. "I need to remove you from my life. My mother was right from the beginning—a spoiled girl like you could only bring me rotten luck."
The humiliation stung worse than the heartbreak. Warm tears finally broke free, rolling down my flushed cheeks.
"You are really going to throw everything we've built together away? Just like that?"
Without sparing me another glance, he adjusted his sunglasses. "You can throw the ring away."
Then, he walked out of the café, leaving me alone.
The dam broke, and I buried my face in my hands, bursting into tears right there in the middle of the crowded café.
Suddenly, a crisp white handkerchief appeared in my line of sight.
I blinked through my blurred vision and looked up. A woman I didn't recognize was standing over the booth, looking down at me with an expression of quiet pity.
"Wipe your tears," she said softly. "He isn't worth them."
I offered her a fragile, trembling smile and accepted the cloth. Before I could even gather my voice to thank her properly, she turned and walked out the door.
She was right, though. Josh wasn't worth my tears.
...
The woman left the café, walking briskly down the sidewalk before slipping smoothly into the back seat of a sleek, luxurious black car parked at the curb.
The atmosphere inside the vehicle was suffocatingly tense.
Her boss was in a notoriously gloomy mood, and everyone around him had been walking on eggshells all morning. Pulling her posture straight, she hoped the news she was about to deliver would save her from his wrath.
Through the heavily tinted windows, his stormy gray eyes remained fixed on Josh, who was currently standing beside his own car down the street, angrily lighting a cigarette. With every passing second, the temperature inside the vehicle seemed to plummet.
The woman finally gathered enough courage to break the silence. "I have good news, boss."
"Speak."
His cold, commanding voice never wavered. His gaze didn't shift from Josh for even a millisecond.
"They broke up."
The suffocating atmosphere instantly evaporated. The shift was so dramatic that the assistant almost let out a visible sigh of relief.
Finally, the man turned his head toward her. His icy, piercing stare was so intense it almost made her forget how to breathe.
"Tell me," He said quietly, a dark, dangerous satisfaction curling at the edge of his lips. "Do you think she liked the flowers?"
