Aminda POV

The ballroom was a suffocating sea of silk and diamonds. The scent of expensive perfume hung heavy in the air, sweet enough to choke on.

I stood near the entrance, anchored in a simple black dress I had bought three years ago. It was the only formal thing I owned. In this crowd, I looked exactly like what I was: the help.

Colton stood in the center of the room.

He was standing. Without crutches. Without me.

He looked magnificent in a tuxedo, his broad shoulders filling out the fabric, his height commanding the space. He was the Golden Boy of the tech world again. The broken man I knew was gone.

And draped over his arm, looking like she had been sheathed in liquid gold, was Charlie Mack.

She was beautiful in the way a predator is beautiful. Sharp, sleek, and dangerous.

"Look at them," a woman whispered near me. "A match made in heaven. I heard she flew back from Paris just for this."

"He looks so happy," another replied. "Like the accident never happened."

Like I never happened.

Colton scanned the room. His gaze slid over the crowd and landed on me.

For a second, I expected him to smile. To wave. To acknowledge that he was standing on legs I had helped rebuild, muscle by painful muscle.

Instead, his brow furrowed. He leaned down, whispered something to Charlie, and they began to cut through the crowd toward me.

My heart hammered against my ribs. Maybe he would explain. Maybe he would say the conversation I overheard was a misunderstanding.

"Aminda," Colton said. His voice was cool, professional. "You're late."

"I had to clean up," I said, my voice steady despite the trembling in my hands.

Charlie smiled. It didn't reach her eyes. "So this is the little therapist? Colton told me how... dedicated you were."

She twisted the word 'dedicated' until it sounded like 'desperate'.

"She did her job," Colton said, cutting in. He didn't look at me. He looked at the guests watching us. "Aminda, I need you to grab a glass of water for Charlie. She's parched from the flight."

The air left my lungs.

He wasn't introducing me. He was giving me an order.

Jayden appeared beside us, his face dark. "Colt, seriously? Get a waiter."

"It's fine," Colton waved him off, his eyes fixed on Charlie with a sickening adoration. "Aminda knows what Charlie likes."

I didn't move.

"Actually"-my voice was quiet but clear-"I don't."

Colton's head snapped toward me. His eyes narrowed. He wasn't used to resistance. Not from me. "Excuse me?"

"I'm not a waitress, Colton. And as of this afternoon, I'm not your therapist anymore either."

A hush fell over the immediate circle of people.

Charlie laughed, a light, tinkling sound. She stepped closer, looping her arm possessively through Colton's. She looked at me with victory dancing in her pupils.

"Oh, honey," Charlie cooed, loud enough for the onlookers to hear. "Don't be like that. We all know you developed a little... crush. It happens. The patient-doctor transference thing. But Colton is back in the real world now. His world."

She gestured around the opulent room. "This world isn't for you, Aminda. You're young. You'll find someone... simpler. Someone who needs fixing."

I looked at Colton. I waited for him to defend me. To tell her to stop.

He just sighed, looking annoyed. "Charlie is right, Aminda. Don't make this awkward. You were a great employee. Let's leave it at that."

Employee.

The word hung in the air like a guillotine blade.

Three years of sleeping on a cot in his room when he had nightmares. Three years of holding his hand. Three years of I owe you a future.

"Employee," I repeated.

I reached for a glass of champagne from a passing waiter. My hand was steady now. The shaking had stopped. A cold clarity had set in.

"To the happy couple," I said.

I downed the drink in one swallow, the bubbles burning my throat.

"Good luck, Colton," I whispered. "You're going to need it."

I placed the empty glass on a table with a deliberate clink.

I turned my back on him.

"Aminda!" Colton called out, his tone warning. "Walk away now and don't expect a reference."

I kept walking.

I cut through the crowd of staring faces. I felt their pity, their amusement. Look at the poor girl who thought she had a chance.

But as I pushed through the heavy double doors into the cool night air, I didn't feel shame.

I felt lighter.

I had my luggage packed in the cottage. I had a flight booked for 6:00 AM.

I was done.

Aminda POV

I made it as far as the garden path before the raucous noise of the party faded into a dull, rhythmic thrum. The night air was biting, stinging the raw skin on my knees from my earlier fall.

"Running away so soon?"

The voice was melodic, cloying like syrup over rot.

I stopped. I didn't turn around. "I have a flight to catch, Charlie. Go back to your fiancé."

