Chapter 3
“Sorry. I—”
I cut him off.
“It's fine.”
I turned away and opened the rideshare app on my phone.
Behind me, his friends started asking questions.
“She looks familiar. Ethan, isn't she that gold digger who got down on her knees at your engagement party?”
“Check your wallet. Maybe she bumped into you to steal it.”
He let them say it. He always did.
At home, as I checked the fare on my phone, a notification from the airline appeared.
“Your waitlisted booking from New York to Paris is confirmed. Departure tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. Please allow sufficient time at the airport.”
I sent a screenshot to the recruiter at the company overseas.
Before I could add anything, she replied.
“Claire, finally! I can't wait to welcome you!”
For the first time that day, I relaxed a little. I might not have love, but I could still have a career.
I picked up the suitcase I'd already packed. I didn't want to spend another second in that home.
Ethan arrived just as I was leaving.
He frowned and slammed the door shut.
“Claire Bennett. Where do you think you're going?”
Olivia had followed him inside.
“Please don't get the wrong idea, Claire. Ethan and I are just old friends. He was helping me out in front of everyone. Don't fight with him and move out because of me.”
I couldn't stand listening to any more of it.
“Ethan, we're done.”
He'd been about to accuse me of being jealous again. Instead, he froze for a second, then stared at me.
“Done? You're breaking up with me because Liv and I put on a little show? Claire, do you want a wedding or not?”
He still thought I was so desperately in love with him that he could use a wedding to keep me in line.
Once, it would have worked. I'd have swallowed everything and begged him to spend his life with me.
Now I could only give a humorless smile.
“What wedding, Ethan? You and I have nothing to do with each other anymore.”
“Nothing to do with each other?”
His expression hardened. His voice went cold.
“That's not what you said when I proposed last month. You said marrying me was your dream. The ring—”
He began pulling open drawers and searching the room, as if finding it would prove me wrong.
“Don't bother. You took it back and returned it for fifteen hundred dollars. Then you bought Olivia a designer hair tie.”
Saying it aloud made the absurdity even worse.
In seven years, I'd received nothing from him. I'd scrimped to buy him gifts, and he'd sold them secondhand because he thought they were cheap.
Even the diamond ring had been taken back after the proposal. He'd said there was no point wasting money. We should save it for the wedding.
He blinked and looked around the room.
“Fine, not the ring. But there are things you bought me. Things I bought you…”
He stopped. His face darkened.
He couldn't find a single thing in our home that proved we'd been a couple.
Olivia looked delighted, though she kept her voice reproachful.
“Stop making a scene, Claire. Ethan pays for everything you eat and wear. The least you could do is be understanding and take some pressure off him. He's taking over the company. This is a crucial time.”
That gave him something to hold on to. He folded his arms and sneered.
“Liv's right. Can't you think beyond what's right in front of you? Once the company's mine, I'll buy you anything. Put the suitcase down. Unless you want me to cut off your allowance.”
I let go of the handle and lifted out a box of IOUs instead.
“For seven years, you've given me thirty dollars a month to live on. Every extra expense came with an IOU. Five hundred of them. They add up to three thousand dollars. Grandma's surgeries and treatments over the years came to forty-five thousand.”
I kept my voice level.
“You've kept the debit card for the account my paychecks go into all this time. After the monthly allowance, at least three hundred and fifty thousand dollars of my wages went through your hands. Take off the other forty-eight thousand. I want the remaining three hundred and two thousand back.”
Ethan knocked the box out of my hands. The slips of paper scattered across the floor.
“Seven years, Claire! Does that mean less to you than a little money? How can you be so shallow?”
The disgust in his voice made it hard to speak.
“It's my money. I worked for it.”
He kicked the coffee table with a crash.
“Money, money, money! Is that all you care about? Why can't you be like Liv? She's easygoing. She doesn't care about status or money. She's never asked me for anything!”
He wasn't finished.
“My father was right. Dating someone poor is a waste of time. We don't come from the same world.”
“Your money? Are you serious? You'd have nothing without me. I'm the one who pays your salary!”
I almost laughed at myself.
Olivia didn't have to ask because she already had everything. All she had to do was stand there. Ethan would put the best of everything into her hands, along with his heart.
When I didn't answer, he snapped, “Fine. Take your money. Don't ever ask me to keep it for you again.”
He flung the bank card at my face.
Its edge caught my cheek. I touched the cut, and my fingers came away red.
He panicked at once, reaching for me.
“Claire? Are you okay?”
I pushed his hand aside.
He looked frightened now. I felt too worn out to care.
“Aren't you tired of playing prince and Cinderella, Ethan?”
I looked straight at him.
“Because I'm done.”
