Chapter 3

Daniel held the car door open with one hand, his eyes fixed on my phone.

“Don’t send anything.” His voice was hoarse. “At least hear me out first.”

Leah turned in her seat. “Take your hand off the door.”

He ignored her and looked only at me.

“Nora, I love you. I know nothing I say will sound right, but I never planned a life with Paige. You’re the woman I want to marry.”

“Then call our parents.” I held out my phone. “Tell them the wedding is canceled, and tell them why.”

Daniel didn’t take it.

“We don’t have to cancel. Give me forty-eight hours. I’ll end things with Paige, and I’ll explain everything that happened over the past six months.”

“I don’t need forty-eight hours to understand a kiss.”

“This affects more than us.” He lowered his voice. “Our parents and relatives are already traveling. If you tell everyone now, they’ll all start calling you and demanding answers. Let me handle this first.”

He spoke quickly, his fingers gripping the edge of the door.

In eight years, I had never seen him so panicked.

Even now, he treated my decision like a problem he could manage and my leaving like a temporary overreaction.

“Paige leaves the apartment tonight, and she stays away from the wedding weekend. You help me tell our families now.” I held his gaze. “That’s my only offer.”

Daniel’s phone rang.

He saw Paige’s name and declined the call. A few seconds later, she called again.

He rejected that one too.

The third time, there was no ringtone. Three messages appeared in quick succession.

Your mother keeps asking me what happened.

The guests are all contacting me. I can’t handle this alone.

You promised you wouldn’t abandon me when I needed you.

Daniel stared at the screen, his breathing growing heavier.

“I need to go back,” he said. “My mother is already there, and Paige can barely speak. I’ll get her settled, then I’ll come find you.”

“You just told me to say what I needed you to do.”

“I’ll do everything you asked. Just not right this second.” He bent closer, his face tight with desperation. “Give me tonight. Please don’t cancel the wedding.”

Three messages from Paige had turned my only condition into something we could discuss later.

I pulled the door free from his hand.

“Go.”

“Nora—”

The door closed between us.

Leah didn’t drive away until Daniel stepped back from the car.

In the rearview mirror, I watched him stand by the curb with one hand pressed to his forehead. His phone lit up again.

Then he turned and ran toward Paige’s building.

I didn’t send the message to our families.

Daniel could dismiss anything I did that night as a drunken reaction. I would wait until I was completely sober, then end the wedding myself.

Back at Leah’s house, I sat in the guest room and wrote down the three things I needed to do the next morning:

Cancel the wedding.

Tell the guests.

Move out of the apartment.

I wrote 9:00 a.m. at the top of the page and circled it twice.

Messages from Daniel kept appearing. He said he loved me. He promised he would fix everything.

His final message was only a request:

Don’t make any decisions before I come back.

I silenced my phone.

Less than a minute after the screen went dark, my mother’s incoming call covered the page marked 9:00 a.m.