Chapter 7

She waited, quietly, until Ember pulled away, and then handed Zachary the envelope. "You bought the penthouse. Since we're done, it should go back to you. If you don't want it, I'll buy it off you at market."

He stared at her coldly. The paper crackled in his fist.

"Anything else?"

She thought for two seconds. "A few of my things are still here. I'd like to take them."

His face darkened further.

Ember made a soft gasping sound. "Oh, those things — I thought they were being thrown out. I had the staff move everything to the storage room. I'll take her, honey?"

Sonia nodded. "Thank you."

Ember bracd a hand on Zachary's shoulder to stand up. He caught her wrist. "I'll come."

Ember pretended to blush. "Why are you so clingy?"

Sonia didn't look at either of them. She walked to the storage room.

Ember had put her things in the smallest room, the cramped one that could barely fit two people.

Zachary stood in the doorway, watching coldly, as Sonia began to sort through her belongings.

Ember bent down, pretending to help, and whispered just low enough for Sonia to hear, "You keep finding excuses to stand in front of him. Still haven't given up?"

"Let me help you, then."

Before Sonia could react, Ember "accidentally" backed into the shelf behind her. The box on the top tier toppled forward, straight toward both of them.

Zachary's eyes blew wide. He lunged into the room — and yanked Ember to his chest.

The box sailed past Ember. It slammed into Sonia's shoulder.

She staggered once and collapsed to the floor.

Zachary frowned at her for a half-second. Then he scooped up Ember — who had nothing but a scraped palm — and ran for the car, yelling for the ER.

Sonia couldn't move. She was losing consciousness.

Before she blacked out, she thought, almost gratefully — thank God I don't love you anymore.

Not loving him meant his choice in that moment couldn't gut her.

Not loving him meant she wouldn't put her hopes on him ever again.

Ember's friends, seeing her "wounded," piled after Zachary in a flurry of concern to the hospital.

Sonia wasn't found until the next morning, by a housekeeper who'd come to clean.

The housekeeper didn't know what had happened, but she knew Sonia's face. She called an ambulance first, then called Zachary. "Mr. Blackwood, sir — Miss Harrington is badly hurt. She was alone in the storage room. I've called the paramedics. Would you like to come?"

He didn't answer.

Until Ember gave a soft, pained whimper. Then Zachary's voice came back, cold. "You called an ambulance. What do you need me for? She's not my problem."

The housekeeper started apologizing and moved to hang up.

Ember piped up sweetly, "Maybe you should go see her. After all, she got hurt trying to pack up her —"

His voice turned glacial. "Right. Clean up thoroughly. I don't want her or her things dirtying up my house."

Sonia, pale as paper in the back of the ambulance, whispered, "Understood."

She and her things would disappear from his world. Completely.

Her injuries weren't life-threatening. But the housekeeper hadn't known who else to call. She'd called Evelyn.

Evelyn flew out overnight to take care of her.

Sonia woke up to Evelyn in the hallway, screaming into her phone: "You little bastard! I don't care where you are — if you have any hope of fixing this with Sonia, you get here right now. You miss this, she'll never forgive you."

The room was quiet enough that Sonia heard Zachary's reply. "Forgive me? What's the point? She called off the engagement. She took her things. If she died, I wouldn't even show up to the funeral."

Evelyn kept yelling. Zachary hung up.

Evelyn came back in, saw Sonia awake, and looked sick with shame. "Sonia — he's — you know how he gets. Don't take it to heart."

Sonia shook her head. She didn't want her to explain.

Zachary was right. They weren't anything to each other anymore.

From now on, she was cutting him out for good.

Evelyn understood. She set her grief aside and, as a mother herself, began arranging pre-wedding preparations for Sonia.

One day she handed Sonia a folder. "These are from me. Some trusts. Some property. A woman marrying that far away needs her own leverage. Have money of your own, have homes of your own — that gives you ground to stand on."

Sonia's eyes stung. She started to refuse.

Evelyn patted her hand. "If it weren't for your mother pulling me out of that small town I grew up in, I'd be nothing today. And Zachary wronged you. As his mother, I'll make up what I can."

"Once you're in New York, I'll have someone help you handle the transfers —"

The door flew open. Zachary burst in. "Who's going to New York?"