The past

After Daphne broke up with Anton, Ezra was keen to be around her and make himself seen. He had overwhelming confidence in his looks as, until then, no woman had ever lacked enthusiasm around him and he had never been the one to initiate any interaction with the fairer sex. Ironically this was also the reason why he was not too good at initiating or even having interactions with the fairer sex. Mostly since he was not interested, he did not care for this inability of his, he did not even notice it until Daphne came along.

Ezra's family had been upper middle class when he was young, as such he had the privilege of being educated at prestigious private schools. Ever since he had been a child, he had been the center of attention when it came to girls. Girls of similar age to him used to just crowd around him and ask questions or simply observe him with the corner of their eyes.

Ezra had been subjected to many weird behaviors when it came to girls, younger or older. He would get random gifts, he would get letters; he would get asked what his favorite food was out of nowhere, and more.

In high school it had gotten particularly odd as girls had started to squeal and giggle when he came into a room or even when he did a mundane thing such as wiping his forehead or arranging his hair.

Unexpectedly; after her breakup, Daphne became antisocial and she became difficult to track down. Ezra only had the chance to see her when she was going for her exams as she even stopped going to her classes.

For all of her exams, he had always been sitting around, waiting to be noticed. After her last exam, he had even approached her, all nervous and giddy, and tried to make casual conversation, but Daphne had not even looked at him much and her answers had been perfunctory at best.

He also later realized that she did not remember him from this time.

That had been the first time Ezra had experienced pain and pressure in his chest, his naïve and inexperienced heart cracking, ever so slightly.

Back then, Ezra became aware of her lack of interest in him and decided to just keep watching her and maybe try again later, or hope his feelings would go away.

Daphne was a stellar student and due to the strings her father had pulled to make her graduate early, and many of her courses overlapping, it was not mandatory for Daphne to be present in her classes, she just had to subject more work for each class and excel at her exams.

Ander, Daphne's father had taken this course of action in order to distance Daphne from her then boyfriend, Anton. The last thing Ander wanted was for the two to grow closer in the four years she would spend in university. Thus, his plan was to drown her in schoolwork and make her undergo her masters elsewhere, immediately after her two years of university.

This was only possible due to Daphne's high-achiever personality and her high level of intelligence. Similarly, her high intelligence and beauty were the things that first intrigued Ezra in regards to her, as well. Anton, on the other hand was more of a party boy that needed validation from others, he wanted to go out with Daphne to parties all the time, and basically flaunt her to the whole campus if it was possible.

Ezra's feelings never dwindled and after a few months, he suddenly heard that her father was looking for suitors for her. It had been a very discreet announcement, but for Ezra, who had been paying attention to anything related to her, it felt like the sun had risen for the first time in a long time.

Over the previous few months before this discovery, Ezra had become resentful of his friend, Edgar. It was all due to Edgar that he got to know about her.

Edgar had made a list of all the rich heiresses in their university, along with their pictures and other details. Daphne had been at the head of the list, her family, insanely rich and prestigious. Her mother's family came from old Italian nobility, while her father's family was Swedish nobility. They owned banks, museums, hotels, resorts, and more; all around the globe.

Daphne's family was the very definition of "old money." And, surprisingly, they just kept on getting richer and more prominent.

Ezra's family was a third generation rich family. They had gotten much more successful in the past twenty years due to the overall success of technology which made production costs, much cheaper. The Almer family initially dealt with foods, it later becoming more diversified.