Was it all a ploy?
Was it all a game just to get me to sleep with him?
Is Jonas Rutherford a gaslighting bastard too?
I suck in a breath through my nose, put my head back down in the head hole on the massage table, and I do my best to not cry.
Don’t ever let anyone think you’re not worthy, Emma.
That’s what he said.
Don’t let anyone convince you you’re not worthy.
Was he talking abouthimself?
That’s what I’m wondering when I flip on the TV late Monday night to live footage of some big gala where Jonas and his mom are walking the red carpet in LA as special guests.
Smiling and shaking hands and answering reporters’ questions about his divorce with a charming, regretful smile and a quickwe all make mistakes.
I almost throw the remote at the TV.
I also almost throw up.
Men suck.
The magic of Fiji is ruined.
And every day I hide here, I’m getting more behind on work at a time when I need to findmore work.
I have to support myself solo now.
And figure out where I even fit in my own life now that I have to face the fallout of choosing Chandler over my friends and family.
9
Two and a half years later…
Emma
It’sa beautiful day for a wedding.
Especially sincethiswedding is happening, and it’s happening with two of my favorite people on the entire planet, and they’re already kissing as man and wife.
I glance over to see Sabrina’s shoulders relax too as my brother dips Laney in her gorgeous white gown, refusing to stop at a simple kiss, and I nearly giggle.
Sabrina stifles a noise too.
We’re in front of Snaggletooth Creek’s City Hall building. Ol’ Snaggletooth was the miner who supposedly founded the town, and the statue of him we’re standing beside is the one that my nearly forgotten ex-fiancé once damaged with a go-kart and blamed Theo for, sending my brother to jail for a crime he didn’t commit because he didn’t fight back with the truth.
Theo’s committed plenty of otherindiscretionsin his time, but the indiscretion that sent him to jail wasn’t actually his. He’sstill sitting on a promise of aget out of jail freecard from the sheriff.
Whom I’m reasonably certain is watching this wedding from the same distance that the rest of the town is.
All of Theo and Laney’s friends and neighbors would’ve happily come to the wedding—especially today, when it’s been an unusually rainy spring and early summer, leading to dormant wildflowers blooming amidst the mountain grasses on all of the hills and valleys around us—but Laney insisted the ceremony stay small. Her parents. My dad and uncle. Sabrina and her boyfriend, Grey, who likely has his own plans to propose to her very soon too.
And not because she’s five months pregnant with his baby, but because they’re so utterly adorable together.
Just like Laney and Theo.