Charlie stepped in front of me, blocking the path to the cottage. She held a glass of red wine, swirling it with a casual, predatory grace, the dark liquid sloshing dangerously close to my dress.

"He's not my fiancé yet," she smiled, her teeth gleaming white in the moonlight. "But he will be by midnight. I just wanted to make sure you understood the terms of your severance."

"I don't want anything from him," I said, stepping to the side to bypass her.

"Good." She moved to block me again. Her eyes flashed with malice. "Because you were never a threat, Aminda. You were a placeholder. A warm body to keep him alive until I was ready to come back. Did you really think he could love someone like... you?"

She flicked her gaze up and down my simple dress, my sensible shoes, dismissing my entire existence with a single look.

"I'm leaving," I said, my patience snapping. "Get out of my way."

"Or what?" She laughed. "You'll hurt me?"

Suddenly, footsteps crunched on the gravel behind us.

"Charlie?" Colton's voice cut through the tension. "What are you doing out here?"

Charlie's face transformed instantly. The malice vanished, replaced by a look of wide-eyed fear.

"Colton!" she gasped. She took a step back, her heel catching on the edge of the stone path near the ornamental koi pond.

It was a performance. A bad one. But she flailed her arms, looking like a damsel in distress.

"Charlie!" Colton lunged forward.

She reached out, not for him, but for my arm. She grabbed my wrist, her nails digging in, and yanked me forward as she pretended to fall backward.

"Help me!" she screamed.

Colton didn't hesitate. He didn't assess. He reacted on instinct-an instinct to protect the thing he valued.

He reached for Charlie, wrapping an arm around her waist to anchor her.

And with his other hand, he shoved me.

It wasn't a gentle push. It was a hard, frantic heave to clear the space, to make sure his precious Charlie didn't get dragged down by the "help."

I stumbled back. My heel hit the wet grass.

I fell backward.

The back of my head cracked against the jagged edge of the decorative stonework lining the pond.

A blinding white light exploded behind my eyes.

Then, the cold shock of water.

I sank.

The water was freezing, filling my nose, my mouth. My head throbbed with a sickening, pulsating rhythm. I tried to kick, but my limbs felt heavy, disconnected.

Through the rippling surface of the water, I could see the distorted figures above.

Colton was clutching Charlie to his chest on the dry path. He was checking her face, stroking her hair, asking if she was okay.

He wasn't looking at the water. He wasn't looking for me.

I was drowning a few feet away from him, and he was comforting the woman who had pulled me down.

Darkness began to bleed into the edges of my vision. The cold seeped into my bones.

Let go, a voice whispered in my head. He pushed you. He chose.

Then, a splash.

Strong arms grabbed me. Not Colton's.

I broke the surface, gasping, coughing up water.

"I got you, Amy. I got you." Jayden's voice.

He dragged me onto the grass. Isaias was there too, already shucking off his jacket to wrap around my shivering shoulders.

"You're bleeding," Isaias hissed, touching the back of my head. His hand came away red.

I looked up.

Colton was standing ten feet away. He still had his arm around Charlie. He was looking at me now, his eyes wide, but he didn't move toward me. He stayed with her.

"Oh my god," Charlie sobbed, burying her face in Colton's chest. "She tried to pull me in, Colt! She tried to drown me!"

Colton looked at me. The protective rage in his eyes fractured into confusion. But there was no trust. No instinct to save me.

"Is that true?" he asked.

The question hit me harder than the rock had.

Jayden stood up, water dripping from his clothes, his face twisted in fury. "Are you insane, Colton? She's bleeding from her head!"

"She attacked Charlie," Colton said, his voice hardening. He was choosing his narrative. It was easier to believe I was the villain than to admit he had hurt me.

"I need to leave," I whispered. My teeth were chattering so hard I could barely speak. "Jayden, please. Get me out of here."

"We're going to the hospital," Jayden said, lifting me into his arms.

"No," I grabbed his wet lapel. "Airport. Please. Just get me away from him."

"Hospital first," Isaias commanded, glaring at Colton. "Then anywhere you want."

As Jayden carried me past Colton, I locked eyes with him one last time.

He reached a hand out, a stuttering, half-hearted motion. "Aminda..."

I closed my eyes. I let the darkness take me. I didn't want to see him ever again.

Aminda POV

The overhead fluorescent lights were aggressive, searing against my retinas.

I sat perched on the edge of the hospital bed, a bandage wound tight around my head. My suitcase sat by the door, a silent sentinel.

Jayden had retrieved it for me. My flight was in four hours.

