Chapter 4

That evening, Izzy came to find me at the place I was renting. When she saw the bruise still swollen on my cheek, her expression softened a little, maybe out of guilt.

"I was just so worried about Grandma at the time, so I..."

"It's fine." I cut her off before she could finish, and it left her looking a little awkward.

She sighed. "Stevie, I don't want things to end up like this between us. But there's nothing else I can do. Sebastian's the suspicious type. He's been asking me for days what exactly you and I are to each other. That's the only reason I came up with that excuse."

I gave a bitter twist of a smile.

"So you'd rather let them assume I'm a homewrecker?"

Izzy let out a breath.

"Whatever you want, I can make it up to you. Weren't you always talking about wanting to go to Iceland?"

She kept going, word after word, still caught up in her own version of things, getting more worked up as she spoke.

"Once I've got things settled, once we get remarried, we'll go to Iceland for our honeymoon."

"Don't bother." The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them, and Izzy froze.

For the next few days, guilt over what had happened kept pulling her back toward me. She avoided every attempt I made to bring up the divorce papers, always changing the subject.

Then, right before her engagement to Sebastian, I went to the office to hand in my resignation letter. As I approached her office door, I caught the sound of her voice on the phone inside.

"You're getting engaged to Sebastian. What happens to Stevie?"

Izzy's tone had an edge of impatience to it.

"What else is there to do? I need the Woods' help too badly. Stevie's been with me long enough; he's reasonable. I'll give him some money and let him stay somewhere overseas for a while."

The voice on the other end of the line went quiet, then sighed. "Izzy, that's awfully cold-blooded of you. What if he refuses to divorce you?"

Izzy's voice paused for a second, then came back out light and careless, even as it landed like a physical blow against my chest.

"The divorce agreement is just for show. That marriage certificate between me and Stevie was fake to begin with. It never had any legal standing.

"He's had no idea, all these years. Being with Stevie is comfortable, sure, but besides making me feel good, what else can he actually offer me?

"When it comes to my career, he's useless. Only Sebastian can actually help me."

I couldn't listen to another word after that. I stumbled home in a daze and pulled the marriage certificate out of my drawer, my heart pounding. I couldn't believe all these years of feeling had been fake. Even the one promise she'd ever made me turned out to be a lie.

I went to the county clerk's office. The clerk on duty checked the certificate and shook her head.

"Sir, this fake certificate of yours is really something. Are you aware of how much this kind of thing slows us down? That seal's a forgery."

I stared at the certificate, at the photo of myself smiling so happily in it. No wonder Izzy could get engaged to Sebastian without a shred of hesitation.

In the end, all these years, I'd just been someone trailing along at her side with no name and no place, someone she kept around on the side.

I laughed at myself, a chill spreading through my whole body. I left the clerk's office and threw the marriage certificate into a trash can on the way out.

I didn't take a single thing with me. I booked the earliest flight I could find and headed straight for the airport.

The office group chat was still lighting up with messages. Izzy and Sebastian were getting married. She was passing out wedding candy to everyone. Someone had even posted their engagement photos in the group.

I looked through Izzy's social media. She'd never once worn a wedding dress in front of me.

Down in the comments, buried among all the well-wishes, I typed out a line of my own.

[Wishing you both happiness.]

Not long after, call after call from Izzy started coming in. I didn't pick up. The messages kept piling in like a rising tide.

This time, I turned my phone off completely.

'Izzy, if this is what you want, then let's just say we were never together at all.'