From A Humiliating Bet To The Boss He Can’t Have Chapter 28
“I flew here by myself. I booked the hotel myself, too.”
I stopped two steps away from her.
“Why was it so important that you see me?”
Lily’s eyes turned red.
“Because after you left two years ago, my dad told me you just needed time.”
“He said you would come back.”
“Later he said he would win you back.”
She lowered her head.
“But he never told me why you left.”
It wasn’t until that day, when she happened to see The Prenup Pool on Grant’s tablet—
saw people making bets using her name,
and saw her father sending me messages in her name—
that she learned the truth.
That “Lily misses you” had never come from her.
“I had no idea you two had broken up that night.”
Her voice trembled.
“And I never asked him to tell you to come back.”
I remembered staring at that message back then.
I remembered every school pickup, every fever, every late-night wait over those three years.
It turned out I wasn’t the only one who had been used as a bargaining chip.
Lily had been, too.
She took the black velvet box from her backpack and set it on the table beside her.
“My dad asked me to hold onto this.”
Inside were the cuff links.
“But I’m not here to bring you something for him.”
She pushed the box farther away.
“I’m here to tell you I already gave it back to him.”
“It has all three of our names on it. But he never really thought of us as three people.”