“The doctor said your fifth rib was too badly damaged. It could only be replaced with a titanium one.”

“This next stretch is the adjustment period. If your chest hurts, you tell me. Don’t you dare grit your teeth and bear it. I’m sorry. I didn’t protect you well enough.”

If I hadn’t heard those words with my own ears, I probably would have done what I always did, sinking into this counterfeit tenderness.

But I knew the faint bruised shadows under her eyes right now.

They hadn’t been earned staying up for me.

I slid my hand free without a word and opened the dial screen.

The moment Ursula saw the three numbers I’d typed, her face changed.

“You’re calling the police? To arrest who?”

I lifted my head, my voice even.

“The one who shoved me down the stairs and turned my rib into a guitar pick.”

Ursula seized my hand, her eyes sharp.

“Have you lost your mind? Aaron’s concert is a week away. How can you have the heart to ruin his future?”

My wrist ached under her grip. I looked at her.

“So I just deserved to have my career destroyed by you people?”

“Ursula, stop the act. Anesthesia takes time to fully kick in. I heard everything.”

Ursula froze for a beat, a flush of guilt rising in her face.

I didn’t deal with her. I used my other hand to place the call.

“Hello, I’d like to report a crime…”

Before I could finish, Ursula tore the phone away and smashed it to pieces.

Her eyes blazed as she jabbed a finger at me.

“Thomas, you’re just sore that Aaron kissed me. I already told you. He studied abroad for years. It’s normal for him to be a little more open about how he greets people.”

“If you hadn’t been so petty and thrown your drink at him, he wouldn’t have pushed you. He who provokes first pays for it, don’t you get that? This was always the compensation you owed him!”

Watching her stand there so righteous, I suddenly laughed.

“I’ve never heard of a single country whose etiquette involves tongue-kissing another man’s fiancée.”

“Or is it that you just enjoyed it? Fine. Then let’s break up.”

Five years together, and this was the first time I’d ever said the words.

Ursula’s expression stiffened, then she let out a scornful snort.

“Break up? Don’t make me laugh, Thomas. You became a private-jet captain because it put you close to rich people, so you could land yourself a golden goose and fill that bottomless pit of a family, didn’t you?”

“I already agreed to marry you. Who exactly are you putting on this self-made act for? Quit playing hard to get!”

I stared at her in disbelief.

It was true. I’d joined the private-jet charter company because the pay was better.

That was because my family was buried in debt, and I had to earn more.

But I never knew this was how Ursula saw me.

No longer the person who, when she confessed to me, said she’d been drawn to the way I fought and worked for everything.

Ursula glanced at her phone.

“Aaron wakes up in half an hour, and I need to bring him breakfast. If you’re hungry, have the nurse send up a patient meal.”

At the door, as if remembering something, she turned to look at me.

“Thomas, don’t forget. Last year your father racked up another million in gambling debts and got stabbed, badly. I called in a specialist overnight, saved his life, and paid off his debts.”

“And it was your parents who signed off on the surgery, because your brother wanted a wedding house in the city and came to me for two million. That much money, all for a single rib of yours. You made out like a bandit.”

“Be good. Don’t stir up trouble. At the end of the month I’ll still marry you as planned. But if you still want to call the police, I won’t stop you. Just give me back your father’s life and my money.”

The door swung shut in front of me.

I collapsed against the bed, buried my face in my hands, and laughed at myself.

So in her heart, our love, my career, my body, all of it was just a transaction to be measured in money.

But money could maybe be paid back. A life couldn’t.

Ursula was forcing me to cave, and all of it was to protect Aaron.

I borrowed a phone from a nurse and dialed the number I knew by heart.

"Sir, could you... lend me some money?"

On the fourth day, I was cleared to leave the hospital.

Fighting through the discomfort of the titanium rib in my chest, I went to the company and handed in my resignation.

Even if I could still barely tolerate flying someday, a pilot whose physical condition failed to meet standard.

Would never captain a plane again.

After that, I made a trip back to my hometown.

Even swallowing my pride, I could only bring myself to ask my old mentor for a million dollars.

Years ago, I'd used the wages I'd saved to build my parents a two-story house with a courtyard back home.

It had long been agreed the place would go to my brother when he married.

So that house wasn't something I could take, and there was no need for it either.

But the moment I stepped into the courtyard, I froze.

Aaron sat at the table with a guitar in his arms, pinching the pick made from my rib between his fingers, while Ursula stood beside him feeding him fruit.

Seeing me, Aaron greeted me with a smile:

"Thomas, you're back? My concert needs an opening music video shot, and Ursula said the scenery here was nice, so she brought me along. Figured we'd drop off the money for your brother's wedding house while we're at it."

"I'm really sorry about that night, I had a bit too much to drink, I didn't mean it. But your mom and dad have already forgiven me on your behalf."

My parents nodded along, fawning, their eyes darting again and again to the two boxes of cash on the table.

Not one of them asked how I was doing after the surgery.

I walked over, stared at the suit he was wearing, and gave a bitter little laugh.

"What, taking my rib wasn't enough? Now you're taking my wedding suit too?"

"Do your fans know they've got a thief on their hands?"

Aaron's expression shifted, and he looked at the woman beside him, wounded.

