“We have never known the real Gwen. I didn’t think she’d ever betray me, but she did a number on me for years right under my nose.”
“I think Joe was telling the truth,” Nikki adds.
“I’m not sure if I do, but I don’t trust my judgment much these days.”
“Aww, babe. I hate that what’s happened has you questioning everything.” Renee squeezes my hand.
“I don’t. I was so fucking naïve, and I’m glad I got a wake-up call. If what Joe says is true, then I’m glad that psycho is out of my life.”
“What about Callan though?”
I slurp the dregs of my coffee. “What about him? He made his bed, and now he can lie in it.”
Renee and Nikki exchange looks.
“What?” I ask, calmly placing my empty mug down.
“Aren’t you even a little bit worried about him?” Renee asks. “I’ve been thinking about everything Joe said, and this scenario makes more sense because you’ll never convince me Callan Hunt did not love you with his whole heart. We all know him, and he’s not this cruel. I know what he’s saying, but maybe he has no choice. Maybe she planned this whole thing, and she’s threatening him with something to make him cooperate.”
“It wouldn’t surprise me if the baby isn’t his,” Nikki adds.
“Don’t do this.” My chair screeches as I stand. “I entertained that hope at the start, and I can’t do it again. It’ll undo the little progress I have made.Hehas had months to contact me and tell me what’s going on if that were the case. Anyone can buy a burner cell. He hasn’t done that. Instead, he’s posing for selfies and doing magazine interviews with her. He is not doing it under duress. He fucking cheated, broke my heart, and now he doesn’t care because he’s high on sex and his newfound celebrity, and he doesn’t give a single fuck about me!”
Silence echoes around me, and I realize I was shouting and everyone in the crowded coffee shop has heard. “Fan i helvete.” I grab my cell. “Just let it go. Please.” I race out of the shop with humiliation burning circles on my cheeks, charging through the door and instantly slamming into someone. My cell drops to the ground.
“Fuck.” Renee curses behind me, and I’m trembling as my head slowly lifts.
The pain is immediate, tearing through me like a tornado. My eyes drop from Callan’s shocked face to Gwen’s swollen stomach. Horror washes over me as I stare at the evidence oftheir betrayal. I’m frozen to the spot, in so much inner turmoil I can’t move my mouth or my feet.
“I know, I know, I look like a mini elephant.” Gwen tosses back her long blonde hair while clinging to Callan’s arm. “But Cal loves my pregnant body, and sex is so much more intense, isn’t it, baby.”
“That’s enough, Gwen.”
My eyes flit from her belly to his face at his familiar gruff voice. My hands are shaking, and my legs feel like they might go out from under me. Renee wraps her arm around me from behind as I slip my hand into my jacket pocket and curl my fingers around my grounding stone.
It was a parting gift from Agnetha, and I take it everywhere with me. Grief can hit me at the most inopportune times, and triggers surround me in this town. I clutch the stone, squeezing my hand around it and willing it to soothe my soul because right now it feels like I’m on the verge of a complete breakdown.
“Best sex of your life, isn’t that right, darling?” She paws at him, and he lets her, staring dispassionately at me as he notices my hair. “Tell them our news.” She flashes me a triumphant grin, but I ignore her, watching him for any sign of discomfort, any hint of devastation, any demonstration of emotion, but there is none.
“We should go,” he says, tearing his eyes from mine and glancing down at her.
“We’re engaged!” She thrusts her hand in my face, showcasing a ginormous diamond on her ring finger, and something vital dies inside me as shock lays siege to my body.
Automatically, I rub my ring finger, but my promise ring is no longer there. It’s in a box hidden in my closet. Callan told me the day he gave it to me that it was as good as an engagement ring, but that was just another lie. As were all the promises he made me on that Ferris wheel. Every single memory I sharedwith him is tarnished now because I can’t trust that any of them were real.
“Get the fuck out of here, you conniving cunt, or I’ll have you arrested for breaching the restraining order!” Renee snaps, holding me up as I sway.
No, no, no. How could he be marrying her? Tears prick the backs of my eyes, but I refuse to let them fall. I refuse to look weak in front of them. My eyes lower to the ground. I can’t look at either of them, and I wish I had a magic wand so I could cast a spell and obliviate them into nothing.
“We’re going,” Callan says, taking a step forward as I bend down to retrieve my phone. His foot lands on my cell, smashing it to pieces, before he grabs Gwen’s hand and steers her away.
“I’ll send wedding invites,” she calls out behind her, and Nikki yells something back at her.
I survey my broken cell, lying face down on the sidewalk, cracked and utterly ruined beyond repair—just like me.
I pocket the remnants and wrap my arms around myself as I face my friends. “You don’t propose to the person holding you ransom.” My voice sounds dead to my ears, but it’s better than turning into a sobbing wreck. I’m done crying over them. I’m done crying, period. “He’s not being forced into anything, and I don’t want to hear another word about it or them. As far as I’m concerned, they’re both dead to me.”
The following day, Mom finds a package on the porch with my name on it. It’s a new iPhone, and I know who left it there. I almost throw it away, but it’s the latest model, and I know it was expensive, so I can’t justify tossing it in the trash. I’ll have to go to the store anyway because my laptop hasn’t turned up anywhere, and I need to replace it and my phone. So, I put the package in my closet, intending to return it to the tech store in town where it was purchased when it reopens on Monday.
