Chapter 2

The hallway lights were so white they looked blue.

Ethan walked ahead of me, his back rigid as a drawn bow.

I followed him, my heels striking the tile one step at a time.

He finally stopped in the lounge at the end of the hall.

“That ring,” he began, “was an old family heirloom from my grandmother. You’re mistaken.”

I looked at him.

“Ethan, your lies used to be better than this.”

His eyes flickered.

“Claire.”

“The inside of the band is engraved with the ninth day of the winter moon, Year of the Wood Goat.” I spoke each word clearly. “That’s my grandmother’s birthday. I don’t know when your grandmother was born, but in twenty-eight years, you’ve never once told me that was her birthday.”

He was silent for several seconds.

Then he spoke in a soft, slow voice, as if soothing an unreasonable child.

“Chloe only has three months left.”

“She wants this ring as something to remember me by. I promised she could wear it for a month.”

“After that, I’ll return it to you exactly as it was.”

“Claire, be reasonable.”

Claire.

The last time he had called me that was on the anniversary of my mother’s death. He’d held me in the cemetery and promised to stay with me for the rest of my life.

I laughed.

“Ethan, you know what this ring means to me.”

“I know.” His voice was calm. “That’s why I’m asking you to give it to her.”

“To fulfill the wish of someone who’s about to die?”

I stared into his eyes, searching for even a trace of hesitation.

There was none.

Only the impatient pity of someone who had been disturbed—the same look he wore whenever he saw someone begging on the street.

“When was she diagnosed?” I asked.

“Two years ago.”

“At which hospital?”

“Claire.” He frowned. “Why are you investigating all this?”

“I’m doing what a fiancée should do.”

He sighed, pulled the red velvet box from inside his suit, and opened it. The empty base faced me.

“I’ll have Tiffany send over an identical ring tomorrow.”

“I’ll have your grandmother’s birth date engraved inside.”

“Claire, it’s only a ring.”

“The engagement party will go on as planned, and this will be over.”

I stared at the empty box.

For a long time.

So long that I felt the expression on my face harden.

“Ethan.”

“Hmm?”

“Is this how you plan to fool me for the rest of my life?”

He didn’t answer.

At the end of the hallway, Chloe’s door opened a crack. Half her face appeared.

“Mr. Hayes…”

Her voice was soft and clinging, with a tremor of tears.

Ethan turned around.

The light in his eyes was something I hadn’t seen in ten years.

When I was sixteen, on a snowy night, he had pulled me out of a frozen river and wrapped me in his down jacket. He’d looked at me with those same eyes.

Back then, that light had been meant for me.

“Go home,” he said, though he didn’t look at me. “I’ll pick you up at nine tomorrow morning.”

“The engagement party is still happening.”

I didn’t move.

He didn’t wait. He turned and walked toward the room.

Halfway there, he paused.

“Oh, and that old ring…” he said. “Just consider it a gift to her.”

“She doesn’t have much time left anyway.”