Chapter 2

Right after I saw Lauren to the door, I crashed. I slept hard.

When I woke, I heard his voice outside my room. Samuel.

For a second I thought I was still dreaming.

Seven years ago he hated me down to the bone.

He camped outside our building three days and three nights just to corner me, hands at my throat, demanding why I betrayed him.

I sobbed and told him I did not love him. He drove his fist through the stairwell window.

He never hit me that day, but the look in his eyes did the job.

If he ran into me on the landing, he would turn around and walk the other way. Passing our door, his face tightened like he smelled something rotten.

He stopped going to the little corner store we used to share. If someone said my name, he would go stone cold and snap, "Why are you even saying Jessica's name? If you are not disgusted, I am."

The day he flew out of the country, I went to the airport in a downpour to catch him once, just once.

He saw me, sneered, and smashed the matching rings we bought together, along with the phone loaded with every picture of us. Dropped them at my feet like trash and left without a glance.

I never expected him to show up at my place seven years later.

Through the crack of the door I pieced it together. He was there with his fiancée, his fingers laced hard through hers.

He said, "Mrs. Brown, are you still stuck on what happened seven years ago? Is that why you will not let Jessica take me to pick a wedding planner and go look at rings?

"I do not have feelings for Jessica anymore. I have made peace with it. We grew up together. If we cannot be a couple, we can at least be friends."

His fiancée chimed in, bright and polite and sharp enough to cut. "Ma'am, Samuel already told me everything about him and Jessica.

"Yeah, Jessica cheated seven years ago, but they were kids. It takes two to tango. I am sure our Samuel was not perfect either.

"And honestly, I should thank Jessica. If she had not let him go, I would not have ended up with a guy like Samuel.

"So please, there is no reason to keep harping on something that old. It was my idea to have Jessica help us with the wedding planner.

"We have been away for seven years. We do not know the vendors here. Letting the older generation call the shots, the taste level is not really my vibe."

Seven years ago, right after the diagnosis, my one wish was that he would forget me, set me down like a heavy bag and walk away lighter.

Now I heard him say my name without flinching.

I heard how calmly he filed those years into a drawer and shut it, and the fact that he told his fiancée everything without blinking made my chest break out in a thousand little aches.

My mother went red from brow to cheekbones listening to Susie toss the word cheating around and slip in those barbed little comments.

Her lips trembled. She had to work the words loose, then she shouted at him, voice cracking.

She yelled, "You and your mother, you have no shame."

My heart clenched hard. I pushed myself upright and called out, "Mom, come in here. Help me into the wheelchair. I will talk to Samuel myself."

My mom came into the room.

When she saw me sitting up, her face was still troubled.

But I just hugged her.

I said, "Mom, please. Just help me fulfill this last wish before I die, okay?"

Her eyes immediately filled with tears, but as always, she doted on me. She went to the dresser, grabbed my lipstick and wig, and helped me put on my down jacket.

She wheeled me out the door. The moment we cleared the threshold, Samuel frowned like he'd bitten into a lemon.

"What's your deal?" he said. "You were a delicate little princess as a kid and you're still one now. It's just a bum leg. Your mom's no spring chicken, and you still make her wait on you hand and foot."

I looked at the disgust on his face and kept my smile steady. "The doctor says it's a bad fracture. I'm not supposed to put weight on it for a while."

Before I'd even finished, Suzy, standing at his elbow, piped up. "Jessica, don't take it to heart.

"Samuel got used to the vibe overseas. He's got that resting jerk face with everyone.

"Except me."