Julie Morgan graduated with her bachelor’s in journalism from the London School of Media. She’d gotten early acceptance into grad school, and she could barely wait to tell Cameron Taylor the good news.
His response? A cold, cutting glare. "Straight to grad school? Real smooth move to win everyone over, huh?"
"C’mon, spill," he pressed, leaning in so close she could taste the sarcasm dripping off every word. "What did you promise Silas Olson to pressure him into that spot? Let’s be real—you’ve always been a pro at wrapping men around your finger and cashing in favors."
That was all it took. Julie walked away from that hard-won early admission spot. She even quit the job she’d lined up. She moved into Cameron’s estate, The Grove, to be his little stay-at-home fiancée, waiting on his every whim.
She’d gotten used to those accusations of leeching off favors. After her parents died in the line of work, the Taylors took her in. Out of guilt, they didn’t just adopt her—they paired her off as Cameron’s fiancée. It was all arranged before she even got a say.
As a kid, she’d been naive enough to daydream about a happy future. But growing up slapped the rose-colored glasses right off her face. Cameron never had any intention of actually marrying her.
Just like Sophie Chavez once spat at her: "Miss Morgan, leaning on the memory of your parents’ friendship with the Taylors is one thing. Having them treat you like their own and hand you their son is another. You think you love Cameron, but really, you’re just in love with the idea of being part of this family. Do you have any idea how much you torture him?"
Was she really just selfish? Julie couldn’t be sure. All she knew was that she’d lost herself for that man. She’d bent over backwards, humbled herself again and again, just to please him. If this love hurt both of them this badly… maybe letting go sooner was better than later.
Julie shook herself back to the present. She’d already sent out half a dozen job applications. Breaking up with Cameron meant she’d have to stand on her own two feet from here on out. Laura Taylor still sent her a monthly allowance, and Cameron’s grandparents slipped her cash in envelopes whenever they saw her.
But Julie couldn’t keep taking it anymore. She wouldn’t touch the money in her account unless she had no other choice, and every time she did, she paid it back as fast as she could. Never again would she let anyone hold that over her head, use it as leverage to control her.
Yeah, right. If she went out to work, Cameron would accuse her of flirting with every guy she meets. If she stayed home, he’d mock her for leeching off his family and contributing nothing. Ha…
From now on, she’d be independent. She’d live life on her own terms, call all her own shots. No one got to tell her what to do ever again.
Clearing her head of the bitter memories, Julie headed for the hospital. Maryam had been critical overnight, but they’d stabilized her. She was still frail, but she lit up when she saw Julie, a bright smile tugging at her lips.
"Sister."
Maryam was Julie’s cousin—her aunt’s daughter. After her aunt died, Maryam’s dad remarried almost immediately and had a new son. Maryam might as well have been thrown out with the old moving boxes. Last year, Julie came back from a Taylor family gathering to find the skinny, shivering girl huddled by The Grove’s gate, clutching a tattered burlap sack, her cheeks bright red from the winter cold.
In her hand was a crumpled note with The Grove’s address scrawled on it. She wouldn’t meet anyone’s eye, just whispered, "Are you my sister? Mom said if anything ever went wrong, I should find you…"
That note was the last thing her mom left her—her only hope. It didn’t take Julie long to learn why Maryam’s family cast her off. She’d been born with liver dysfunction, and later got diagnosed with leukemia. She’d walked all the way to The Grove alone, and by the time Julie found her, she was sick enough to be admitted straight to the ER that same night.
Ever since, complication after complication kept her locked in the hospital bed almost nonstop. The medical bills vanished faster than water through a sieve…
And Cameron? He just got colder, more sarcastic. "Your Morgan family sure knows how to milk a crisis for all it’s worth, don’t they?"
Julie took a deep breath and lowered herself onto the edge of Maryam’s bed. "Sister!" Maryam froze, worry creasing her forehead. "Are you hurt? Where does it ache?"
Julie froze. She’d forgotten all about it. Last night, she’d rushed to the airport to catch the lead surgeon before he flew out. Traffic was gridlocked, so she jumped out of her cab and sprinted for the terminal. In her panic, she almost got hit head-on by a private car—only a last-second swerve kept it from being worse than a light scrape and a hard fall.
It was just a minor accident, but the fall left her covered in bruises and with nasty soft tissue damage. The pain had gotten worse overnight, making sitting or standing agonizing. Cameron, who’d mocked her openly just the night before, never even noticed. But Maryam, hooked up to tubes and barely strong enough to sit up, caught the awkward way Julie held herself and immediately knew something was wrong.
Scared by Julie’s silence, Maryam started crying soft, hitching sobs. "It’s okay, sis… Maryam will get better. Once I’m healthy, I’ll work and pay you back, I promise. I won’t make Cameron mad ever again…"
Even Maryam, stuck in the hospital and barely having met Cameron, could see how awful he treated her. How stupid was Julie, to stay blind for so long, to keep thinking sacrificing one more piece of herself would win his heart?
"It’s nothing, I just slept wrong," Julie promised, smiling gentle as she tapped the tip of Maryam’s nose. "Where’d you get the idea that you have to keep talking about paying me back? The best thing you can do to save me money is get healthy, got it?"
Her phone buzzed in her jeans pocket. Julie pulled it out quick— a reply to one of her job applications. The company name made her breath catch: Prominence Media.
She’d spammed applications to every media outlet in the city, desperate for any work, but she never expected her first interview invite to come from Prominence. The interview was scheduled for 1 PM that same day.
After she got Maryam settled, Julie hurried out for the interview. Prominence Media was one of the top global news corporations out there—every journalism grad’s dream job. Julie had been top of her class in college, her graduation project got special recognition, even won one of the rare special achievement awards.
Right after graduation, Prominence gave her an offer. But she’d thrown her entire future away just to be Cameron’s "perfect" waiting wife. And Cameron had taught her a brutal, ruthless lesson: a woman without money or a career has no dignity, no standing. Love is just a useless, broken promise—especially when you never had it to begin with.
"Miss Morgan, looking at your resume, your expertise is in social news, but this position is focused on entertainment. Will that be a problem for you?"
"Entertainment journalism is fine. I can do it."
"So, Miss Morgan, when can you start?"
"I can start today."
Julie needed the money. She needed a steady, respectable job. She needed the strength to walk away and never look back. But after she finished all her new hire paperwork, she rounded the corner outside HR and came face-to-face with a familiar man, that gentle, warm smile of his…
