After I Left, He Fell Apart

“Hi. I'd like to donate this to someone who needs it.”

When I opened the little box in my hands, the staff at the beastkin shelter went still with shock.

A single, perfect scale lay inside, glowing a deep, molten gold.

A scale was the most precious thing a merfolk owned. It was not merely armor. It was the mark of their rank, the proof of how high they stood in the beastkin world.

The merfolk were at the top of that world. No one could take a scale from them. The only way to get one was if its owner tore it out willingly.

And tearing out a scale cost a merman pain no less than carving the heart out of a living man.

That was why a merfolk scale was so precious, a gold one far rarer still.

The clerk checked with me again. “Are you certain? You really want to donate this? Something this valuable. Maybe you should take more time to decide.”

“I've decided.”

I pushed the scale toward her. “I don't have any use for it anymore. Let it go to someone who does.”

She accepted it carefully and bowed to me with both hands. “On behalf of everyone you're helping, thank you. If you leave an address, we'll mail you a letter of thanks.”

“No need. I'm leaving soon, and I'm never coming back.”

She looked disappointed. “Is that so? You don't want the donation certificate either?”

I almost said no. Then something occurred to me, and I took out a pen and wrote down the address of the home I shared with Adrian. “In a week, please send the certificate here.”

I was leaving. Consider this my last gift to him.

My gaze sank, settling once more on the scale that held every memory I had.

“Penny, you're my love. You're the one thing I'd guard with my life, and I swear I'll never let anything hurt you.”

That man's words still circle in my ears.

He'd held me, his breath hot against the sensitive skin of my neck until my face flushed despite myself.

Then he'd taken out a small velvet box. Inside was a scale glowing the same gold, the blood not quite wiped from its edge, as if to tell me how much agony its owner had endured to tear it free.

My eyes flew wide and I covered my mouth. “Wait, what is this?”

He'd smiled. “It's my proof that I love you. Meeting you, Penny, is the luckiest thing that's ever happened to me.”

I yanked his shirt up and saw the savage scar across his back. Damage to a merfolk scale was irreversible. That scar would be with him for the rest of his life.

My eyes filled at once. I traced the scar, aching for him. “Why would you do something so stupid?”

He only ruffled my hair, like it was nothing. “For you, all of it was worth it. Will you be my wife?”

Drunk on love, I said yes before I could even think.

We held each other tight, and in that moment I was sure no one in the world could ever love me more than Adrian did.

For him, I left the human world I'd lived in for over twenty years and followed him to the distant beastkin world.

To everyone we knew, we were a devoted couple.

Until two months ago.

A girl from the fox-kin showed up at our door with a shopping bag in her hand.

She looked barely twenty, in a dress that stopped at mid-thigh, her smile sweet and unkind at once.

“Hi. I'm just returning a shirt Adrian left at my place. Don't worry, I washed it. There's not a single trace left on it.”

The taunt was right there in her voice, and her eyes raked me head to toe as she spoke.

I was not stupid. I saw exactly what she’d come for in an instant. I took the bag from her calmly and said coldly, “I'll thank him for you. If there's nothing else, you can go.”

Adrian's family had the whole beastkin world in its grip. The women who wanted into his bed were beyond counting, and I'd seen this little doorstep stunt plenty of times. So I let it go.

Until later, when I went to Adrian's company and ran into this woman again.

She came out of his office flushed, two buttons of her blouse undone, her lipstick smeared. Everything about her announced what had just happened inside.

In that moment my mind went white and silent.

When Adrian saw me, all he said was, level and calm, “That was just my assistant.”

Then I saw the lipstick on his collar, the exact shade she'd been wearing, and I couldn't lie to myself any longer.

The man who'd sworn he would love me, and only me, for as long as he lived had let his heart wander in the end.

“And this.” I slid our wedding ring off my finger. “Donate this with the rest.”

The clerk picked up the ring and paused. “Miss, there's an engraving inside. It must mean something to you. Are you sure?”

“It's no use to me now. Better to turn it into something that matters.”

I donated every piece of jewelry and every bag Adrian had ever given me, and then I went home empty-handed.

It was eleven at night before Adrian came back.

He opened the bedroom door and found me lying in bed with my back to him.

He came closer, step by step, and the smell of fox on him grew stronger and stronger.

The mattress dipped beside me, and his voice came from above. “Sorry. Work's been crazy, I haven't had time for you. I brought your favorite cake. Want a little something to eat?”