Chapter 2

Willow scoffed, rolling her eyes at me, clearly not buying that Alistair loved me so much.

She brought me a cup of tea, a challenging smirk on her face. "Elara, how could Alistair bear to keep you waiting so long?"

"It's so weird. Whenever I came to see him before, no matter how busy he was, he’d always come out to be with me first. He said I was the most important person."

"I thought he was that considerate with other women too…"

Her lips curled into a triumphant smile. When she smiled, she was just like me when I was younger.

I thought about it. Alistair *was* different with Willow.

He'd had countless lovers, treating them like tools to spite me, bringing different women home every night, testing my reaction again and again.

Alistair never got entangled with them for long. Maybe a day or two, maybe ten days or half a month. He’d always get bored quickly.

Only Willow. Alistair kept her, took her out to dinner, shopping, to the movies.

They were like a normal, loving couple. Alistair gave her money, but he also gave her affection.

I looked at Willow and smiled gently. "If you're so important, why would Alistair keep you hidden away as his mistress?"

"You should really try to convince him to divorce me quickly and marry you."

Willow’s face instantly twisted. Infuriated and ashamed, she lowered her voice and snapped, "You're the mistress! You're the one who's extra!"

"You're just banking on the fact you met Alistair a few years before me, right? But now you're old and ugly. What makes you think you can compete with me...?"

Her colleague, probably afraid I'd get angry, quickly grabbed her arm, trying to pull her away.

Actually, I was fine.

I'd told myself long ago not to get angry or sad over Alistair.

And certainly not to fight with other women over him.

He wasn’t worth it.