Chapter 2

At nine that night, Jade called, her voice dripping with wounded self-pity. "Tony, baby, I need to tell you something."

"What is it?" I said, keeping my tone even.

"I got a little clumsy trying on the dress this afternoon and stained it. You'll need to get me a new one for tomorrow."

My chest tightened. My fists clenched on their own.

She'd played around with Preston like that, filthy and reckless, and now she had the nerve to make me clean up after her.

She even acted like it was nothing, telling me to just whip up a replacement.

She knew, better than anyone, that I'd designed that dress for her with my own hands. She knew exactly what she was asking.

She really didn't have a heart in her at all.

I took a slow breath. "Sure. I'll take care of it."

Jade laughed. "You're the best. Once we're married, let's go to Iceland for our honeymoon."

Watching the northern lights in Iceland had been Jade's wish, made on our second anniversary. Legend said lovers who saw the aurora together would never be parted.

I'd wanted forever with her, so I'd worked myself half to death, trading overtime for the vacation days, just for the chance to go with her.

But she'd always had some excuse to put it off.

Later, when she finally wanted to go, I was sent abroad for work and couldn't get away.

She'd been furious, said she'd go with a friend instead, and that I shouldn't bother her about it.

I'd felt so guilty at the time that, to make it up to her, I wired her seven thousand dollars to cover the trip.

She'd lit up with joy and showered me with every kind of sweet talk imaginable.

But now, I'd found her posts from that exact stretch of time on her secret account.

The "friend" she'd gone with had never been a friend at all. It was Preston.

In the photos she'd posted, they stood beneath a sky full of aurora, fingers laced together.

The night before they flew home, she'd photographed the messy hotel room, a used condom lying on the floor.

Caption: [Taking down the one who got away.]

My stomach turned.

Jade's voice was still going. "My friends want to throw me a bachelorette blowout tonight, so I might not answer for a while."

An orgy with Preston, more like.

I laughed coldly to myself and said, deliberately, "Perfect timing. My first love wants to meet up before the wedding too, actually."

Jade exploded instantly. "Why would your first love need to meet up right now? It's the middle of the night! What good could possibly come from a man and a woman alone together like that?"

I shot back, "And if the one who got away called you up tonight, would you go? Would something happen between you?"

Jade's voice rose, guilty. "That's a hypothetical! It doesn't even apply!

"And besides, even if it did, I only wanted to make sure I wouldn't regret my youth. After we get married, I'm all yours. Can't you be a little generous about it?"

She wanted me to wear the horns and be gracious about it too.

I laughed, and it wasn't really a laugh at all.

Jade played her trump card. "If you dare go, forget about the wedding tomorrow."

Four years together, and she always did this.

"No gift, I'm dumping you."

"Go through my phone again, I'm dumping you."

"Don't treat my family right, I'm dumping you."

I loved her, so every time she opened her mouth, I gave in without question, bent over backward to please her.

She'd always assumed I loved her so hopelessly that I could never leave.

She was wrong.

Love isn't the whole of a life. I understood that better than anyone.

While I loved her, I could forgive her anything.

Now that she didn't deserve it anymore, I could take that devotion right back.

The call ended, and Jade fired off a string of messages ordering me not to set foot outside my door tonight.

If I hadn't seen those videos and that "diary," I might still have believed she loved me to distraction.

But now I understood.

None of it had ever been real.

I didn't answer.

Just then, a knock came at the door, rapid, one after another.

I opened it, and Kyle walked in with three other groomsmen behind him.

I forced myself to sound steady. "What are you all doing here?"

He sighed. "Don't bother putting on a brave face. We already know, man."

That one sentence shattered whatever composure I had left.

A wave of tears rushed up behind my nose.

Three years of feelings. How could that not hurt?

She'd been my anchor once, the source of everything that kept me going.

I'd sworn before every god I could think of that I'd spend the rest of my life loving her.

And she'd turned out to be so unworthy of it that my devotion looked like a joke.

Kyle gripped my shoulder. "It's already happened. Whatever you want done, just say the word, and we'll make sure that bastard's own mother won't recognize him."

I covered my face and hurried into the bathroom.

Cold water hit my skin, and slowly, I pulled myself back together.

When I came back out to the living room, my phone chimed. The unknown number again.

[Nice view. She arches her back so pretty.]

The attached photo showed a hotel bathroom.

The couch wasn't big. We were sitting close together, and every one of the groomsmen saw it.

They were all close friends of mine. Furious, they looked ready to go kill Preston on the spot.

I talked them down, numb by then. "I don't want to dirty my hands on trash like that. Let me think of something else."

Years of my life invested in this relationship. I'd wanted it to end with some dignity.

But it seemed like they were determined not to let me have even that.

All night long, my phone wouldn't stop buzzing.

At first, it was the unknown number. Then it switched to messages sent straight from Jade's phone.

Suggestive photos. Videos too explicit to look at.

She'd send them, then delete them seconds later, tossing off some careless excuse: [Oops, my finger slipped on the wrong sticker.]

I stared at the screen full of "this message was deleted" notices, my heart shredded to pieces.

What did they think I was? Some piece in their game?

I gripped the phone tighter, and whatever affection I had left for Jade finally ran out completely.

They had no decency left to spare me. Why should I spare them any face in return?