The Last Chapter of Us Chapter 2

The moment we were in the car, my father’s rage erupted.

“That bastard Jack Hayes! To abandon my daughter at the altar… Unbelievable! First thing tomorrow, I’m telling my secretary to halt all joint ventures with the Hayes corporation!” he thundered, his voice bouncing off the leather interior. “If it weren’t for my respect for his father, who would ever want to marry their daughter to that piece of trash! My Genevieve is brilliant, accomplished! The line of suitors is a mile long, and he dares to humiliate her like this? I need to hire someone to teach that punk a lesson he’ll never forget.”

My mother tried to soothe him, but it was no use. If my father had a machine gun right now, I was certain he’d level the entire Hayes estate.

A small laugh escaped my lips.

My father stopped his tirade, looking at me with concern. “Honey, have you been shocked into a daze?”

I squeezed my parents’ hands, feeling the warmth of their skin against mine. It wasn't the cold, lifeless touch I remembered. The raw emotion of it all made my eyes well up.

Thinking I was heartbroken, my dad immediately ordered the driver to turn back around to confront Jack. I quickly stopped him. “Dad, even if Jack hadn’t pulled this stunt today, I was going to call off the wedding.”

My father’s mouth opened, but he swallowed his curiosity, afraid of upsetting me further.

I watched the city lights streak past the window before turning to face my parents, my expression serious. “Here, at home, I’m the apple of your eye, cherished and protected. But if I went to the Hayes family, I’d be nothing more than a pawn to secure their business, a vessel for producing an heir.”

They stared at me, completely bewildered.

In my previous life, when Jack had brought Mia to crash our wedding, I had fought back with the ferocity of a cornered animal. I was determined to marry him, even if it meant turning our wedding into a battlefield. The dress was torn, champagne glasses shattered, and the beautifully decorated venue was reduced to rubble.

In the end, under pressure from all sides, Jack had relented. He married me, his heart full of resentment, and thus began the tragic second act of my life.

To punish me for "stealing" Mia's place, Jack was cold and distant. He began a hostile takeover of my family's company as his ultimate revenge. My mother-in-law, blaming me for failing to secure her son's heart, grew more critical by the day. “You’ve been married into this family for how long now, and still no sign of a pregnancy?” she would sneer.

I could only offer a bitter smile in return. Because of Jack’s disdain, the entire Hayes clan treated me with contempt.

Eventually, Sinclair Industries was fully acquired. My parents, broken and defeated, jumped from their office building. I was left with nothing, a pathetic dependent living on the scraps of the Hayes family’s charity. The final straw was the news of Mia giving birth to Jack’s child.

I looked my parents in the eyes, my voice steady. “That kind of life… it would be a living hell. An agony I couldn't bear.”

A gilded cage like that was its own special kind of torture. No identity, no joy. A world where even I couldn't protect myself—and yet, it was the very world Mia was desperate to enter. Perhaps with Jack protecting her, things would be different.

But none of that mattered to me anymore.

After hearing me out, my parents’ brows were deeply furrowed as they processed the weight of my words.

Finally, my father’s gaze softened. “Then what do you want to do now, my dear?”

“I’m going to go back to school. Get my master's.”

Then, I let myself be a child again, burrowing into my mother’s arms. “Sinclair Industries is my future, after all. I’m going to make it stronger than ever before.”

The heavy atmosphere in the car was shattered by my father’s booming laugh. “Hahaha! That’s my girl! The daughter of Robert Sinclair! I’ll have my assistant make the arrangements immediately.”

Within days, all the paperwork for my studies abroad was complete.

The day I left, I told no one. A heavy snow was falling, blanketing the city in white, just like it had on New Year's Eve all those years ago. A younger Jack had proudly taken my hand in front of our families, announcing with childish bravado, “This is my girl!”—sending the adults into peals of laughter.

It was all just a misunderstanding in the end.

I scrolled through the news on my phone before boarding. A headline caught my eye, accompanied by a picture of Jack and Mia: Cinderella and Prince Charming Finally Get Their Happily Ever After.

I smiled softly.

I switched off my phone, picked up my boarding pass, and walked away without a backward glance.