Chapter 3

I stood alone in that spot for what felt like hours.

The pain in my arm stabbed like needles.

Yet my heart was strangely calm.

In that moment, I finally understood.

All those years of childish longing—

they had vanished like smoke.

Gone.

That night, Dominic posted a string of updates online.

Friends from our circle immediately sent me screenshots,

highlighting his captions in bold.

I knew exactly why they did it.

Before, I would’ve stormed to him in tears,

demanding answers, making scenes.

He’d always grown impatient—but eventually relented.

That made me believe he cared.

It made me push harder, never knowing when to stop.

Not this time.

Instead, I dialed the missed call from New York—the one I’d ignored a week earlier.

“Aunt Ellen, it’s Sera.”

“I’ve thought it over. About what you mentioned last time—I’m ready.”

I was thirteen when my parents died in an “accident.”

Because the Fletchers were old family friends and lived nearby,

I moved into Fletcher Manor after the funeral.

Aunt Ellen had been my mother’s closest friend since girlhood.

But she’d left Chicago decades ago for love, settling in the Berkshires.

By the time she’d secured her place in the Delaney family,

my parents were already gone.

She’d called me weeks ago, hoping I’d come live with her.

She wanted to honor a promise she and my mother made long ago:

that I would marry her son and become mistress of the Delaney estate.

I hadn’t said yes right away.

Too stunned to refuse outright, I’d asked for time.

But tonight, everything became clear.

My obsession had been foolish—a one-sided fantasy.

I refused to be the laughingstock of Boston’s elite any longer.

Six months earlier, Dominic had tried to end our engagement.

I’d begged, cried, even screamed.

He never wavered.

Now, I saw it as fate’s quiet mercy.

On the other end of the line, Aunt Ellen’s voice brightened.

“Sera, Lawrence has been waiting for your answer.”

“He’s flying to Boston tomorrow to propose properly.”

I clutched the phone, warmth rising to my cheeks.

Laughter echoed faintly in my memory—

the sound of ten years’ devotion crumbling in just seven days.

Dominic and Abigail chose the very day of my departure to announce their engagement.

No one came to see me off.

When my plane landed in the Berkshires, I turned my phone back on.

Notifications flooded in—

all about Dominic’s engagement party.

I smiled and blocked every single one.

Before leaving Boston, I’d met Lawrence Delaney.

I wanted no spectacle, no gossip.

He understood completely.

He proposed. We exchanged rings.

Just like that—quiet, certain, final.

Ten million dollars appeared in my Swiss account as betrothal gift.

On my finger sat a simple, elegant diamond band.

As I stepped toward the Delaney car waiting at the curb,

my phone rang.

It was Gabriella Fletcher—Dominic’s cousin.

“Sera! Dominic’s engagement ceremony is starting any minute! Where are you?”

“I just landed in the Berkshires.”

“Get back here—you can still make it!”

“Why would I?” My voice stayed steady.

Gabriella faltered. “Are you insane?”

“If you don’t come cause a scene, he’ll really be someone else’s!”

“This is his big moment. Why would an outsider crash it?”

“Sera?” Her voice sharpened. “Have you lost your mind?”

I lifted my thumb to end the call—

when Abigail’s voice cut through the line.