Chapter

Jace didn’t continue, but I already knew. “She wants to be your wife, right?”

Jace’s head shot up, surprise all over his face like I’d cracked some big secret.

“You know her pretty well,” he said after a beat, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

The jab wasn’t subtle. He was implying I’d been keeping tabs on Tanya—because, yeah, she’d stolen Jace from me. Classic.

“You’re overthinking it,” I shot back, keeping my cool. “I don’t care about her. But she’s so obvious. Her obsession with money and fancy things? Kinda hard to miss.”

Right as I finished, the sky started to change. I used to think night slowly turned into day, but it was like someone flicked a switch. The sky just… lit up, fast and sharp. No wonder they call it the breaking of dawn.

“Jace, an amusement park’s worth a lot, sure. But compared to being the CEO’s wife? It’s pocket change.” I watched his expression—he blinked, clearly not expecting me to go there.

Yeah, the Johnstons gave me a whole amusement park, but Jace’s net worth? He could buy a hundred of those. Tanya knew that. That’s why she didn’t waste any time using Desmond’s death to her advantage. “She never wanted me,” Jace muttered, his voice bitter. “She only wanted what I’m worth.”

I laughed softly under my breath. Is he just now getting this? Did he really think Tanya was with him for love?

In rich-people-land, how many couples are actually in love? Most are just business deals wrapped in wedding dresses.

Suddenly, Sasha popped into my head. That girl was all over Thorsten, a guy old enough to be her dad. Was that love? Maybe. Or maybe she was just in love with his bank account.

“But why don’t you care?” Jace asked quietly. “If you cared about money, you wouldn’t have… left because of her, right?”

He wasn’t wrong. If I was after wealth, I could’ve ignored Tanya. We’d fight, sure, but I’d wait until we got married. Then, when we split? I’d walk away with half his empire.

Even Lena thought I was dumb for letting Jace off so easy. She’d told me if he cheated, I should’ve made him pay for it.

“Maybe I am dumb,” I said with a small, self-deprecating smile, echoing Lena’s words.

“Keira,” Jace said, using my name in a way that caught me off guard. “Did you ever really love me?”

I let out a low laugh, thinking, ‘After everything, now he asks if I loved him?’

I looked at him, my voice cold. “You’re like someone who doesn’t just want to hurt someone—they want to twist the knife afterward.”

Chapter 424

Jace tilted his head back, staring at the now-bright sky. “I’ve been thinking… if you really loved me, how could you just leave? How could you be with someone else so fast? I can’t even imagine it, but…”

He trailed off, his voice breaking. “The longer we’re apart, the more I realize…. I can’t live without you.” Ah, the aftermath.

I saw the pain on his face, the sadness clinging to him like a shadow. And in that moment, something inside me finally clicked.

I realized I wasn’t the only one who had loved. He had too, in his own messed-up way. We just went down the wrong road. Much like this conversation, which started about Tanya but somehow circled back to us.

Since we were already here, I figured I’d clear things up for him.

“Ever hear the saying?” I asked, bending down to pick up a fallen leaf. I spun it between my fingers. “A leaf doesn’t turn yellow in a day; people don’t just wake up one day and stop caring.”

Chapter 425