Chapter 4

I glanced down at the printed words.

Voluntary postponement of marriage registration; engagement remains intact.

Agreement to waive any claims regarding Julian Vance’s whereabouts on the day.

I nearly laughed out loud.

"My grandmother is lying in this hospital bed, and you expect me to cover up your son's infidelity?"

Eleanor's poise cracked.

"Evelyn Harper, don't be ungrateful."

"Your grandmother’s ongoing treatment will require top medical connections. A single phone call from the Vance family can open doors you could never dream of reaching."

I tilted my head, looking straight through her.

"So what? You want to trade my grandmother's life to save Julian's reputation?"

Eleanor choked on her words, turning crimson.

The door swung open, and Julian walked in. He had clearly heard the tail end of our conversation.

He looked at his mother.

"Mom, go home."

Eleanor gave a cold huff.

"Handle your own mess."

Once the door clicked shut, Julian picked up the document from the table, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it into the trash can.

"Evie, don't take my mother's words to heart."

His voice was hoarse.

"I know I put you through hell today."

I looked at him calmly.

"It wasn't hell, Julian. It was disgusting."

Julian's face drained of color.

After a long, suffocating silence, he pulled a small velvet box from his coat pocket.

He clicked it open. Inside was a simple white gold ring, engraved with the initials of my name on the inner band.

"I was going to give this to you after we signed the papers."

I stared at that ring, suddenly feeling an overwhelming sense of absurdity.

For seven long years, I had dreamed of the moment he would slip a ring onto my finger.

Would he be nervous? Would he smile? Would he hold my hand tight like he used to and promise forever?

Yet now that the moment was finally here, all I felt was revulsion.

"Julian," I said quietly, "do you know why Grandma walked all the way to City Hall to look for me?"

His throat bobbed.

"She was worried about you."

"No."

My voice dropped to a whisper.

"She was terrified I had been abandoned."

"She remembered the day my parents dumped me at her house when I was a kid. I stood by the front gate waiting, just like that, until it went pitch black and nobody ever came back for me."

Julian's eyes rimmed with red.

"Evie, I didn't abandon you."

I met his gaze.

"Every single time you turned your back on me, you abandoned me."

He stepped forward, reaching out to pull me into a hug.

I took a sharp step back.

Right at that moment, my phone buzzed with an incoming picture message from an unknown number.

In the photo, Serena was sitting in the wooden rocking chair on my grandmother's front porch.

Behind her was our old dining table.

Spread across the table was a handmade patchwork quilt.

Grandma had stitched that quilt piece by piece from old fabric scraps over the years. She said when I got married, laying it on the bed would bring warmth and blessings to my new life.

Serena's caption was short:

Evelyn, Julian said the cottage was sitting empty anyway. I'm staying here for a few days. You won't mind, right?

By the time I reached the old neighborhood, the garden gate was wide open.

The rain had just stopped, leaving the brick paths slick with mud.

The second I stepped into the yard, I saw Grandma's sewing basket overturned on the flagstones.

The red heirloom quilt was slung over a clothesline, its corners dragging in the mud, soaked heavy with dirty rainwater.

Serena stood beneath the eaves, twirling Grandma's vintage silver bangle between her fingers.

Seeing me march in, she didn't flinch.

"You got here fast."

I walked toward her, step by deliberate step.

"Who let you in here?"

Serena casually jingled a set of keys.

"Julian gave them to me."

"He said my ex knows where my apartment is and that it wasn't safe for me alone. He thought this place was quiet."

I fixed my eyes on the silver bangle in her fingers.

"Put it down."

Serena dropped the bangle onto the outdoor table, but kept one hand resting over it.

"Evelyn, sometimes I really envy you."

"You have nothing to your name, yet you always get to stand on the moral high ground."

"You're the one who wiped his mother's back. You're the one who waited seven years. You're the one who got stood up today."

She looked up at me, a cold, mocking smile playing at her lips.

"But so what?"

"All it takes is one call from me, and he still drops everything to run."

I raised my hand to snatch the bracelet back.

Before my fingers could even touch her, Julian burst through the gate and clamped a vice-like grip around my wrist.

"Evelyn, what the hell are you doing?"