Zander kept his head in his hands as the sound of Grandma Lo’s paced footsteps bounced off the hardwood floor of the greenroom.
Click-click, swoosh.
Click-click, swoosh.
“It’s a good thing the great Lord blessed me with a strong heart,” the woman declared.
Click-click, swoosh. “I’d have been dead a hundred times over with all the junk we’ve had to deal with the last few years.”
“I’m pretty sure you’re going to outlive us all, Lorraine,” Zander’s mom, Claudia, mumbled.
“What time is Marsha supposed to be here?” James asked. “And do you really think it’s necessary that we’re all here? Why can’t we just let this be between Zander and Duke?”
Zander sighed heavily as answers came from every direction of the room.
“That’s what I was going to ask,” Michael said under his breath.
“Go ahead and leave,” Duke hissed at the same time.
But Betzy’s response was loudest. “Because you went along with it,” she blurted. “Just like the rest of us.”
“Right,” James’ wife, Camila, agreed.
“Zander?” came Betzy again. “Are you okay?”
“Not really.” How could he be okay when he’d destroyed the trust of the woman he loved? A woman who refused, despite his attempts in the last three days, to hear him out.
He inhaled slowly, allowing the crushing ache that accompanied each breath to do its worst. He hurt everywhere. His head, his heart, and parts that couldn’t even be reached—his spirit, he guessed, if he still had one. It seemed more likely that his very soul had jumped ship, gone off in search of its mate once they were split.
He deserved this, that much was true. But he also deserved a chance to make it right. And that—his chance to speak with Kat—was Zander’s glue, the only thing holding him together.
Three nights had gone by. And without question, they’d been the loneliest nights of Zander’s life. It turned out that, once a man found his other half, he no longer felt whole on his own.
Zander had resorted to stacking dozens of pillows in her place and curling up to them, desperate to recall the peace he felt while sleeping with her in his arms.
“Sorry I’m late,” Marsha said as she pushed open the door.
Zander looked up in time to see Randall step in behind Marsha. The two moved to the front of the room next to a whiteboard. “Thanks for coming, Duke, Zander, and…the rest of you.”
Grandma clicked her way over to Zander and perched herself on the loveseat beside him. “You’re welcome. Now, how are we going to fix this?”
Marsha tipped her chin up and grinned. “Ah, a woman after my own heart. I’m not one to beat around any bushes either. So let’s get right to it.” She snatched a bright red marker off the shallow tray, popped off the lid, and wrote one single word across the board.
Redemption.
“I’m a firm believer that everyone deserves a shot at redemption. And if you look at my credentials—taking note of the success my reality TV shows have seen—you’ll find that America feels the same way. Sure, it hurts to see things go awry. To witness perfect strangers get their hearts crushed into oblivion.”
She tossed the marker back onto the tray and folded her arms. “But that’s what makes the moment of redemption that much sweeter.”
“You think Kat’s going to forgive him for this?” Betzy asked.
Zander kept his eyes pasted on Marsha as she tipped her head to one side. Her green eyes narrowed in concentration. “Yes,” she finally said. “I do. But we have to give her options.” She popped out the last word like it was a creation of her own.
This time Marsha grabbed the blue marker. She proceeded to write the word trust on the board. She tapped the marker beside it three distinct times. “Here’s the key. Kat said yes to this experiment because she thought she couldn’t trust herself.”
Marsha capped the marker but held it in her grip while continuing. “She let herself fall in love with a man she believed was hand-picked for her. One that matched up with her in all the right ways. One that she hadn’t used her faulty feelings to pick out herself.”
She uncapped the lid, spun back around, and crossed out the word with thick, angry lines. The sight added to the ripping ache in Zander’s chest. He forced his next breath out through pursed lips.
