I tuck it into my carry-on with care, wrapping it in his shirt.
I’m zipping the last suitcase when the knock comes again.
The same bodyguard. The same blank face.
“We dropped off your grandmother at her hotel. The car is ready,” he says.
I look around the penthouse one last time. My vision blurs, but I won’t cry. I could have chosen to stay, but I chose to protect him instead.
“This wasn’t supposed to be real,” I whisper to no one. “It was just supposed to be a bet and a visa and a clean escape.”
Now it’s my whole heart.
I press my palm to the doorframe for one last second.
Then I pull the door closed behind me.
It clicks shut like an ending.
I loThen,ad my bags into the limo trunk with the help of security. My new “home”—some anonymous penthouse owned by my grandmother—is waiting, but I can’t make myself go there yet.
I have one more performance to get through.
“Where to, Miss Popovich?” the driver asks.
“To the arena,” I say. “The Hawkeyes game.”
He nods.
As the city blurs by, I stare down at my hands resting in my lap. The ring missing for the first time since he slipped it on my finger.
It feels like a betrayal.
Just like the promise I’m about to break.
I make it down past the VIP section, where they know me as, the wife of a player and let me pass.
I knock on the locker room door; and the security guard eyes me since I should be in my seat by now. The game is about to begin.
Luka opens the door, and I wasn’t prepared for that.
“Kat? What’s wrong?” he asks.
“Nothing. I just need to speak with Scottie. It will only take a minute.”
“We’re about to go on the ice. Can’t it wait?”
“I just spoke with grandmother, and I need to speak with him.”
“Is everything okay?”
“It will be,” I lie, because deep down, I hope my words are true.
He nods, and then the door closes for a brief moment.
I wait, knowing that soon Scottie will walk through those doors. He’ll smile when he sees me. And I’m going to have to look into those eyes and lie to him.
Tell him that my grandmother has blessed our marriage and that we can divorce quietly. I’ll remind him that this was always the plan.
