I looked at Ryan. He didn’t stop them. Instead, he lit a cigarette and said lightly, “They’re right. If you’ve got dignity, strip. Don’t make me think you were only with me for the perks. The Hayes family doesn’t keep gold diggers.”
“Gold digger?” I laughed bitterly. “When you were dying under that bridge, who dragged you back to an apartment? Who stayed up all night nursing your fevers? You said even if your memory returned, you’d still love me, that no status or wealth could keep us apart. Was that all a lie?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed, and he looked away, blowing out a smoke ring. “I was foolish then. Now I’m the heir of the Hayes family. We were never from the same world. I’ve already stopped paying your brother’s medical bills. Dare to leave me now?”
The words struck me like ice water.
I feared Aaron’s medicine being cut off, but more than that, I feared a life like this.
My love was treated like trash. My dignity trampled at will.
I said nothing more. I reached for the zipper of my dress. The cold metal against my skin, mixed with all their watching eyes, felt like needles piercing my flesh.