“Ashton?” I call.
No answer.
I step into the kitchen and stop.
She’s standing by the counter, holding something in both hands. Not moving. Not breathing. Just… staring.
Dread slips through me. “What?”
She looks up at me, and her face is pure panic.
“I screwed up.”
My heart jumps. “What kind of screwed up?”
“I was going through your mail,” she says quickly. “The stuff on the counter. I saw a couple of envelopes marked “Cup & Cake,” so I started opening them. Invoices, flyers, boring stuff. And then I grabbed another one and?—”
She swallows.
“And I read it.”
Cold spreads through me. “Read what?”
“The letter.”
My pulse starts to roar in my ears. “What letter?”
She lifts the envelope with shaking fingers.
The cream-colored one.
The one that doesnotsay Cup & Cake on the front.
“Oh, my God,” I whisper. “Ashton… tell me you’re joking.”
“I didn’t realize,” she says fast. “I swear. I didn’t even look at the name on the front. I just assumed it was more bakery stuff.But it didn’t make any sense. The contents were… confusing. So, I read it again. And then again.”
My stomach drops.
“And then,” she says quietly, “I picked up the envelope to see who it was for.”
She turns it so I can see.
Nathan Reign
My chest goes hollow.
“I just stood there,” she says. “Like an idiot. Holding it. Realizing what I’d done.”
I can’t speak. I can barely breathe.
“That wasn’t ours,” I whisper. “That was his. That was… private.”
“I know,” she says. “I know. I would never do that on purpose. I thought it was yours. I thought it was Cup & Cake.”
I stare at the envelope like it’s about to explode. My voice comes out small. “You read all of it?”
She nods.
