Chapter 2
The next day, Lucas had a car loaded with gifts, every kind of thing, all of it clearly picked with care.
Felix Olson, his assistant, said, "Mrs. Carter, Mr. Carter doesn't want anyone giving you trouble. He'll drive straight back the second the show is over."
He'd always been thorough, and that was the problem. He'd spoiled her, and love she had to share was worth nothing to her.
None of that effort got past his mother.
"So you'll hand out my son's gifts and take the credit for them? That's some nerve. I should never have let you stay. People still talk about him behind his back because of you."
With Lucas out of the room, Margaret let all of it out. She'd been sitting on it for years.
"You clawed your way into his bed, and here we are two years later with nothing to show for it. Step aside while you still can.
"Lucas is young. He can't spend his life on a woman who can't give him a child. This family's line isn't ending on you."
Emily's heart had gone numb. She waited out the whole storm and then spoke.
"Mom, I'll do what you want."
What she said next hit Margaret three times over.
"Lucas and I were never married.
"That match you tried to arrange for me. If the family is still interested, I'll take it.
"Mom, from now on I'm his sister and nothing more."
It was too much at once, and Margaret reeled, but she came around fast.
It was the one chance to turn the family name around. Anyone in the world could be Lucas' wife except Emily.
Margaret said she'd make the arrangements.
Emily walked out of Carter Manor, and a message request came in from a number she didn't have saved.
She had a feeling she knew who it was, and she accepted it.
A photo came through. It showed a woman holding a bouquet.
The face in it was almost Emily's, softened by something shy and pleased with itself.
She was in a pink ballet dress, holding a hundred white lisianthus.
Anna: [He sent these.]
Three words, and Emily's chest went tight and sour.
Lisianthus meant love that was honest and didn't change.
The year she graduated, Lucas had put those same flowers in her hands himself, and that night the petals ended up all over the bed.
He'd been burning up, kissing every inch of her, and his voice had gone rough with the promise. "Sweetheart, these flowers mean one person only. I'll never give them to anybody else."
It undid her, and she gave him everything she had.
She had never forgotten a minute of that night.
He'd planted a whole field of those flowers in her, and then he'd come back and torn it out with his own hands.
Lucas was brutal.
Anna: [You want to come see for yourself?]
The words appeared on her screen, the taunt sitting right on top of them.
Emily turned down Felix's offer of a car and flagged a cab off the street.
She wanted her heart dead.
She wanted the name Lucas cut out of it for good.
*****
The private room was loud and warm.
"Lucas, you bought that necklace Anna's wearing, didn't you? That's a collector's piece. Weren't there earrings with it? How come she doesn't have them on?"
"She doesn't like them," Lucas replied.
Just four simple words, but they overflowed with affection and care for her.
Outside the door, Emily's heart suddenly twisted in pain.
So Anna was the one who'd turned them down.
Somebody joked, "Anna's ears are small and soft. They were made for earrings."
Anna covered them, embarrassed. "Stop it."
"Really?" Lucas teased.
He leaned in, one hand working the earlobe hidden under her hair and the other at her waist, and there was a laugh sitting in his voice. "Soft. They're beautiful."
Anna went red and hit him on the arm. "Lucas!"
Someone said, "Look at her, she's blushing."
"Are you?" He flicked the tip of her nose. "The tour wrapped today. What do you want for it?"
By then, Emily had nothing left in her to push that door open with.
She was a fish on dry sand, and the air kept thinning out while the laughing went on inside.
She clamped a hand over her good ear, and in the silence, she watched Anna take the crowd's dare and kiss Lucas on the mouth.
With her lips still against his, Anna said, "That's what I want."
Lucas chuckled, "Kissing your own husband hardly counts as a reward."
Emily watched him say it, and then he took the back of Anna's head in his hand and kissed her the way he meant it.
She could have crushed both ears shut, and it still wouldn't have covered the applause.
She felt herself shattering, piece by piece.
The boy who'd once loved her past all reason was standing in a room full of people, saying it out loud about somebody else.
It took a text from Margaret to bring her back.
Margaret: [In a month, the oldest Lowell son will come for you and take you to Harbor City. Settle things with Lucas and don't damage what's between us.]
Emily: [Okay.]