It had been six years since you broke up with him-yet your love had never truly left. It lingered, waiting quietly, painfully patient. It wasn't that you didn't love him. You had. Deeply. Desperately. But circumstances had been cruel... and there was one question you had never received an answer to.

Six years ago, he had been the heart-rob of the campus-basketball captain, admired, untouchable. Born into an elite, wealthy, noble family that ran a globally successful business empire.

His name was Kaden Hawthorne.

And you were just another girl. Simple. Middle-class. Easily overlooked. Yet somehow, impossibly, you had fallen in love.

You dated despite knowing his parents never approved of you-never hid their dislike for your background. But Kaden loved you fiercely, almost possessively, as if the world itself couldn't take you from him.

Three years you were together. Three years-until that day.

You arrived on campus, expecting to find him waiting like always. He wasn't there. You waited, checking your phone again and again, but the lecture began, and you forced yourself into class. During break, you asked his friends. They exchanged uncertain glances.

They didn't know either.

At least, that's what they said.

A strange numbness settled over you. You called him once, twice, endlessly. He never picked up.

Desperate, you went to his house.

His mother answered the door, her expression sharp, unforgiving. "We've sent him away," she snapped coldly. "Away from gold diggers and distractions. You were nothing but a time pass to him."

The door closed on your tears.

Yet hope-stubborn, foolish hope-refused to die.

You begged his friends. You asked everyone who might know something. No one did. Days turned into weeks. Weeks into months.

Two months later, one quiet evening, your phone buzzed.

A message. From his number.

"I'm breaking up with you. Take care."

Nothing more. No explanation. No goodbye.

That was when you stopped chasing. Stopped asking. That was when your hope finally shattered.

Now, six years had passed.

And still your love hadn't faded. Because you knew it hadn't been weak. Hadn't been cowardly. If he had ended it face to face, you would have believed it. But not like that. Never like that.

You were working now an employee at a multinational company. Living, moving forward. Surviving.

You never dated again.

And then, fate interfered.

Your company hosted a business party-owners and powerful businessmen from different corporations filling the hall with polished smiles and quiet authority.

You arrived, mingling with colleagues, conversation flowing easily until it didn't.

Across the hall, speaking to your boss, stood a man you thought existed only in memory.

Kaden.

Your breath hitched. You blinked, once, twice-convinced you were imagining him.

You took a step forward. Then another. Every instinct screamed to run to him to touch him, to cry against his chest, to demand answers.

But you froze.

A beautiful woman in a red dress appeared beside him, her hand resting possessively on his shoulder-Lia his fiancee the woman his parents choose for him.

And Kaden- His hand slid to her waist.

A sharp, brutal sting pierced your chest. At that moment, his eyes lifted. They found you. He froze too-the glass hovering mid-air, just short of his lips.

And suddenly, six years collapsed into a single, unbearable second.