Chapter 6
Chapter 6
She swallowed the urge to scream and pulled his hand off her face.
When she didn't play along, Zachary frowned. His hand hovered uselessly in the air before he pulled a small box from his pocket. "Mom said you forgot something. She made me bring it over. What is it?"
He flipped the box over in his hands, looking at it from every angle, and started to open it.
That box was what her mother had exchanged with Evelyn when their engagement was set all those years ago.
Sonia's pupils contracted. She snatched it from him.
Zachary's frown deepened. "Sonia. Are you keeping secrets from me now?"
She clutched the box, the edges biting into her palm.
They'd promised each other, once, no secrets. Ever. For twenty-odd years, they had kept that promise — until Ember came along, and Zachary had lied to her for the first time.
She looked up at him. "It's not a secret. But you don't need to know."
They weren't anything to each other anymore.
She didn't want to keep talking. She turned to unlock the door.
Zachary snatched her bag, pulled the box out. "Don't need to know? Is it a gift from some guy? Why else wouldn't you show me?"
For some reason, she couldn't let him open it. She stretched up to try to grab it back.
Zachary almost seemed to enjoy it. It reminded him of all the times they hadn't been fighting, when he'd held things above her head just to watch her jump for them, laughing, finally falling against his chest to beg sweetly for it.
He smiled, holding out a hand to catch her in case she overreached.
Then he looked down — and saw her eyes, red-rimmed. The smile died. "I just want to look at it. You're crying?"
She bit her lip. Maybe she should just let him see.
He'd look. Then he'd give it back.
But before she could speak, his phone rang.
One ring. Hang up. Another ring. Hang up.
She could see the screen — Ember.
Each time, he got more visibly frantic. He turned to leave.
Sonia reached out and caught his sleeve. For the first time that night, something that looked like asking him to stay.
He froze. Something flared in his eyes.
And then the phone rang again. He said, low, "Ember keeps calling. Something's wrong. She's all alone, she has no one — let me just go check —"
She cut him off. "Give it back. Go."
His face darkened. He started to say something.
But the phone kept ringing. His nerves gave out. He shoved the box at her and left.
He shoved it too roughly. The box clicked open, and a yellowed slip of paper slipped out and drifted to the ground.
Zachary glanced at it once and kept walking.
Sonia picked it up. It was their betrothal contract, written in her mother's hand.
She tore it in half. Then in half again. And dropped the pieces into the trash, along with twenty-odd years.
With the last thread to Zachary severed, Sonia started preparing for the move.
She didn't have family in Ashford Bay. Before leaving, she needed to sell the houses.
Besides the one her parents had left her, there was also the penthouse — the one Zachary had bought, with both their names on the deed.
She figured she'd talk to him about getting her name taken off it. No need to leave a legal mess behind for when he eventually married someone else.
She pulled out her phone and texted him.
No reply all afternoon.
Her window in Ashford Bay was narrow. To avoid having to fly back for this later, she clicked into his Instagram to see where he'd been lately, thinking she'd just show up in person.
His account was set to private. She'd been blocked.
A knot formed in her chest. She tried to reach him through Evelyn, only to hear that Zachary hadn't been home since that night.
She took a breath and messaged Ember instead: "I need to reach Zachary about something important. Please ask him to get back to me."
Ember replied within seconds. With an address.
It was the Blackwood house in the Hamptons — the private one. Their place. Their secret.
His friends had asked for years to come out there. He'd always refused. That house, he'd told them, was only for him and Sonia. No one else was ever allowed.
Now Ember was there.
It wasn't their place anymore.
Sonia forced herself to stop thinking and drove out.
The quiet beach estate had turned into something else — dozens of strangers, music, noise. She walked down the path and caught sight of Ember dropping to one knee and pressing a kiss to Zachary's cheek. "Thank you for letting my friends come."
Zachary had been about to turn his head away from it. He froze the instant he saw Sonia.
Sonia watched Ember's lips on Zachary's cheek, and remembered the exact same spot — years ago — when she'd first kissed him here, to thank him for redesigning the whole place to her tastes.
It had been the first kiss for both of them. Afterward, any time he did something that made her smile, he'd sidle up and beg, shamelessly, for another.
Every inch of this place had witnessed their happiness.
And now, the last thread.