A small green emerald pendant shaped like a lock.
Denver's expression softened the moment he saw it. "You still wear this little thing?"
Kiana blushed and offered a sheepish smile. "Anything my brother gives me, no matter how much it costs, I treasure it."
Denver paused, his brows furrowing slightly. "But this wasn't something I bought. Don't you remember?"
Kiana's gaze darted away. "Of course, I remember… How could I forget?"
She changed the subject quickly. "By the way, did the doctor say when my Leslie can leave the hospital?"
But the sudden shift in topic only made Denver suspicious.
"Kiana," he asked, going back to the subject, "do you remember how you got this pendant?"
Kiana hesitated, her voice faltering as she came up with a vague response. "Well… one day, you gave it to me as a gift."
Denver's sharp eyes softened into an amused curve. "It was for your birthday, wasn't it?"
She nodded quickly. "Yes, yes! My birthday!"
Denver lowered his head, hiding the sadness in his eyes. 'Looks like she doesn't remember after all,' he thought to himself.
That day wasn't anything special. He had just found a beautiful emerald stone and made it into a pendant for the girl he wanted to protect forever.
After getting home, Kiana locked herself in her bedroom. She pulled out an old, yellowish journal from a locked drawer. Flipping through page after page, she searched.
But there was nothing—no mention of the emerald pendant anywhere.
Feeling frustrated, she slammed the journal shut, yanked the pendant off her neck, and locked both away in the deepest corner of the drawer.
Meanwhile, Leslie stayed in the hospital for a week. With the wedding just days away, she was finally discharged.
The nurse handed her the bill. "Is anyone here to help you with this?"
Leslie smiled faintly. "No, just me."
The nurse looked at her sympathetically. "You'll need to go to the billing counter, pay, and then come back for your discharge papers. It might take a while—are you sure you can handle it on your own?"
"I'll be fine," Leslie replied, slightly nodding. 'What else can I do anyway? Who else can I rely on but myself?'
Just a few minutes ago, she saw Kiana's latest post on Instagram.
Denver, Travis, and Kiana had driven to the world's largest Disneyland to make Kiana's childhood dream come true.
The three of them looked happy, their smiles warm and bright. The caption even said [Childhood regrets vanish when you meet your prince and knight.]
'Of course,' Leslie sneered bitterly in her head. 'Kiana's the princess. Denver's her prince. Travis's her knight.'
And Leslie? She was just the background character, the one who didn't matter, existing solely to highlight the love story of the prince and princess.
She completed her discharge process and took a cab back to the villa by herself.
The cheap wedding gown she had ordered online had arrived. She opened the box and found it wrinkled and plain, nothing like the expensive diamond-studded gown she had once tried on.
But Leslie just smiled. "It's fine."
'Just like me—ordinary and simple,' she thought. 'No point in pretending to be something I'm not.'
She walked upstairs but then noticed something odd. Kiana's bedroom door was open.
Leslie wasn't the type to snoop. She didn't care about Kiana's life or her secrets.
But Leslie couldn't help but notice a familiar bottle of pills on the floor in the corner of the room.
Without thinking, she stepped inside the room and bent down to pick the medicine bottle up.
