The woman behind her is as beautiful as she. Her blond bob fits her sculpted face and bright blue eyes. She’s taller thanEmaly by a handful of inches and seems like the exact opposite of the dark-haired woman.
My eyes go between the two of them, who are both smiling at Janel and me. And when my gaze trails down to their conjoined hands, something deep inside me clicks into place.
“Hi,” Emaly greets, releasing the blonde’s hand and stepping over to me for a hug. It’s so quick, I don’t have time to return it. “I’m sorry for interrupting, but it’s important.”
I’m so confused as I glance briefly at the stranger in the room before looking back at Emaly. “What are you doing here? I thought you were in California.”
She lifts a shoulder. “I got on a red-eye because I needed to be here to make sure I made things right. I didn’t want you to pay the price for something that you shouldn’t be punished for.”
I start to ask what she means when Janel clears her throat to regain our attention. “Does this have to do with the media alert that came through on my phone last night?”
Media alert? I pat my pocket but realize I must have left my phone at my desk when I dropped my bag off when I got here. Is it the one Thomas saw last night? I’d asked him about it, but he just kept saying he’d tell me everything today. And, truthfully, I was okay with that. Because I was scared of the truth.
“Probably,” Emaly admits, smiling at my boss. She walks over and reaches her hand out for a shake. “I’m Emaly Moskins-Yokav. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Janel.”
Emaly turns to me and gestures toward the quiet blonde still standing by the door. When the other woman walks over, they link hands again.
“Winter,” Emaly says in a tone I’ve never quite heard before. It’s soft and warm like usual, but also full of…love. “This is Ronnie. My fiancée.”
My eyes widen into what I can only imagine are saucers as they shoot down to her hand, which has a beautiful gold ring and a green gem on it.
“That’s…” I blink slowly as I study the gorgeous, round gem. “It’s beautiful. I’m…”
“Speechless?” Emaly muses.
Her fiancée, Ronnie, swats at her. “You just dropped a massive bombshell on the poor girl. Let her soak it in.”
Once again, Janel cuts in, “While I offer my full congratulations on this very spontaneous news, I think there needs to be some explanation as to why this is coming out now. No pun intended, of course.”
Emaly snorts. “I like you,” she tells my boss with a grin. “And I think the reason is perfectly clear.” Her eyes turn to me. “Thomas fell in love.”
Everything in me stills, and my heart drums wildly in my chest. “W-what?”
With her free hand, she squeezes my wrist gently. “My husband has sacrificed so much for me, Winter. He’s let his reputation take a nosedive time and time again because of me and what I’ve been keeping from my family. But it’s not fair to him, and he’d never agree to let me put myself out there with the truth for people to pick apart and judge. I realized something though. I don’t care what they think. I don’t care what my father thinks, or my mother, or my brother. The only person whose opinion affects me is Ronnie’s, and hiding her was hurting her, and lying was hurting Thomas. I refuse to keep allowing that to happen when I have the power to stop it and change the narrative.”
There is so much unfolding right now that it hurts my brain.
“This would have certainly changed things months ago when we first inquired about the case,” Janel pipes up, still sitting behind her desk and watching us closely.
Emaly nods, almost sadly. “It would have, and I suggested telling the truth when Thomas was first being put through the wringer after getting caught with his ex from Seattle. But he didn’t want that, and I let him convince me to keep quiet. It’s time, though. It’s time to end this so that everybody can move on. He deserves to be happy.”
Emaly’s eyes are on me as she delivers that last sentence. “And I saw it in your eyes the first day I met you, Winter. I saw the hurt and the loneliness even before you ever admitted it. It’s the same thing I see in Thomas. I can’t offer him the kind of love he needs, but you can. Because you deserve it too. You two are so alike, and that means you have the chance at filling in the holes left in each other’s hearts.”
The room is quiet as I swallow and take a deep breath.
“I’m sorry for lying,” she tells me. “But I’m not sorry for being one of the reasons you were able to meet Thomas. In a weird way, I’m glad. He needs someone like you.”
Someone like me?
She can see the question in my eyes. “He needs somebody who will challenge him.”
Janel laughs lightly. “From what I’ve witnessed, I have no doubt she’s capable of that. I knew the second that boy’s eyes lit up during our first meeting that you had no clue what was coming.”
I turn to her with my mouth ajar.
All she does is wink at me.
