Michael ended things over the phone on a Tuesday morning. I had just gotten used to the rhythm of his breakfasts, the eggs made just how I liked them, the careful routine of caring for a man who was supposed to be mine. And then he was gone, and I was standing in my small apartment with a dead line and a future that had collapsed overnight. “He broke up with me,” I told Harie, my best friend, as she wrapped an arm around me.
“I think this time it’s for real. ”
“Boys aren’t worth it,” she said, pulling me close. “One thing at a time. We’ll figure it out.
”
I hadn’t wanted to quit my job. I loved my work. But the morning after the breakup, I walked into the Frost Group offices and found a compensation package waiting on my desk—properties, luxury cars, fifty million in cash. All from Michael.
I hadn’t touched a penny of it. Then Isabella Miller walked in as the new CEO. “As you’ve heard, my name is Isabella Miller, and I am your new CEO,” she announced to the assembled staff. I recognized her, of course.
Michael’s new fiancée. He’d moved on fast. At my resignation meeting, Isabella refused to accept it. “Women need careers for a better future,” she said, looking at Michael.
“Isn’t that right? ” She reassigned me to escort VIP clients, then sent me to fetch her coffee. I did it. I smiled and I did it, telling myself it was only for now.
Mr. Willis, one of Michael’s associates, cornered me in the hallway. He grabbed my wrist, pulled me close, insisted I smelled incredible. When I told him to stop, he laughed.
“Be grateful I’m even talking to you. ”
I punched him. I shouldn’t have. Michael appeared, letting me go with a dismissive sneer.
“Mr. Frost,” I said, “long time no see. ”
He didn’t care. He offered me a fortune to sleep with him.
When I refused, he threatened me. “You have a friend named Harie, right? Just a little heads up to behave. ” He gave me one day to change my mind.
Then Andrew Harris showed up at a party, accompanied by a woman who looked exactly like me—right down to the face shape, the hair, the smile. “Ashton Roberts,” the host announced, introducing her as his new girlfriend. “Miss Roberts,” Michael said with a knowing smile, “she’s nothing like my Isabella. ” He didn’t see the irony.
At a poker game hosted by Michael’s family, I was humiliated repeatedly. “Strip poker,” Michael suggested, and the room laughed when I was cornered. The champagne they forced on me felt like a test I was failing. Ashton drove me home afterward.
She’d been crying earlier, and she admitted something: she’d once had a crush on Michael, gotten him drunk, tried to make him love her. “I understand that it was her,” she said, looking at me, “but he wasn’t having any of it. ”
She laughed when I confessed I’d once loved Michael too. Then she leaned in close.
“I almost made him believe I was Isabella, and I got it on. I have leverage. The well group is choosing a nursing spot, and if I let you in, the spot is yours. ”
“You little scheming something,” I said, but I agreed.
Meanwhile, Michael wouldn’t let me go. He cornered me again, demanding to know if I’d slept with Ashton. When I denied it, he said, “Prove it. ” He accused me of trying to make him jealous.
“Remember, you’re the one who ended things off,” I told him. “You taught me the value of loyalty. ”
He laughed. “Only you, sweetie.
I know you hate when people touch your stuff. ”
“At one point, I really thought you might care about me,” I said. “But obviously I was wrong. I asked if I could see other people, and you told me to do what you want.
So Ashton and I, we’ll do what you want. ”
“Get out,” he said. I left. My brother Matthew was dying.
He’d been in a car accident years ago, and his heart was failing. The doctors said we had maybe three months left. He needed a donor urgently, and the money ran out fast. I’d been working for Michael and then for Isabella because I needed the salary, but it wasn’t enough.
So I agreed to meet Ashton at a hotel, offering to do whatever he wanted for money. He spiked my glass. I drank it. I was unconscious before I knew what was happening.
When I woke up, I was in a room with Mr. Willis, who was laughing. “Seems like I had a pretty steamy night planned,” he said, and I remembered his earlier threats. He forced me to hand over the contract Ashton and I had agreed to.
My friend’s life depended on it. I begged him. I begged. Then the mask came off.
The man behind the mask was Andrew Harris, the CEO of the Harris Group. He wasn’t Ashton. He’d been testing me, punishing me for laying hands on Ashton. He had tapes—recordings of everything.
And he threatened me. “If you or Harie dare try blackmail me or my family, you’re both going to regret it. ”
I didn’t understand. But I had bigger problems.
Matthew’s condition was deteriorating. I spent my days chasing leads, offering myself to anyone who would pay, trying to keep him alive. Michael, meanwhile, was pushing me away. He accused me of sleeping with Andrew.
He said my relationship with Andrew could win his merger. He pressured me to entertain Andrew, then got jealous when Andrew treated me kindly. “He’s a game to you, isn’t he? ” Michael said one night.
“Careful, Andrew might think you’re trying to seduce him. ”
“I don’t need to worry about that, Michael. Because all these years with you, I haven’t felt a thing. ”
I didn’t know what was true anymore.
I did know that Andrew was gentle with me, that he called me by my name, that he made me tea when I was exhausted, that he brought flowers. He told me he’d lost his memory in an accident years ago, and that whenever he thought of me, he got migraines. “I know you must have meant a lot to me,” he said. “I just don’t know how.
