I bit down on the inside of my lip so hard I tasted copper, forcing the words out through clenched teeth.
"Why did you lie to me."
My voice was so faint it barely held together.
Brendan blinked, then laughed out loud.
"I thought you were going to say something harsh."
"There's no grand reason. I just thought it was fun."
My throat seized. The sheer absurdity of it made me repeat his words before I could stop myself.
"Fun?"
Brendan's smile deepened.
"Yeah."
"Watching you choose between me and everything else in your life. That was fun."
"Crushing your hopes over and over, watching you force yourself to keep going. Fun."
"Faking sick, lying in a hospital bed while you ran around taking care of me. Fun."
"Placing delivery orders so you'd bring food right to our door. Also fun."
Through the agony tearing me apart, a memory surfaced. The second day after we met, something he'd said.
Everyone around me is only here for my money.
Vanessa, are you the same?
A high-pitched ringing flooded my ears. The edges of my vision were going dark.
"You were afraid I was after your money."
Brendan pulled the woman beside him close and buried his nose in her hair, breathing her in.
When he looked at me, his eyes were full of contempt.
"You're too stupid for me to worry about that."
He was right. I was that stupid. Fooled for ten years and never knew.
It took me ten years to prove he never loved me.
My chest felt hollowed out, a gaping wound where something vital used to be. I fought to keep my body from shaking.
I didn't know how I left. I didn't know how I ended up downstairs.
When I came back to myself, I was standing under a streetlamp.
Then, quietly.
Something slipped off me and fell.
I looked down.
A small stone lay on the ground, split clean in two.
On my wrist, only the bare red cord remained.
When I was eighteen, Brendan confessed his feelings to me on a mountaintop.
He'd spent a long time searching for that little stone.
"This is a lucky stone. It wards off evil and keeps people safe. Let it be the witness to our love."
Over the eight years that followed, the red cord had been replaced more times than I could count.
The stone itself had been worn smooth and round.
Every time I felt like I couldn't go on, I'd rub it between my fingers.
Don't be scared. It'll pass. It'll get better. This stone will watch over us.
But now.
It had broken in half, just like that.
You couldn't hold on either, could you.
You're telling me I was wrong too, aren't you.
……
When Winona came out of the bathroom, she asked Brendan casually.
"Weren't you a little too cruel? Aren't you worried the girl's actually going to be angry?"
Brendan's hands stilled for a moment.
"She'll be fine. She's easy to win back."
The moment the words left his mouth, there was a flicker of regret.
But since everything was out in the open now, it was time to give Vanessa the title of Mrs. Gilbert.
A position countless women would scheme and claw for. She'd be thrilled.
"Come with me to the auction tomorrow. I'll bid on that jewelry set and have it sent to Vanessa."
The woman immediately slid onto Brendan's lap.
"Oh, but I love that set too!"
Brendan let out a low chuckle.
"She's already let you have ten years."
"We agreed. One last night. Tomorrow I pay off your mortgage, and the debt your family owed mine is settled."
The woman's face broke into a radiant smile.
"Deal. Thank you, Brendan."
As Brendan stood and guided Winona toward the bedroom, his arm around her waist,
he glanced back at the front door.
Something uneasy stirred in his chest, formless and without reason.
Before he could pin it down, a pair of smooth arms wrapped around his neck.
"Brendan, every second counts on a night like this. Hurry up."
Brendan's lips curved into a smile.
"What's the rush? I'm coming."