The door clicked open.

I braced myself for a nurse.

Instead, it was Colton.

He was still wearing his tuxedo, though the tie was undone-a rare sign of disarray. He didn't look worried. He looked irritated.

"You're causing a scene," he said, shutting the door firmly behind him. "Leaving in the middle of the night? Really?"

I stared at him. My head pounded in rhythm with my heartbeat.

"I'm not on your payroll anymore, Colton. I don't answer to you."

He stepped closer, and his scent-sandalwood and expensive scotch-flooded the small, sterile room. It used to be my favorite smell. Now, it made my stomach turn.

"Charlie is distraught," he said. "She thinks you hate her."

"I don't hate her," I said, my voice flat. "I don't care enough about her to hate her."

"She sent you this." He gestured to a styrofoam bowl on the tray table. "Gourmet broth. Straight from the hotel chef. She wanted to make peace."

"I don't want it."

"Stop acting like a child," Colton snapped. "She didn't have to do this, especially after you tried to drag her into the pond."

"I didn't-" I started, then stopped. What was the point? He had already rewritten history in his head to protect his perfect reunion.

The door swung open again.

Charlie breezed in, looking immaculate. Not a hair out of place.

"Colty," she whined, latching onto his arm. "Is she accepting my apology? Even though she was the one who terrified me?"

She looked at me, her gaze sliding to the soup. "Oh, you haven't touched it. Are you afraid I poisoned it?"

She let out a giggle that sounded like shattering glass.

"She's just being stubborn," Colton said, dismissing me.

Charlie wandered over to the bedside table. "And look, I brought back the little wooden box you left in the cottage. The one Colton's dad made?"

She held up the intricately carved box. It was the only thing Colton had left of his father. I had spent months carefully humidifying the wood to keep it from cracking.

"Oops," Charlie said.

She opened her hand.

The box hit the linoleum floor.

It shattered into three distinct pieces.

"No!" I gasped, instinctively reaching out.

"You clumsy bitch!" Charlie shrieked, pointing a manicured finger at me. "You knocked it out of my hand!"

It was a lie so blatant, so stupid, I couldn't believe anyone would buy it.

Colton stared down at the broken wood. His face went pale, then flushed a deep, angry red. That box was sacred to him.

"I didn't touch it," I said, panic rising in my voice.

"She did!" Charlie cried, tears instantly welling in her eyes. "She slapped my hand! And she told me she hoped the soup was poison so she could sue us!"

Colton looked at me. His eyes were black holes.

"You broke my father's box?" His voice was a low, dangerous growl.

"Colton, she dropped it. She's lying."

"Why would she break it?" he roared. "You're the one who's jealous! You're the one trying to ruin tonight!"

He grabbed the bowl of soup. It was steaming hot.

"You think this is poison?" he yelled, looking completely unhinged. "You think Charlie is the villain? Eat it!"

"Colton, don't." I shrank back against the pillows.

"Eat it!"

He grabbed my jaw with one hand, his fingers digging brutally into my cheeks, forcing my mouth open. With the other hand, he rammed the spoon into my mouth.

The soup was scalding.

It burned my tongue, searing the roof of my mouth. I choked, coughing violently.

He didn't stop.

He shoved another spoonful in. "Swallow it! Prove you're not crazy!"

Liquid splashed onto my chin, dripping down my hospital gown. It blistered my skin on contact.

I gagged, flailing my arms, trying to push him away. My head wound throbbed, sending spikes of white-hot agony through my skull.

I couldn't breathe. I was drowning again, but this time in heat and humiliation.

He finally let go.

I collapsed forward, coughing up broth and blood. The hot liquid had blistered my lip.

Colton stood back, breathing hard, the spoon still clutched in his hand. He looked down at me with unadulterated disgust.

"You're pathetic," he spat. "You're not the woman who helped me heal. You're a monster."

"Colty, let's go," Charlie whispered, tugging at his arm. A smirk played on her lips, visible only to me. "She's dangerous."

"You're right," Colton said. He turned to me. "Get out of my city. If I see you again, I'll ruin you."

He turned to leave.

The door burst open.

Jayden and Isaias stood there.

They took it all in. The broken box. The soup soaking my gown. The blood dripping from my lip where the spoon had cut me.

Jayden's face went deadly, terrifyingly calm.

"What did you do?" Jayden asked, his voice trembling with suppressed rage.

Colton straightened his jacket, composing himself.

"I taught her a lesson."