”
I stayed away from him, the way Michael wanted. But I couldn’t. He was the only person who didn’t treat me like a pawn. The truth came out in pieces.
Cody, Andrew’s advisor, told me something: “You were back with the Harris family before I started fixing you up. And during treatment, I realized that the car crash wasn’t the main cause of your memory loss. But your brother insisted that I keep you in the dark about it. ”
“What’s he hiding?
” I asked. I didn’t get an answer. But I started to piece it together. One night, Michael showed up at my apartment, wild-eyed, dragging me out with him.
“Don’t worry, I’ll get you help,” he said, even as I screamed. He held me down. He told me my heart was failing. “Why did you keep your heart problem a secret?
” he demanded. “What else hurts? ”
“It’s just… Was this Andrew’s handiwork? ”
“It wasn’t Andrew.
It was Ashton. ”
Michael’s face went cold. He drove me to a hospital, got me checked, and then he brought me home with him. He kept me there.
He fed me. He told me he’d searched high and low for a compatible donor. “Trust me, we’ll fix it,” he said. I didn’t believe him.
I couldn’t. But I stayed, because I was too weak to leave. Andrew found us. “You said after a few days of rest, I could go home,” I told Michael.
“Maybe I should. ”
“Andrew? ” Michael’s voice was ice. “Your old flame.
”
“He came because I’m better now,” I said. “Let me go. ”
“We’re done,” Michael said. “You’re getting married for God’s sake.
”
“So are you. ”
He grabbed me. He begged. “Please don’t go.
You’re not safe up there. You’re scaring me. ”
I pulled free. I walked out the door and into Andrew’s car.
On the way, I told Andrew everything. “My brother Matthew is dying. He was in a car accident years ago, and I did whatever it took to get the money for his surgery. I signed a deal with Michael and did things I’m not proud of.
And when I signed the deal with him, I thought the man I’d loved had turned into a monster. ”
Andrew’s face changed. “Your brother Matthew,” he said slowly. “He was my brother.
Five years ago, he hurt you to get you away from me. And I let you down. I had an accident, and I thought I’d forgotten you. ”
“Are you saying you never left me at all?
”
“Exactly,” he said. “I never took a penny of his cash. I didn’t feel I owed him anything. ”
I felt the world shift.
Michael had lied to me for years. All that time, the man I’d thought had abandoned me had been trying to hold on to a memory he’d lost. “I’m sorry, Matthew,” I said. “I really messed up.
”
He pulled the car over. He took my hand. “You didn’t mess up, Emma. You did what you had to do for me.
”
I broke down. “At first, yes,” I said. “But then I chose to stay with Michael. ”
“Did you feel free?
”
“I did. Yeah. ”
“Then that’s enough. ”
We drove on in silence.
I thought about Michael, about his coldness, about the way he’d kept me close and still kept me at arm’s length. I told myself I was done with him. I told myself I was finally free. But my heart was failing.
I collapsed at the hospital a week later. The doctors worked on me for three days before I finally came back. In the haze of recovery, I heard the words I’d been dreading: “Ms. Roberts, your heart is failing.
We need a transplant, and we need it soon. ”
From my hospital bed, I watched Andrew come and go. I watched Michael beg. I saw Isabella laugh at me from the doorway.
I couldn’t do it anymore. I went to the chapel where Michael and Isabella were marrying. I stood at the back, hidden behind a pillar, and I watched my old life move on without me. Michael looked miserable.
Isabella wore white. I slipped out before the vows. I walked to the bridge and looked down at the water. I don’t know what I intended.
Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. A hand caught my arm. It was Benjamin, Michael’s assistant.
“Miss Roberts,” he said. “Mr. Frost… he wants you to have this. ”
He handed me an envelope.
Inside was a letter and a key. “What is this? ” I asked. “He said to tell you not to be afraid,” Benjamin said.
“He said your heart isn’t failing. He said he’s been looking after you all along. ”
I didn’t understand. But I took the envelope anyway.
And when I opened it, I found a business card for a heart surgeon named Dr. Moss, and a note in Michael’s handwriting:
“I know the door is closed between us. But I couldn’t let you go. I’ve been looking for years.
Trust me, we’ll fix it. ”
The door wasn’t closed. It was locked, and Michael had been holding the key all along. I stepped away from the railing.
I never told him I loved him again. But I let him save my life. And when the transplant came through, when the new heart started beating in my chest, I went to Matthew first, not Michael. I told Matthew everything.
He wept. He held me. He said he’d never leave me again. And Michael?
Michael stayed away. He thought I began the marriage with Matthew. He thought he’d lost me for good. But on the day of the wedding, he sent a gift—a document that officially made the Harris Group the majority shareholder in the Frost Group.
It was his way of letting go. At the altar, I looked at Matthew, my fiancé, the man I’d lost and found again. And I thought about Michael. “I want you to have this ring,” I said to Matthew, holding up the one Michael had once given me.
“But I want you to give it to him. ”
Matthew looked at me, confused. “Who? ”
“The man who owned my heart before I ever knew your name,” I said.
“The man who taught me that love is about letting go. ”
On my wedding day, eight years after I’d first met him, Michael Frost walked into the chapel, poured himself a glass of champagne, and raised it to the room. “Congratulations,” he said.
And then he smiled, and he was gone.
