Chapter 4

After lunch, Nora started opening the housewarming gifts her friends had brought. By the time she reached the last few large boxes, she was practically shaking with excitement.

Inside were ten pairs of shoes, every one a limited-edition style from the current season. Spread across the floor, they looked like a miniature shoe display.

The card read, [I didn't know which style you'd like, so I bought them all.]

Nora hugged one of the boxes to her chest, her cheeks flushed with excitement as she leaned against Yale's shoulder, laughing. "How did you know I've been obsessed with this brand lately? You spent way too much!"

"You mentioned once that you liked the designer." Yale's tone was casual, but the affection in it was impossible to miss. "I didn't want you wasting time trying to choose."

I looked down at my own feet.

I'd been wearing the same pair of heels for two years, and the color along the edges had already started to fade.

Back when Yale and I first got together, money had been so tight that I'd worn an old pair of shoes that didn't fit while I followed him around meeting clients. By the end of the day, my heels were rubbed raw, and the tops of my feet were badly swollen.

That night, when we got back to our rental, I couldn't even take the shoes off. My socks had stuck to the broken skin.

Yale brought over a basin of warm water and crouched at my feet, soaking the shoes until they softened enough to ease them off. When he saw how badly my feet were torn up, his eyes turned red.

"Quincy, I'm sorry. You've suffered so much because of me."

Then he'd sworn, "One day, I'll make sure you have a car everywhere you go. You'll never have to walk another step if you don't want to."

Three years had passed.

Those painful old shoes were long gone.

Apparently, so were all his promises.

One of Nora's friends stared at the shoes in envy. "Oh my God. Mr. Sutton is amazing at giving gifts."

Nora shook her head, smiling sweetly.

"He told me I'm the first person he's ever truly loved, so he wants to give me nothing but the best."

I couldn't listen to this anymore.

While everyone crowded around the shoes, admiring them, I slipped away and walked to the deserted end of the hall.

A hand suddenly reached out behind me and pulled me into the shadows.

"Quincy, don't be mad."

Yale took a card from his pocket and pressed it into my palm, curling my fingers tightly around it.

"There's enough money in there for a hundred pairs of shoes. A thousand, if that's what you want.

"I transferred the house on the west side into your name too."

I could feel each beat of his heart against my back.

"Just give me a little more time. I'll take care of everything."

From the other room, Nora suddenly called, "Yale! Is the tea ready yet?"

He looked at me for two seconds, then picked up the tea tray and started toward the living room. At the doorway, he stopped and lowered his voice.

"I'll give you a proper explanation."

When we'd first gotten together, he'd promised, "I'll give you a home."

Three years later, there was a house, but no home.

All he had left to give me was an explanation.

Nora took the tea from him and went right back to chatting with her friends about the future. Looping an arm through Yale's, she smiled up at him.

"Oh, right. Did you finish that stock transfer you were talking about?

"Once that's done, I won't have to work anymore, right?"

Yale's expression shifted.

"Stock transfer?" one of her friends asked, instantly interested.

Nora nodded, unable to hide the sweetness in her voice.

"He said as long as I own part of the company, that's enough. After that, I can stay home and be a full-time wife.

"He says he wants to come home and see me every day. I don't have to work so hard because he'll take care of me..."

"Nora." Yale cut in. "That's enough."

She stopped and looked at him, confused. "What?"

He didn't answer. His gaze flicked toward me, uneasy for a moment, before he quickly looked away.

Then he reached for a napkin and gently wiped a smear of sauce from the corner of Nora's mouth.

She smiled, suddenly bashful. "I just wanted everyone to know how good you are to me..."

That company belonged to both of us.

When we'd first started it, we had no money and no employees. We worked out of our rental apartment, doing everything ourselves. Yale chased down clients while I handled the books. He drafted proposals, and I revised them. Between the two of us, each of us was doing the work of two people.

Once the company finally became stable, he'd told me, "You don't have to work this hard anymore. I'll carry it from here."

So that was what he'd meant.

He'd take the burden from me, only to turn around and hand our shares to someone else.

Hand our life's work to someone else.

I wanted to ask him one thing, but my throat had closed up so tightly that no words would come.

Then the phone in my pocket started vibrating.

The car I'd booked for the airport had arrived.