Chapter 3

Nora's POV

I didn't reply. My mind was a blank.

I looked at my eyes, swollen from crying, and I couldn't stand the thought of walking in there looking beaten, so I forced myself to put on careful makeup.

The second I stepped into the café, I spotted the girl by the window, stirring sugar into her cup.

It was Phoebe Carter, the girl Ryan had been so desperate to protect at that dinner.

She wore a baseball cap. She had pale skin, big bright eyes, and a stubborn set to her jaw.

She looked exactly like I had eight years ago.

I sat down across from her, my heart pounding.

"Hi," she said, sweet as anything.

"Ryan talks about you all the time. Says you two have been through so much together. I always wondered what kind of woman you were. Turns out you're nothing special."

Her voice was soft, but it was full of mockery, full of dare.

It was like a thorn going into my chest.

I looked into those shameless eyes and said flatly, "If this is what you came to talk about, I'm leaving."

I stood up.

It wasn't so much leaving as fleeing.

She was young. She was pretty. She was bright. A girl like that, at Ryan's side every single day—how could he not start to want her?

I just couldn't accept that eight years of love would end like this.

When she saw me get up, Phoebe shot to her feet and grabbed my sleeve.

"Wait, that's not why I'm here. I came to ask you for help."

She sighed and slid right into a pitiful little act.

"That call I made on your show yesterday is trending everywhere now. People are tearing me apart."

The podcast had blown up overnight. Furious listeners had stayed up doxxing her, digging out her name, her company, even her home address, her school, her family. Overnight, Phoebe had become public enemy number one. Every comment on her social media was an attack.

She wrung the hem of her shirt, eyes brimming.

"I came to apologize. And to beg you to help me."

"I'm sorry. Ryan told me to be patient, to keep us a secret no matter what. But it hurt so much, loving someone in the dark like that, I couldn't take it anymore. That's why I called your show. I never thought it would explode like this."

"For the sake of us both loving the same man, couldn't you post a statement telling everyone it was just a script? Clear my name?"

I looked at that harmless little face and laughed in it.

"You're dreaming."

"You steal my fiancé, strut around bragging about it on my show, and you have the nerve to ask me to clear your name? Get lost."

I turned to go.

Phoebe's voice drifted after me, low and silky.

"You cried last night, didn't you?"

"What good did it do? Ryan still chose to stay with me. He doesn't want to go back and face you."

"You probably don't even know. He's kept me by his side for years now. We've never been apart. Want to know why? Because I'm younger than you. Because I'm easier to show off."

She said it softly, with a thin little smile of contempt.

My heart lurched, and a strange, bleak grief washed over me.