LOGINJANICE'S POVIt isn't Chloe's ring, it's mine.I stare at the small velvet box resting in Eden's hand while the ferry glides quietly across the water, and for several long seconds my brain refuses to catch up with what my eyes are seeing."Eden…...."He smiles nervously."I know.""No…... you don't.""I probably don't.""You definitely don't."He laughs under his breath."I had a speech.""You had a speech?""I practiced it.""For how long?""Three days."I blink. "You're serious?""I even timed it.""Oh no.""I forgot all of it."That makes me laugh, the kind that makes my shoulders shake.He rubs the back of his neck."I liked you better when you were crying.""I'm not crying anymore.""I noticed.""Now I'm laughing at you.""I also noticed."He opens the box.Inside is a simple diamond ring.Elegant and new.Untouched by anyone else's memories."I didn't buy this because I wanted to rush you," he says quietly, looking at the ring instead of me. "And I didn't buy it because I expect
EDEN'S POVThe ring should remind me of loss.Instead, it reminds me of Janice.I sit alone in my office before sunrise, turning the velvet box over in my hands while Manhattan slowly wakes beyond the windows. Five years ago this ring represented a future that never happened. Today, all I can think about is the woman who laughed until she cried because I lost a battle against a claw machine.A soft knock breaks the silence.Janice peeks inside."I figured I'd find you here."I close the box."I was thinking."She smiles. "I know.""How?""You get this wrinkle."She points between my eyebrows."I have a wrinkle?""You have an entire emotional forehead."I laugh despite myself."I've been insulted before breakfast.""You'll survive.""I probably will."She notices the box in my hand but doesn't ask about it yet. Instead she walks over and quietly places a paper coffee cup beside me."I bribed the café downstairs.""You bribed them?""They gave me an extra pastry.""That's not bribery.
JANICE'S POVI don't even realize I've said it until the words are already floating through the apartment."Our family needs groceries."Silence.I freeze halfway through writing a shopping list.Eden looks up from the couch.Jack slowly lowers the dinosaur comic he was reading."Our family?" Eden repeats carefully.Heat rushes into my face."I meant…… I…..."Jack jumps off the couch before I can embarrass myself any further."I like that one!""What one?""Our family."He grins so brightly my heart almost gives up."We should keep it."Eden looks at me."So…..." I hide behind the shopping list. "......Don't.""I wasn't going to say anything.""You were absolutely going to.""I was."Jack claps once."Good. Family meeting."Neither of us remembers agreeing to one.Ten minutes later Jack stands in the middle of the kitchen wearing my apron that nearly reaches his ankles while holding a wooden spoon like a microphone."I've decided," he announces proudly, "that tonight I will cook dinne
EDEN'S POVThe kiss changes everything because it feels like coming home.When we finally pull apart, neither of us says anything for several long seconds as we simply stand there smiling like two complete idiots who forgot how conversations work.Janice is the first to laugh.".Well."I nod. "Well."She points at me."That was your fault.""My fault?""You stepped closer.""You kissed me.""You were standing there looking... looking—""Looking what?"She groans and hides her face in both hands."I don't know.""You started a sentence.""I regret it already.""I'm not letting you escape."She peeks at me through her fingers."You looked kissable."I blink."That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.""Oh, don't get used to it.""I absolutely will."She laughs again, shaking her head before lightly pushing my shoulder."You smile differently now.""So do you.""I do not.""You absolutely do.""I'll deny it forever.""You won't.""Probably not."The next morning I wake up earli
JANICE'S POVThe article is supposed to come out tomorrow morning.Strangely, I'm not thinking about tomorrow.I'm thinking about the way Eden quietly slips the envelope back into his jacket before anyone else at the party notices, then reaches for my hand beneath the table without looking at me, his fingers warm around mine like he's already made a decision I haven't heard yet."We're leaving," he says softly.I blink."What about the party?""They'll survive.""The anniversary—""They'll survive that too."Amanda appears beside us before I can argue."I heard my name."Eden doesn't even hesitate."I'm taking her home."Amanda studies both of us for one long second before smiling in that annoyingly knowing way she has."I figured.""You're not even going to ask why?""I've met both of you.""Fair."She gently squeezes my shoulder. "Go."The drive back is unusually quiet, but not the uncomfortable kind. The city lights slide across the windshield while soft music plays through the sp
EDEN'S POVThe black SUV changes everything.The moment Janice shows me the photographs from the aquarium, every instinct I've spent years trusting starts screaming that someone isn't just watching us anymore. They're studying us.Jack doesn't need to know that.He deserves one more ordinary morning.So when he wanders into the kitchen wearing dinosaur slippers and rubbing sleep from his eyes, I smile like nothing happened."Morning."He yawns."Why do adults always wake up before the sun?""Because bills exist."He frowns."I've decided never to have bills."Janice looks up from the frying pan."I support this dream.""You can't.""Why not?""Because you're an adult."She sighs dramatically."You caught me."Breakfast is loud, messy and completely normal as Jack insists pancakes taste better cut into dinosaur shapes, then complains mine looks more like "a confused chicken.""It has artistic value.""It needs medical attention."Janice laughs so hard she nearly drops the spatula."I
JANICE'S POVI've imagined this conversation for five years.Thousands of times, in hospital waiting rooms, sleepless nights and quiet moments when Jack wasn't looking, and somehow every version ended badly, yet none of them ended like this.Eden walks beside me without speaking as we leave Jack's
EDEN'S POVThe second I see Janice freeze in the lobby, something tightens unexpectedly inside my chest because she recognizes Lisa immediately, and for some reason I don't like that reaction nearly as much as I should."Interesting," Lisa says as we continue toward the elevators, and the amusement
JANICE'S POVI finish Chloe's letter just after midnight and by the last page I'm crying so hard that the words keep blurring together, forcing me to wipe my eyes again and again before I can continue reading.The letter isn't what I expected.It isn't instructions, demands or another impossible pr
JANICE'S POVThe moment those words leave my mouth, I know everything is changing.Eden heard what I didn't say, heard the truth hidden inside the silence and the tears, and he's far too smart to ignore it now. I can still see his face when I close my eyes, still see the realization settling behin







