LOGINBETTYI begin to pace frantically in front of the headstone, my chest tight and burning, feeling like a trapped animal."You don't have to believe me right now," Nathaniel says, his voice dropping into a low, steady vow that cuts through the hot air. "But I am going to spend the rest of my miserable life proving to you that I do actually love you. And when I realized it doesn't matter. It just matters that I did." He pauses, a devastating crack fracturing his voice. "Even if I realized it too late."I stop pacing, and I turn to him, my chest heaving."Yes. You did." I slowly turn my head, looking down at the cold granite of my mother's grave before lifting a trembling finger and pointing directly at the stone."Do you know what the girl who stood here less than a year ago would have done for you?" I whisper, the anger finally giving way to a crushing, hollow grief. “She would have given up her entire soul to hear you say those words. She prayed for it. Begged God for it."The dam insi
BETTYThe words don’t just hang in the air between us; they suck the oxygen entirely out of the atmosphere, leaving the entire cemetery plunged into a vacuum.The faint rustle of the wind through the oak trees vanishes, and the oppressive heat of the afternoon sun suddenly goes ice-cold against my skin.My lungs are completely paralyzed, as I stare up at him, my eyes wide and unblinking, my mind violently glitching.I am waiting for the punchline.So I stare at his mouth, bracing myself for the cruel, arrogant sneer to return. I wait for the cruel tilt of his lips, for him to point a finger at my chest and laugh. I expect him to tell me how gullible I am, to say just kidding, and remind me exactly how pathetic it is that I would ever believe a man like him could love a woman like me.But the sneer never comes, nor the laugh or the finger pointing.I look deeper into his hazel eyes, and what I see there completely terrifies me. There is no mockery. There is no arrogant armor. His face
BETTYMy eyes narrow into sharp slits. I shake my head, a bitter, humorless laugh escaping me. "What do you mean you don't know? It is your flash drive, isn't it? My question is, what the hell are those pictures? And why do you have them?"He swallows again, lifting a heavy hand to run his fingers anxiously through his dark hair."It is my flash drive, yes. But I didn't have those photos until recently, Betty." He drags his tongue across his bottom lip, his eyes locking onto mine with a desperate intensity. "A friend of mine who was at the bachelor party sent them to my phone. He sent them the night Amanda hosted that coming-out party at the estate."My chest violently tightens. I yank myself backward, putting distance between us.I was right. It was a game. Amanda was busy announcing their grand engagement to the world, and his billionaire friends were sending him pictures of the waitress he had conquered as a joke.Nathaniel sees the realization wash over my face, and he jolts forwa
BETTYI was halfway between Rhys’s apartment and the hospital when I froze on the sidewalk.My fingers gripped the silver flash drive in my pocket so tightly they ached after spending the last ten minutes rapidly constructing a barrage of furious questions to scream at Nathaniel.But every single one of them ultimately circled back to a single, impossible contradiction: How did we go from an undeniable, intoxicating connection... to him looking at me like I was a disease? It did not make sense.Suddenly, the confrontation felt like walking unarmed into a minefield. So I turned around and headed to the one place where I could think straight. Somewhere I hadn't been in a while.Now, I am sitting in the dirt at the cemetery, my back pressed hard against the cold, unyielding granite of my mother’s headstone.The afternoon sun has reached its absolute apex. It beats down mercilessly on the back of my neck, making the heavy black fabric of the hoodie cling to my sweating skin.I close my ey
NATHANIEL I am left standing in the waiting room staring at the exact spot where Betty was standing seconds ago. My arms are still half-raised, my fingers curled inward, grasping at absolutely nothing but cold air. The ghost of her warmth is still radiating against my chest. The scent of her, even csomething soft and inherently her that cuts straight through the antiseptic smell of the hospital—is still clinging to my shirt. I can’t believe she ran. Again. Just like she did on that damn elevator. She looked up at me, her chest heaving, her beautiful green eyes completely blown wide with a panic so absolute it mirrored my own, and she bolted. A nurse pushes a cart past me, giving me a wide, cautious berth. I ignore her, my jaw clenching so hard f teeth grind together. I didn't try to stop Betty. I couldn't. Because for those three suspended seconds before she pulled away, I felt it. I felt the exact moment her walls crumbled. I felt her melt against me, her hands gripping my shir
BETTYMy arms hover uselessly in the air, suspended in absolute shock.Nathaniel’s massive frame is wrapped around me, his face buried deep in my neck, his heavy, ragged breaths ghosting across my collarbone.For three paralyzing seconds, my brain entirely short-circuits. I can't process what is happening.But as the initial shock fades, the reality of where we are slowly seeps in. We are in the middle of a brightly lit hospital waiting room, the nurses and orderlies are passing by, and are starting to stare.I should push him away. I should remind him of the boundaries we have drawn. The unspoken ones. But as the suffocating relief that Harriette is going to survive rushes through my own veins, it dismantles every single defense mechanism I have left.So, I do what any decent human being would do. I slowly lower my arms and wrap them tightly around his waist.The moment my palms press flat against his back, a profound, overwhelming warmth radiates from his body, seeping directly thro
BETTYSomeone is calling my name from the bar while two servers argue over tray placement near the entrance.The lighting technician is asking if we’re committing to warm gold or neutral white, and the DJ wants confirmation on whether the sound check can start early.All of it is colliding at once
NATHANIEL.It has been almost three weeks since Betty and I made a deal, and in that time, she has become a ghost inside her own house.She’s been doing everything possible to avoid crossing paths with me. Moving through the estate with the kind of precision that suggests planning rather than coinc
NATHANIELThe divorce papers are clenched in my hand, my grip tight enough that the edges bite into my skin.She should be packing by now, or at least doing something with her newfound freedom.Instead, the bed is neatly made, smoothed down to perfection, the pillows aligned, her clothes still hang
NATHANIEL“You and I need to talk.” The words tear out of me the second she steps inside the house, my voice impatient, already threaded with the frustration that’s been coiling in my chest all day.I don’t give her time to react. My hand closes around her wrist, and I pull her back outside, toward







