Chapter 3

I dragged my suitcase toward the elevator.

"Clem!"

Victor tried to run after me, but Cynthia grabbed his sleeve.

He stopped and said to me, "Go to the hotel first. I'll come find you later."

After I got to a hotel, I accepted Travis Mercer, the realtor's lowest offer, and signed the listing agreement.

The buyer, Harry Copeland, was paying in full and put down a deposit on the spot.

Just then, I received a text.

[You there yet? It's not safe for you to be out there alone. Send me the address. I'm coming to find you.]

I hesitated for a moment, but I still sent the hotel location.

[Stay in your room and wait for me. Don't go anywhere.]

Back in my junior year of college, I had gotten stranded in the suburbs during a storm. I had received these exact same words from him.

At the time, Cynthia looked down on him. Every time the two of them met, they ended up fighting over me.

When she learned the mountain roads were closed, she blocked his way.

"You're going to get yourself killed if you go out there now!"

He pushed her aside and rushed over through the rain for three hours.

When he found me, he was soaked to the bone. Yet all he cared about was wrapping his jacket around me.

That night, Cynthia called him a lunatic the entire way back.

But after that, she never once told me to break up with him again.

I stared at his message the whole night.

The next day, I was jolted awake by a frantic knock on the door.

"Clementine, open the door!"

Just as I opened the door, several people barged in.

"You're already all over Cindy's husband. Now you're stealing her wedding ring, too. Have you no shame?"

"Why are we even wasting our breath on her? Just search the place!"

I stood in front of the suitcase.

"If any one of you touches that, I'm calling the cops."

"You're the one who stole something, and you're going to call the cops? Who do you think you're scaring?"

Someone reached out to flip open the suitcase.

Victor blocked them with one arm.

"That's enough. Clem's not a thief.

"Just let them take a look. That way they'll shut up about it."

I called the police and gave the hotel address and room number anyway.

Cynthia's expression shifted slightly.

"Clem, we're all friends here. Why get the police involved—"

Before she finished speaking, she suddenly covered her mouth and rushed into the bathroom.

The door was left open. Stifled sounds of dry heaving kept coming out.

Cynthia braced herself against the sink and froze for a moment.

A folded test report slipped from her pocket.

At the same time, the "missing" wedding ring fell out, too.

It hit the tile, spun a few times, and stopped at my feet.

Victor did not even look at it. He only bent down and picked up the report.

[Intrauterine pregnancy. Eight weeks.]

The words "eight weeks" sent me right back to two years ago.

The doctor told me at the time that I had just suffered a miscarriage.

Across a six-hour time difference, Victor stayed up with me all night with tears in his eyes. On the screen, his eyes were red from crying as he coaxed me over and over.

"Clem, it's okay. I'm right here.

"We can always have another baby."

Before that voice could fade from my mind, Victor had already pulled Cynthia into his arms.

"Cindy..."

His voice trembled, and his eyes were full of delight.

Only when he remembered that I was still there did his smile freeze.

Holding back my emotions, I picked up the wedding ring and handed it to him to see his reaction.

"I found the ring."

He was holding her hand and did not let go. The others came over after searching the other rooms.

"It's not in the suitcase—"

The moment that person saw the ring in my palm, he sneered, "Still going to say you didn't steal it? We caught you red-handed!"

I turned to the bedroom and saw the videotape my parents had left behind was snapped in two, with the tape tangled around the soles of their shoes.

That was the last footage of my parents from before I turned seven.

I dropped to my knees to pick it up. My fingers trembled as I started sobbing.

Just then, someone knocked on the door.

"Police! Open up!"

Victor shielded Cynthia behind him.

Ignoring my tears, he said softly, "The ring's been found, and I'll pay for whatever you lost. But Cindy just found out she's pregnant, and Mrs. Haight is sick. If this gets out, it won't do anyone any good.

"Just tell them you grabbed the ring by mistake while you were drunk."