Chapter 2Withdrawal Syndrome

If Vaughn and I were childhood friends, bound by destiny, then Mia was his North Star—the one he could only ever wish upon.

We all met in high school. Unlike the silver-spoon world Vaughn and I inhabited, Mia was a scholarship student. She was beautiful, brilliant, and possessed an infectious optimism. The day she transferred into our class, she captured Vaughn’s attention, and he never looked away.

I once thought his fascination was a fleeting novelty.

That belief shattered the day Mia was framed for stealing class funds. A group of girls cornered her in the girls' restroom. By the time I got there, the bullies had vanished, leaving Mia alone in the echoing, tiled space, her blouse torn open at the front, her shoulders bare and trembling.

I was shrugging off my blazer to cover her when I saw him. Vaughn emerged from one of the stalls, holding her ruined shirt.

Mia’s back was to him, her voice thick with tears. "You should go. If anyone sees you here, we'll never be able to explain it."

"Then we won't explain," Vaughn said, his voice steady. "Just... put this on."

They stood in a tense standoff for a moment before Mia relented. But her fingers were trembling too violently to manage the remaining buttons.

Without a word, Vaughn stepped forward. "Let me."

His face was a mask of solemn concentration, his large hands surprisingly clumsy as he fumbled with the small pearl button. As he finished, I saw the tips of his ears burn a tell-tale crimson.

Then his head snapped up, his eyes locking with mine. A flicker of panic crossed his features before he regained his composure and strode towards me.

"You're here. Good. Help her." He started to leave, then paused and turned back, his voice low and urgent. "And Eleanor? Keep this to yourself."

I promised I would.

By that afternoon, a photo of Vaughn, his hand on Mia's chest as he helped her with her shirt, had gone viral throughout the school.

Vaughn was convinced I had betrayed him.

That day, for the first time ever, he unleashed his fury on me.

"Don't think just because our parents have you on a pedestal that I won't touch you, Eleanor," he snarled. "You're their choice for a daughter-in-law, not mine! No one decides who I marry."

I pressed my lips into a thin line. "Believe me or not, I had nothing to do with this."

He laughed, a cold, sharp sound. "You were the only other person there. Who else could it have been?"

"It wasn't me!" I lifted my chin, my voice stubborn. "Besides, why would I spread a rumor like that?"

"Because you're jealous that she and I are together."

My mind went blank. "W-what? When did that happen?"

He looked at me, his eyes filled with a cruel pity. "I saw her... broken. It's my job to protect her now."

"But... we were..."

He cut me off, his patience gone. "Eleanor, don't tell me you actually thought all those years I looked out for you meant I was in love with you?"

An icy dread flooded my veins, rooting me to the spot.

That night, the Vance family found out about Vaughn and Mia. His father dragged a defiant Vaughn to my house to apologize.

Vaughn stood there, his jaw set stubbornly, and spat the most rebellious words I'd ever heard him say: "If you love Eleanor so much, why don't you marry her yourself?"

His defiance earned him a hail of fury from both our fathers.

The Vaughn of back then didn't understand the game. He hadn't realized that I had been groomed since childhood to be a Vance. As the sole heir, he had no say in who he would marry.

And so, in the end, he married me.

After the photo scandal, Mia transferred schools. After graduation, Vaughn was sent to study abroad. He stayed for eight years.

When he returned to take over the family company, he was a different man. The boyish arrogance was gone, replaced by a quiet, formidable presence. He came to me and proposed.

"We're both still single," he'd said, his tone matter-of-fact. "We might as well get it over with."

I knew a dynastic marriage was my fate. Marrying someone I'd known my whole life seemed like a small mercy.

It was only later that I learned the first thing he did upon returning was find Mia. But she, with all her pride, had turned him down.

Marrying me was just his way of getting back at her.