CHAPTER 26: ALONE

Emma locked her apartment door and didn't leave for three days.

She didn't answer Damien's calls. She didn't check on Tyler. She sat in her living room and stared at the walls, trying to understand how everything had gotten so broken.

Around noon on the third day, there was a knock on her door.

"Emma, I know you're in there," Damien said through the door. "Please let me in."

She stood on the other side of the door, her hand on the lock, unable to move.

"I'm not leaving until you talk to me," Damien continued.

Emma opened the door.

Damien looked worse than she felt. He hadn't shaved. He was wearing the same clothes from yesterday. His eyes were red.

"Come back home," he said.

"I can't," Emma replied.

"Why not?"

"Because I need to think," Emma said. "Because I need to figure out who I am without all of this."

Damien moved into the apartment and closed the door behind him.

"I understand you're scared," he said. "I'm scared too."

"You don't understand," Emma said. "You have your family's company to restructure. You have lawyers and police and people managing all of this. You have a life that continues."

"So do you," Damien replied.

"No, I don't," Emma said. Her voice was getting louder. "I have a gallery that's about to become famous for the wrong reasons. I have a brother in the hospital. I have a woman obsessed with you who nearly killed us both. And I have you asking me to just move past it and go back to normal."

"I'm not asking you to move past it," Damien said.

"Yes, you are," Emma replied. "You're here asking me to come back. To pretend everything is fine. To go back to our apartment and our life and act like Claire wasn't stalking me for months. Like my brother didn't try to kill himself. Like any of this is okay."

Damien moved toward her but she stepped back.

"Don't touch me," Emma said.

"Emma..."

"I trusted you," she continued. "I trusted Tyler. I thought Claire was my friend. And all of them betrayed me in different ways. So forgive me if I'm not ready to trust anyone right now."

Damien's face went pale.

"I betrayed you?" he asked. "How did I betray you?"

"By not telling me you were having me monitored," Emma said. "By investigating Claire but not warning me that she might be dangerous. By letting me be friends with someone you suspected was obsessed with you."

"I was trying to protect you," Damien said.

"By lying to me," Emma replied. "Again. Just like Richard lied. Just like Tyler lied. Just like Claire lied."

Damien sat down on her couch like his legs had stopped working.

"What do you want from me?" he asked quietly.

Emma didn't answer because she didn't know. She wanted him to disappear. She wanted to go back in time and never marry him. She wanted none of this to have happened.

But none of that was possible.

"I need time," she said finally. "I need to be alone."

"For how long?" Damien asked.

"I don't know," Emma said. "I don't know if I can come back from this."

Damien stood up slowly.

"Okay," he said. "I'll give you space. But Emma, I need you to know that I love you. That everything I did, I did trying to protect you."

"Protection shouldn't require lies," Emma said.

Damien moved toward the door, then stopped.

"The gallery opening is in two weeks," he said. "The one you've been planning. I hope you're still doing it. I hope you don't let Claire take that from you too."

He left without waiting for a response.

Emma locked the door behind him and went back to sit on her couch.

She sat there for hours, understanding that she had a choice to make. She could hide here and let fear win. Or she could go back out into the world and reclaim her life.

The gallery opening was in two weeks. Her first real exhibition. Something she'd been working toward for months.

Claire had tried to take that from her. Tyler had tried to make it about his guilt. Damien had tried to make it about his protection.

But it wasn't about any of them.

It was about her.

Emma picked up her phone and called her gallery manager.

"The opening is happening as planned," she said. "I don't care what's in the news. I don't care about the publicity. I want that opening to go forward."

Over the next two weeks, Emma went to the gallery every day and prepared. She hung her paintings. She organized the space. She did the work.

She didn't answer Damien's calls. She didn't visit Tyler. She existed in a bubble where the only thing that mattered was her art.

The night before the opening, her phone rang. It was Tyler.

"Em," he said. His voice was stronger now. "I'm getting out of the hospital tomorrow."

"Okay," Emma replied.

"Will you let me come to your opening?" he asked.

Emma thought about it. About whether she could forgive him. About whether forgiveness was even possible.

"Yes," she said finally. "You can come."

She hung up and looked at herself in the mirror. The woman staring back was someone different from the one who'd married Damien six months ago. Someone who'd survived betrayal and obsession and loss.

Someone who was finally learning to stand on her own.

But as she got ready for bed, she wondered if standing alone was really what she wanted. Or if she was just running from the possibility of being hurt again.

The opening would answer that question. One way or another, everything would change at that opening. She lay in bed thinking about Damien. About whether she could forgive him for keeping secrets. About whether love was worth the risk of being hurt again. The gallery opening was tomorrow and after that, she would have to decide. Either she moved forward with him or she let him go completely. There was no middle ground anymore. Everything had to change.