“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” he asks carefully. “You’ve already been through—”
“I’m sure.” My voice is certain. “Something’s wrong, and I’m done sitting back and letting other people decide what happens to her. Or to me. Your grandmother bribed her somehow and is the one who got my dad into the trial. She’s paying for it too… I just need confirmation.”
“I knew something was up,” he says. “Fuck yeah, let’s go. Text me the time, and I’ll meet you there.”
“Wear a suit,” I add, because if we’re going to war, we might as well look good.
He snorts. “You’re such a dumbass romantic.”
“Yeah,” I say, looking up at the cloudy Seattle sky. “Apparently I am.”
I hang up, shove the phone back in my pocket, and start walking.
For the first time in days, my steps feel sure.
I don’t know what I’m going to say to her yet.
I don’t know how I’m going to convince her that I know, or that I’m not letting her ruin her own life to save mine.
But I know this:
Tomorrow night, when that curtain rises, I’ll be there.
Watching the woman I married dance her last dance thinking we’re over.
And when it falls?
She’ll have one last chance to tell me she doesn’t love me.
Otherwise, I’m not walking away a second time.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
SCOTTIE
The theater is already buzzing when Luka and I slip into the nosebleed section of the top balcony, exactly where I got our tickets.
“Hoping we can see her from all the way up here,” I mutter, clutching the ridiculous bouquet of tulips I bought from theflorist in Seattle who ships them in from an indoor grower, since they’re out of season, being that it’s the end of October now.
He jerks his chin toward one of the fancy upper boxes. “Turns out we have a good view of something else. That’s where our answers are.”
I follow his gaze.
Her grandmother.
Sitting like a queen in the center of the box, gloved hands folded, two men in black stationed behind her like sentries. She’s not watching the crowd… she’s watching the stage.
Waiting.
My phone buzzes.
KitKat:You forgot to turn off the automatic order of seltzer water and chamomile tea. It just arrived in my dressing room. Tonight is my last night.
I type back before I can stop myself.
Me:No, I didn’t forget to cancel it.
A long pause. She doesn’t reply.
