Chapter 1

When I was seven, my father’s gambling addiction ruined us. He lost everything and dragged me onto the streets to beg for scraps.

We were cornered and abused by ruthless local loan sharks, but I managed to escape the chaos.

Julian brought me to his grandfather’s ranch, and we promised we would never be parted.

But behind his back, I secretly begged the social worker to find me a foster family far away. I was desperate for a new life.

The day I left, he stood behind a flock of sheep, his eyes red with tears, watching me go until I vanished past the horizon.

Years later, we met again. But he was no longer that poor ranch boy—he had become the insanely powerful heir to the Sterling empire.

Desperate for career opportunities, I approached him with an agenda. But his borderline pathological possessiveness terrified me, and I tried to run.

Later, he pinned me by my waist, his cold eyes burning into mine as he whispered hoarsely,

"Chloe, you’re the one who broke the promise first. You have no heart."