Chapter 3

I walked past Alex and straight to the dressing room. I pulled out a suitcase but left behind the clothes he'd bought me, taking only a few simple everyday outfits.

Alex leaned against the doorframe and gave a cold laugh. "Going to pull that walking-out act again? Olivia Bennett, aren't you done yet? Emily handled all those relatives for you today, and you couldn't even thank her. Now you're giving us attitude?"

I ignored him and went to the bedside drawer. It was my spare drawer, containing my identification documents and an old phone. The drawer was empty.

Every muscle in my body went rigid. I turned to Emily. She sat on the couch, idly turning the familiar phone over in her hand.

I walked over and held out my hand. "What are you doing with my things? Give it back."

Emily shrank behind Alex, her face wounded. "Olivia, don't be so harsh. My phone died while I was taking pictures today. I saw a spare phone in the drawer, so I borrowed it to transfer the photos.

"I couldn't figure out the passcode, so I tapped factory reset without thinking. It was old anyway. There couldn't have been anything important on it, right?"

A roar filled my head as blood rushed to my face. That old phone held no photos or chats, only a few voice recordings.

My mother had died in a car accident. Before that, her biggest worry had been me, her directionally challenged daughter. She was always teaching me how to find my way over the phone.

After she died, I was so afraid to leave the house that I barely went outside. Alex stayed up for several nights, cutting and organizing the voice messages my mother had sent me.

He'd turned them into a one-of-a-kind private navigation system. The recordings played: "Turn left up ahead, Olivia. Slow down. Don't be scared. It's okay if you take a wrong turn. Mom's here."

For five years, every trip I took around Harbor City had depended on that phone and my mother's voice.

I snatched it back and switched it on, my hands trembling. The screen lit up to the initial setup page. It was clean. Everything was gone.

The local backup was gone, and she'd wiped the cloud copy too with a few careless taps. I glared at Emily, my eyes burning with rage.

I raised my hand and slapped her hard across the face. The slap cracked across the room. Emily screamed, covered her cheek, and collapsed onto the couch.

Alex's expression changed. He grabbed my wrist and squeezed until my bones ached. "Olivia, have you lost your mind?"

I struggled against Alex's grip, my nails digging into the back of his hand. "She erased my navigation recordings. Alex, my mother's voice was in there. You knew that!"

Alex froze for a beat, then released me and shielded Emily behind him. His brow furrowed, and his voice was thick with impatience.

"They were only a few recordings. Emily didn't know. Your mother is gone. You can't spend your whole life relying on a few recordings to live."

He paused as if the solution were obvious. "I'll find top voice actors tomorrow and have them imitate your mother's voice. I'll get you a clearer set. Will that satisfy you?"

I looked at the man in front of me. It felt as if someone had torn my heart open, leaving cold wind howling through the wound.

The boy who once held me had made me a promise: "Don't be afraid. I'll help you preserve your mother's voice." He'd died somewhere over the past five years.

Now he was the one dismissing what those voices meant. I gave a broken laugh and backed away two steps. "Voice actors? Alex, do you think anyone can be replaced?"

I turned and dragged my suitcase toward the door. "If you walk out that door today, our honeymoon on Nordic Island to see the aurora next week is canceled," Alex shouted behind me.

He knew taking my mother's ashes to see the aurora had been my dream for three years. I didn't slow down or look back. "Then I won't go."