Chapter 5

The floor dropped out from under her.

She closed her eyes, and whatever strength she had left roared up. She grabbed a vase off the console table beside her and smashed it across the side of his head.

He yelled and released her. She bolted into the bathroom, locked the door, and called Evelyn.

Evelyn was there within minutes. Sonia heard Brandon swearing as someone dragged him out. Her knees buckled and she slid down against the door.

There were still guests in the house, so Evelyn sent a housekeeper to take her upstairs to change, promising to drive her home herself after everyone had gone.

Sonia didn't know if Brandon had given up, and she didn't want to leave alone.

By the time she changed, the party was winding down. On her way downstairs, she passed Zachary's room and heard a voice she knew too well inside.

It was Zachary. And some of his friends.

"You really not worried about Sonia? Brandon's a real piece of work. Sinks his teeth in and doesn't let go."

Through the gap in the door, she watched Zachary light a cigarette. Smoke curled around him as he shook his head. "Sonia may have lost her parents, but her family still has some weight. Brandon's not going to risk it."

"Even if he tries, nothing's happening to her in this house. Honestly, it might knock her down a peg, stop her from crying to me every five minutes about the engagement or about Ember stealing her spotlight."

One friend laughed. "So — what, Ember's more important to you now?"

Zachary chuckled. There was something almost tender in his eyes. "Sonia will always be the most important to me. Ember is just... a debt."

Sonia's mouth twisted.

The most important. And yet he could hand over her birthday because Ember had never had one like it. Could hand over their home because Ember liked it. Could let her take the crash because Ember needed saving.

The one who mattered, dropped like trash. The one who didn't, cradled like gold.

Only Zachary Blackwood could talk himself into logic like that.

She didn't stay to hear more. She went down to find Evelyn.

The guests were gone. Evelyn was standing at the bottom of the staircase, hesitating, unwilling to climb up.

When she saw Sonia, she rushed forward and pulled her onto the couch. "Sonia, sweetheart, I'm not trying to excuse him, but — you two have so many years. He used to swear he wouldn't marry anyone but you. Can't you give him one more chance?"

Sonia shook her head and softly told Evelyn everything that had happened.

Before Ember, she too had believed she'd never marry anyone but Zachary.

But people change.

He didn't see her as the only one anymore. He didn't put her first anymore.

She'd given him too many chances. She wasn't giving another one.

She reached out and held Evelyn's hand. "I'll always remember how good you've been to me. Zachary loves someone else now. I'm leaving for Manhattan soon — there's a family merger. Whatever we had is over."

Evelyn opened her mouth, then just sighed. "All right. The Harrington ring. I'll have it sent over."

She brushed Sonia's hair tenderly back from her face. "Come see me before you leave for New York, would you?"

Sonia nodded, thanked her, and walked out.

A few blocks from her house, the driver's phone rang. It was Zachary.

Sonia didn't make a habit of eavesdropping. She turned her head and tried not to listen.

But Zachary's voice was frantic, and she caught it anyway.

Ember had a sudden stomachache. The driver needed to turn around right now and take her to the ER.

The driver glanced at Sonia in the rearview, awkward. "But Mrs. Blackwood asked me to take Miss Harrington home first. She was shaken tonight."

Sonia's brow twitched, barely.

For years, every Blackwood employee had been trained to call her "Mrs. Blackwood," because Zachary insisted. She used to blush and tell them to stop, and he'd smile, eyes open and full of something unguarded, and say, "I'm going to marry you. If I can't marry you, I might as well be dead."

And now he was on the phone, snapping, "You work for the Blackwoods. Why are you worried about an outsider?"

Sonia's knuckles went white around the strap of her handbag.

An outsider.

That was what she was now.

She didn't want to make things harder for the driver. She told him to let her out on the curb.

Zachary must have been relentless on the phone. The driver only hesitated for a second before dropping her off and speeding away.

Sonia walked slowly along the side of the road.

She'd had a few drinks at the party, and she couldn't stop her mind from drifting to Evelyn's birthday the year before.

Everyone had been crowded around the table, teasing her about what her life with Zachary would look like after the wedding, what their baby would look like.

She'd been so happy that night she'd had too much wine, and at two in the morning her stomach started cramping hard. The driver had the night off. The weather was brutal, no rideshares available, and Zachary had been under a household ban from driving after another incident. So he'd carried her on his back the whole way to the hospital, refusing to wake his parents.

A year later, that same Zachary could leave her on a roadside for Ember.

Sonia sniffed and pulled her coat tighter.

By the time she reached home, her body was stiff with cold.

She was about to unlock the door when a hand came from behind and covered her eyes. A familiar voice, smiling, "Guess who?"