Billionaire’s Promise (Billionaire’s Salvation Romance #1)

Prologue

June

“I love you. In case I die.”

Something we heard someone say while we were at school. We thought it was silly. No one was going to die, not for a very, very long time at least.

But we were wrong.

I was wrong.

Now I regret not saying those ‘silly’ words to my best friend.

* * *

“Happy 18 th Birthday!” Liam and Lincoln burst into my bedroom at midnight and repeated the same words again and again and again. Even though the night light in my room was dim, I could tell that my two brothers had some kind of party hats on.

“Get up! Get up! Get up!” Lincoln had a thing about repeating things three times since he started college. Perhaps his thick skull thought that no one could understand him. He shook my bed like a silly child, trying to get me up.

But I remained unmotivated.

I had never spent a birthday without Chloe in my life. Okay, that wasn’t entirely true, perhaps once or twice in my life, but that must have been before I could remember things. As we didn’t officially meet until we were three.

Oh, in case it wasn’t clear, Chloe Abshire was my best friend. She wasn’t just any ordinary best friend, though. She was the best kind.

The kind who would fight for you, literally, even though an injury could cost her the ballet career she dreamed of.

The kind who would burst out into swear words and stand up for you even though she would get in trouble with the principal and her parents.

The kind who never forgot about your birthday.

The kind who was your favorite everything.

But all that meant nothing now.

It’d been six months since Chloe’s death.

Lincoln insisted that she was just missing. But the idiot was just saying that to make me feel better. It wasn’t what the locals said about her. Or the coroner. I even went to her funeral. Hers and her parents.

Tears fell down my cheeks again.

Mom had demanded that I stop this nonsense soon.

She said it like I actually enjoyed having tears flood my face. I couldn’t help it.

On the night of her death , she’d been here.

In this very bedroom, sitting on this very bed, watching the latest episode of Pretty Little Liars.

I haven’t watched any episodes that came out after that.

It hurt too much knowing that Chloe would never find out what happened to the girls, to her favorite character Emily Fields, played by her favorite actress Shay Mitchell.

“Yiyi, I drove all the way back for you.” Lincoln sank next to me and planted a kiss on my forehead. Yiyi , my family only called me by my nickname – a shortened form of Horyi – when they wanted to remind me that I was the youngest in the family. An immature little child.

Liam had now turned the main light on, and the brightness hurt my already swollen eyes.

“I’m not in the mood for a stupid birthday,” I snapped.

When will my brothers ever take me seriously? Why would they go behind my back and organize something that I had said multiple times I didn’t want? Brothers, huh? They never listen.

I tucked my head further inside the blanket, wishing the boys would leave me alone.

“I know you miss her.” Lincoln’s soft whisper triggered something deep inside me. Though tears had been hard to hold back, I hadn’t done this since her funeral – cried out loud.

Ugly. Cry. Out. Loud.

“Shhh, shhh, shhh…”

Liam stood at the end of my bed staring like an idiot.

I had no idea why my best friend had a crush on my geeky and emotionless brother.

That was something I would never get. I could never think of my own brothers as gorgeous or hot or sexy.

Eww. Okay, I know they aren’t ugly Why else would my classmates all pine over them like they were members of One Direction?

Giggling, taking pictures of them, like they were the prettiest cake in the most Instagrammable cafe in town.

They were always begging for opportunities to be introduced to them.

“I got you a present,” Liam announced as if that would make me stop crying instantly. To be fair, it would have worked when I was eight, or even ten. Or fourteen. I could still be excited at receiving presents at fourteen. Only the good ones though.

But right now, all I wanted was to be able to celebrate my birthday with Chloe again.

I never thought that this would be something I’d ever have to wish for. I felt a strong wrench in my stomach just at that thought.

I’m not naive. I knew that this year would probably be the last time we’d celebrate our birthdays together before we parted ways for college. Eventually, we’d get to celebrate together again, but this year would be our last chance. But we didn’t even get that last chance.

Our friendship ended so unexpectedly. I knew I was being silly. There was no such thing as till death do us part for besties. Still, it would have been nice if I was at least given a chance to say my goodbyes, even if I wasn’t ready to.

