I Signed Away My First Love, Then Married Someone Else Chapter 14

I Signed Away My First Love, Then Married Someone Else Chapter 14

Twice in my life, I’d ended up on a rooftop terrace.

The first time was my birthday.

Madeline handed me a gift box.

She said she wanted to make peace.

Everyone told me to show some grace.

I swallowed my resentment and opened the box. Something dropped onto the table

It was a used condom.

Someone at the table snickered.

Madeline gasped and slammed the lid back onto the box, her face burning red.

“I grabbed the wrong box! I was packing up some of Ethan’s things, and I must’ve picked up this one instead of your gift. I had no idea that was inside.”

She spoke so quickly she almost sounded innocent.

But everyone at the table had heard every word.

“Packing up some of Ethan’s things.”

“Picked up a box.”

“Didn’t know what was inside.”

Grant frowned. “Maddie, you really should’ve checked before you gave it to her.”

Tears spilled down Madeline’s cheeks. “I’m sorry, Claire. I swear I didn’t do it on purpose. I’ll wrap

something else for you.”

I ignored her and looked at Ethan. “Don’t you think you owe me an explanation?”

Ethan took a sip of his drink and arched an eyebrow.

“What is there to explain? She made a mistake. What do you expect me to do about it?”

I turned and walked out onto the terrace.

The wind was sharp enough to sting my eyes.

I gripped my phone. My last text to Ethan still sat unanswered: “Do you even love me anymore?”

He’d never answered.

I stared down at the screen for a long time.

Then someone coughed nearby.

I turned.

A man stood around the corner at the far end of the terrace.

An empty bottle dangled from his hand.

He was outside the railing, one foot already resting on the narrow ledge.

I shouted without thinking.

“Don’t jump!”

He turned and gave me an unreadable look.

“What makes you think I’m going to jump?”

“You’re standing on the ledge.”

“Just getting some air.”

“Then get some air from inside the railing.” I looked at him. “Come down.”

He didn’t move.

I took two steps toward him.

I stopped several feet away and made my voice as calm as I could.

“Come down and trade places with me. You can stay out here as long as you want. I won’t move from this spot.”

He looked down at his feet, then back at me.

“You’ve been crying.”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Your eyes are red.”

“I’s the wind.”

He smiled, then climbed back over the railing.

The moment his feet touched the ground, the bottle struck the railing and shattered.

He crouched, carefully gathered every shard, wrapped them in a handkerchief, and tucked the bundle into his pocket.

“Thanks,” he said.

That one small act told me he had to be a good person.

He’d been desperate enough to consider ending his life, yet he still cared whether a stranger might be cut by the glass.

“You don’t need to thank me. You’re a good person. Stay alive. Something good will find you.”

After offering that scrap of comfort, I turned to leave.

He stopped me. “How long were you planning to stand there?”

“What?”

“You were staring over the edge too.” His voice was quiet. “If I hadn’t coughed, what were you going to do?”

I was afraid to die. I hadn’t truly meant to jump.

The wind had simply scattered every thought in my head.

He came over and leaned against the railing beside me.

“Funny. My family has me cornered too. They said if I refuse the marriage, they’ll stop paying for my mother’s specialized care.”

“That sounds serious. Are you going to marry her?”

“Of course not. I don’t love her. Marrying her would only hurt her too.”

I glanced at him. “Then what are you doing out here?”

“I ran,” he said. “I needed some air. What about you? Is your family forcing you to marry someone?”

No.

“Then what happened?”

I was quiet for several seconds. “The man I’ve loved for years fell in love with someone else.”

He looked at me. “Okay. You’ve got it worse than I do.”

Despite myself, I laughed.

So did he.

We stood together on the terrace for a long time.

We barely spoke.

But somehow, we understood each other.

That small act of kindness, arriving at exactly the right moment, found us both at our lowest and

pulled us back from the edge.

Later, I learned who he was, and he learned who I was.

The next time I climbed onto a rooftop was the day Ethan and Madeline held their engagement

party.

Until then, every betrayal had happened in secret.

This time, everyone hid the fact that they were attending my fiance’s engagement to another woman. The knife was finally out in the open.

Everyone in our circle had been there.

I was the last to know.

I ran to the roof. They came after me, and then they left.

Everyone believed I’d threaten to jump but never follow through.

Julian was the only one who was afraid.

He reached for me, his hand shaking. “Don’t jump. Give me one chance. Come with me.”

“Where?”

“Anywhere. As long as it isn’t here.”

“What about the company you’re supposed to inherit?”

“I don’t want it anymore. My grandmother has an estate in Tuscany. I’ll go keep her company.”

“And what am I supposed to do?”

“Come with me.”

Back in the present, I looked at the ring on my left hand.

Julian had given it to me.

He’d sketched it himself, inspired by the night we first met.

He called it “First Light.”

He said there would never be another like it.

The moment I slipped it onto my finger,

every person, every betrayal, and every promise from my past stayed behind on that rooftop.

That old story was over.

Julian and I had caught each other, and together, we walked toward the light.