Chapter 2
“Really? You’re not lying to me?”
The woman’s voice on the other end of the line was shaking with excitement.
But in Summer‘ ears, it only made her feel sick.
“I have a condition,” she said coldly.
“Name it. As long as you agree to marry into the Stone family, mom will agree to anything.”
Summer let out a sharp, mocking breath.
“I want a helicopter to come get me. I want you to erase every trace of my existence here. And one last thing I’ll send you a sketch. Have someone make me that wedding dress.”
There was a brief pause on the phone, then confusion.
“We’ve already arranged everything for the ceremony here. There’s no need for you to prepare your own dress. Besides… that’s not something a girl should be handling herself, don’t you think?”
Summer’s lashes trembled, but she didn’t bother answering that.
She cut in flatly, “Just bring everything I asked for. I’ll keep my word. I’ll marry Caleb Stone.”
She was just about to hang up when her mother’s voice came through again.
“Make sure you finalize the divorce before you come. The Stone family doesn’t care that you’ve been married before, but if you’re going to move on, then end things clean.”
Summer let out a bitter laugh.
“You don’t have to worry. I was never married to begin with.”
Her arm fell limply to her side.
“What? Never married–what do you mean-
Her mother’s puzzled voice filtered through the speaker, but Summer didn’t respond. She hung up.
“Never married? Who the hell’s never married?!”
A familiar voice suddenly rang out behind her.
Summer slowly turned around.
Wilder was standing there, his face stiff, lips curled in a twisted smile.
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He strode over and grabbed her wrist in a vice–like grip.
Pain shot up her arm, but she didn’t cry out.
Her expression remained calm. She stared straight into his eyes. “I’m not married.”
Wilder didn’t look away, not even for a second.
Suddenly, he smiled. One hand slipped around her shoulders and pulled her close.
“Come on, babe. If you’re not married, then what does that make me? Don’t joke like that–you’re
mine for life.”
He pressed a kiss to the center of her forehead.
But all Summer felt was a chill running from her scalp down to her toes.
That’s right, Wilder.
If I was never your wife…
Then what the hell were you to me?
She bit down hard, the coppery tang of blood flooding her mouth as her tongue split. Her nails dug
into her palms. A scream was rising in her throat, but she forced it back down, biting her lip so hard
her eyes stung with pain.
Wilder, seeing her like this, reached out awkwardly to wipe the tears from her face.
Tears.
It had been so long since he’d seen her cry.
The sight stirred something in him, something protective.
He frowned deeply. “Babe, who hurt you? You never cry. What happened to you today?”
Her brows twitched slightly.
Was she crying?
She lifted a hand and wiped her cheek. Sure enough, it was wet.
Then she looked up at Wilder–so anxious, so concerned.
She laughed bitterly.
“I’m on my period,” she said flatly. “Cramps. I’m tired. I want to sleep.”
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Wilder scooped her up without a word.
When they walked past his group of friends–the same ones who’d been teasing her just an hour
ago–they suddenly started gushing about what a perfect couple they were.
Wilder cursed them playfully and told them to get lost.
Then he carried her into the bedroom and laid her down on the bed.
Still fully clothed, he lay beside her, one warm hand pressed gently against her stomach, massaging in slow, careful circles.
“Feeling better?”
Every month, she suffered from excruciating cramps.
And every time, Wilder would drop everything and come home, just to lie beside her and keep her warm until she fell asleep.
He loved it when, half–asleep, she would murmur in that soft, drowsy voice, “Mm–hmm… better
now.”
He said that voice reminded him of the girl she used to be.
Back when she was the sheltered heiress of the Reeves family.
Timid. Stubborn. Reckless.
After her father died, her mother became a socialite, sleeping her way through the upper circles of New York. Summer despised her for it–despised the way she chased money and status,
maintaining a glamorous façade with dirty secrets.
So she rebelled.
Started sneaking into nightclubs.
Drinking.
One night, she nearly got raped–because of her mother.
And it was Wilder, a nobody from the streets, who saved her.
From that day on, she stuck to him like a shadow.
She learned he was the illegitimate son of the powerful Hunt family.
Learned about the chip on his shoulder.
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His pride. His pain.
She followed him overseas, helped him build his empire in Italy from the ground up.
When he said she was too soft, she made herself tougher.
When he said she cried too easily, she swallowed her tears.
Even when a bullet tore through her shoulder, she didn’t shed a single tear.
Ten years.
She had followed Wilder for ten years–transforming from a scared little girl into the infamous
“Miss Reeves,” feared across the underworld.
And after all that, she’d finally won a sliver of his heart.
Finally heard him say, “Summer, marry me.”
But now she knew.
It had all been a lie.
Wilder lay there for a long time, waiting for her to say something.
But the silence stretched on.
His phone buzzed on the nightstand.
He withdrew his hand and reached for it quickly.
In the dim room, the screen lit up his face–his smile, his anticipation.
His fingers flew across the keyboard, typing a message.
The warmth he’d left on her stomach slowly faded.
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Chapter 2
