It wasn’t until, under the grandest fireworks display in the city, he knelt on one knee to propose to someone else.
Only then did I realize—I was the other woman.
——
The year I ran away from home and was bullied in the workplace, I was drenched in alcohol when Michael, the Crown Prince of Altheris’s elite circle, saved me. He took me back to his villa and kept me hidden like a treasured canary for three years.
He gave me endless money, boundless indulgence and a life of enviable luxury.
Night after night, he would collapse from exhaustion on our shared bed, calling me “honey” as he drifted off to sleep.
Yet in public, Michael always pretended not to know me.
Even when we brushed past each other, he avoided meeting my eyes as if even the slightest acknowledgment was taboo.
But under the same table, he would shamelessly hook my long legs as if no one else existed.
One night, when he didn’t come home again, my best friend teased, asking if he had another woman outside.
Michael smiled faintly, his slender fingers casually twirling a strand of my hair by my ear.
“My kidneys aren’t strong enough to handle two women.”
“Whether there’s another woman or not, she’ll find out tonight.”