“Is, uh–” An unfamiliar voice came from behind my half-open door, “everything okay?”

My brothers brought someone home?

How could they?

Not only did they not respect the fact that I didn’t want a celebration, they brought a stranger home. I was not in the mood to deal with any strangers.

But I would have to deal with my brothers now. I climbed out of my bed ready to give them an earful – not caring what the stranger would think of me, I was beyond caring.

Then I saw him.

The most beautiful man I’ve ever seen in real life.

Like he’d just walked out of one of those Korean dramas that Mom was so obsessed with. I watched them with her sometimes, but I never cared about the story line, I was just in awe of how beautiful everyone was.

And this guy, he’s even prettier than Lee Min-ho. What kind of screwed up mess was this?

“Who is that?” I asked as I retreated back into bed. Using the duvet cover, I quickly wiped the tears off my puffy eyes caused by six months of grief.

“It’s just me, little sis, Kai. Happy birthday.” Spoken in a strong London accent with a hint of nasal twang. Cute.

“Liam!” I cried out. But Lincoln stood up instead.

I guess out of my two brothers, Lincoln had always been the one who could truly translate all my different cries.

Though he was also the one who never let me get my way.

Right at this very moment, my tone said I didn’t want to be seen like this, and he understood perfectly.

My big brother walked straight over to Kai and whispered something in his ear that made him nod repeatedly before leaving the room.

Once again, I hid under the covers – trying to hide my embarrassment. Why didn’t my big brothers tell me that they were going to bring someone? Why would they do that to me?

Normally, this wasn’t something I cared about.

My emotions were all out of whack. They had been for months now.

A girl should be allowed to throw a tantrum in her own space whenever she wants though. Women were born with complex hormones, and they shouldn’t be ashamed to be emotional. Chloe’s little voice rang in my head, but for the first time, it didn’t make me cry.

Thanks bestie .

“He’s gone,” Liam said, his voice heavy. “I’m sorry, sweetie.”

That was all he could mutter. Obviously, he didn’t know what else to say to his little sister.

Although he was better looking than Lincoln, he was never going to be as popular with that dullness of his.

Poor thing. He never knew the right thing to say to me, or to anyone, let alone in a situation like this.

I knew that losing Chloe wasn’t just hard for me, it was devastating for him too.

I suspected that he had a crush on Chloe, but Liam had a very strict plan for his life.

He wanted to become a world class surgeon – and that would take a lot of hard work.

At this stage in his life, Liam just wanted to stay focused on getting into the best medical school.

Still, Chloe’s affection towards him didn’t go unnoticed. A smile spread across my face. He wasn’t as emotionless as I thought. When Chloe told me that she thought they almost kissed, I laughed in her face. There wasn’t a remotely romantic bone in Liam’s body, and he wouldn’t do anything like that.

I had to reconsider my stance on the day of her funeral.

Despite being in deep sorrow, I hadn’t failed to notice that my brother shed a tear or two at her funeral.

Was that just sorrow over a young life lost, or had there been more and I’d been too blind to notice?

Perhaps that kiss wasn’t imaginary after all.

There was a possibility that Liam was grieving for a friend, but they’d barely spoken to each other.

I wondered what would have happened if Lincoln didn’t ruin their moment and they had kissed. And I could totally see Lincoln interrupting them, rudely. On purpose. That was just the kind of thing my big brother did for sport – ruin everything that was remotely good for me, and Chloe .

My girl hated Lincoln’s stupid pranks.

“We should go,” Lincoln said to Liam.

I popped my head out of the duvet like a turtle, the tears on my cheeks now dried. “Where are you going?”

“Sleep,” Liam said. Lincoln opened his mouth but decided to let Liam finish his sentence. “I know you said you didn’t want to celebrate your birthday this year. But you’re turning 18 and that’s a big deal.”

Lincoln nodded.

“We threw you a small party downstairs.” His voice was unexpectedly soft and gentle, without a trace of his usual bossy tone.

“But you brought friends.” That was a comeback to the word small . For us, small also meant intimate. Just the three of us without our parents, plus Chloe, or minus.

“Just one,” Lincoln said. “You’ve met Kai before. Why does him being here upset you?”