My chest tightens.
“Fuck,” I whisper.
I stumble into the living room. The console table where Juliet lined up our wedding photos is missing one frame—the candid spin shot she loved. The others sit exactly where they were, but without her ring flashing in the glass, they just look like pictures from someone else’s life.
I don’t even realize my feet have carried me to my own bedroom until I’m standing in the doorway.
That’s where I see it.
On my dresser.
The ring.
The one I slid onto her finger in a borrowed tux, trying not to think too hard about how right it looked there.
It sits dead in the center of the wood, catching the lamplight.
Everything in me goes very, very quiet.
Luka appears at my shoulder, breathing hard like he sprinted through the whole place. He follows my gaze. His face pales.
“What the fuck just happened?” I ask, my voice barely more than a rasp.
He doesn’t have an answer.
Neither do I.
All I know is my marriage is over, my wife is gone, and for the first time in my life, there isn’t a goddamn thing I can do to fix it.
Chapter Twenty-Six
KATERINA
I don’t leave my bedroom for two days.
It’s stupid, because the penthouse my grandmother put me in is objectively beautiful. It has floor-to-ceiling windows, white marble floors, fresh flowers that appear every morning like magic. There’s a view of the Sound, a piano no one plays, and awalk-in closet bigger than my entire bedroom in the penthouse that Scottie leased for us.
And I hate all of it.
I pull the blackout curtains. I curl up on top of the duvet in Scottie’s oversized t-shirt that still smells like him, and I cry until I’m empty. Then I lie there staring at the ceiling, dry-eyed and hollow, replaying the last forty-eight hours like a movie I can’t shut off.
The look on his face when I told him to move on.
The way his voice broke when he said, “I’m in love with you, Kat.”
The way I walked away, anyway.
My phone is a constant, buzzing accusation on the nightstand.
Missed call: Luka. Missed call: Scottie. Missed call: Scottie. Missed call: Luka
Group text:WAG Chat – Hawkeyes Wives & Girlfriends
Juliet:Hey, everything okay? You disappeared last night.
Vivi:You sick? Need anything?
Peyton:I offered Scottie half my chicken salad sandwich from Serendipity’s, and he said no. I’ve never seen him turn down food. What is happening?