"Thomas, ease up. I gave Aaron that suit. He didn't have anything decent to wear for the video."

Ursula shielded him behind her, displeasure written on her face.

"Besides, your build was never as good as his. It'd have been wasted on you anyway."

That suit had been custom-made half a year in advance.

And I'd never even tried it on. It was already on someone else's back.

I looked at Ursula. "Then what about me?"

"The wedding's at the end of the month. You think there's still time to have a new one made?"

She knit her brows, impatient.

"It's just a formality, isn't it? Rent something when the time comes. Don't be so cheap."

I had nothing left to say. I pushed the two boxes of money back toward her.

"Take the money back. We've already broken up, and my brother doesn't need another wedding house bought for him."

Ursula's face went cold at once, and she turned to my parents with a sneer.

"Is that so? Do you two think the same?"

"Such a shame. I'd been planning to give a three-million-dollar payout."

My parents' eyes lit up instantly.

Before I could get a word out, my mother pinched me hard.

"You little wretch, did they take your brain out along with your rib? Who said we don't need it? You think it won't cost money when your brother has kids someday?"

"You're his older brother. Can't you show some sense? You think a breakup is something you just throw around?!"

So they really had agreed to it.

I shut my eyes, my heart gone cold.

"How much more sense do you want from me? The money I've made all these years either went to pay off your debts and build your house, or you schemed every way you could to swindle it out of me, so my brother could eat, drink, and play."

"For money, you'd sell off my career and my health, watch my fiancée parade around town with another man, and never once ask whether I was in pain."

"I've been sensible enough. My brother has two hands and two feet. If he wants a wedding house, he can go earn it himself. If he can't afford it, then don't have kids. I'm a person, not your cash cow!"

The words had barely left my mouth when my father's hand cracked across my face.

"You've got some nerve! This family raised you all these years. You owe us!"

"What's one lousy rib worth? Ms. Henson is only trying to help a friend. If a woman like her can look past what you are, if she doesn't think you're beneath her, that's your good fortune!"

"Sit tight, marry Ms. Henson, and take care of your brother. Isn't that a damn sight better than playing pilot? Marriage is for parents to decide. You breathe another word about breaking it off and I'll snap your legs. As far as I'm concerned, I never had a son like you!"

My father was a farmhand, all muscle, and that blow landed hard.

The taste of blood flooded my mouth at once.

I pressed a hand to my face and dragged the corner of my mouth into a bitter twist.

Seeing him rear back for another hit, Ursula finally spoke, unhurried.

"Enough. Laying hands on my fiancé right in front of me. Are you trying to humiliate me?"

My father bobbed his head in a rush. "No, no, never. Thomas, your dad didn't mean it. Don't take it to heart, all right?"

"Ms. Henson, you two talk. His mother and I will go make Thomas some plum tea. It's his favorite."

I watched them haul those two boxes of cash into the house, barely able to wait.

Something in my chest went hollow with grief.

These were my parents.

For money, they'd fawn over the mistress who'd torn apart their son's relationship.

And only for money would they ever bother to show me a kind face.

Ursula sighed.

"Thomas, I know you're devoted to your family, that more than anything you want peace under one roof."

"Look at me. I'm the only one who doesn't mind that you've got a pack of bloodsuckers for relatives, the only one who can keep your parents in line and give you what you want. Come on, stop this. Does your face hurt?"

There was a lofty charity in her tone, as if she were handing something down to me.

That was Ursula. No one was better at turning a person's soft spot into a blade to force them to cave.

She reached out to touch my face. I turned aside.

"Spare me the fake concern, Ms. Henson. If the money bought my brother a house, then let him pay it back."

"The million from before, I'll return to you. After that, we're square."

Her face darkened in an instant, and I saw the dawning suspicion in it, the sense that something was slipping out of her grip.

She was about to say something when Aaron looped his arm through mine, coaxing.

"Thomas, don't be so stubborn. You've only been a captain for six months. Where would you get that kind of money?"

"Oh. Unless you've latched onto someone new?"

I shook him off in disgust. "None of your business!"

Aaron lost his footing and pitched backward.

Ursula caught him fast and glared at me, seething. "Thomas Harding, Aaron was only trying to help, and even with a guilty conscience you didn't have to put your hands on him. Apologize. Now!"

I let out a cold laugh, biting off each word. "Not a chance!"

Then, without a second's hesitation, I walked out.

Behind me came Ursula's furious warning.

"Thomas Harding, you'll regret this!"

I didn't slow down. I didn't look back.

Back at my apartment, just as I was about to reach out to my landlord about ending the lease, the doorbell rang.

Puzzled, I opened the door. Two officers flashed their badges and a search warrant.

"Mr. Harding, someone reported a theft."

"Step aside, please. We need to search the premises immediately."

And behind them, arms crossed, Ursula leaned against the wall, watching me with a smile playing at her lips.

Two minutes later, they pulled that limited-edition watch of hers out of my bag.

Once she confirmed it was hers, the officers turned to me, grave and cold.

"Mr. Harding, we'll need you to come with us."

A strange, hollow laugh rose in me.

That watch. The night of the party, in the private room, her strap had gotten soaked with liquor.

She'd taken it off herself and asked me to hold on to it.

And now she was using that against me, framing me as a thief.

"So this is how you settle the score for Aaron?"