Chapter 2

Julian comes home just before midnight.

Chloe lets herself in with her own key.

"Still up?" she asks. "Were you waiting for us?"

I'm sitting in the kitchen.

Neither of them mentions the post.

Chloe fills a glass with water, drinks, then tops it up and hands it to Julian.

He finishes it.

"Oh." She looks at me. "That was mine. Sorry. You don't mind, do you?"

I think of the ice cream she passes him after taking the first bite.

The coffee she orders too sweet, knowing he'll drink what she leaves.

Her feet in his lap while I clear the dinner plates.

Julian sets down the glass.

"Your sister isn't going to lose sleep over a little thing like that."

He looks at me.

"Right?"

"I'd like your key back," I tell Chloe.

Her smile disappears.

"What?"

"You have your own apartment."

"But Julian said—"

"She has a room here," he interrupts.

"I know. You gave her one."

It used to be the room where I planned to work.

Before the desk arrived, Chloe said she hated driving home late.

Julian bought a bed.

"You agreed," he says.

"No. You told me after you'd done it."

Chloe moves closer.

"If you really hate having me around, I can leave."

"I don't hate having you around."

"Then why are you doing this?"

I look at her.

She was five when my parents adopted her.

I was nine.

For years, I saved the last piece of cake for her because I knew she worried there wouldn't be enough.

I used to think that once she felt secure, she would stop checking whether she could take what was mine.

Now she's twenty-four, standing in my kitchen with my fiancé's jacket over her arm.

"I'm ending my relationship with Julian."

She catches my hand.

"Please. You've been together so long."

Her nails press into my skin.

I pull free.

She stumbles backward.

Julian catches her.

"What the hell, Audrey?"

I hold up my hand.

Four small red marks.

He barely looks.

"You could've hurt her."

Chloe leans against his chest.

"It's okay. She didn't mean to."

"Don't apologize for her."

I wait for him to move away from her.

He doesn't.

The curtains behind them are pale green.

Chloe chose those.

She chose the wallpaper in the dining room, too. Julian said she had a better eye for that kind of thing.

When I suggested changing the light over the stairs, they both explained why the one they'd picked was perfect.

I've lived here for two years.

I'm still waiting for it to feel like my home.

Chloe wipes beneath one eye.

"Maybe I should go."

"You're not being thrown out," Julian says. "This is your home, too."

Something in me finally gives.

Not loudly.

I don't cry.

"You're right."

He looks relieved.

I turn to Chloe.

"You don't have to move out. I will."

Julian follows me upstairs.

"You've made your point."

I lift my suitcase onto the bed.

He catches my wrist.

"Enough."

I look at his hand until he releases me.

"This is what you're doing? Packing because I tried to make your sister feel better?"

"You liked a comment mocking me because my own fiancé wouldn't claim me."

He looks away.

Just for a second.

Then back.

"I'll have someone clean it up."

"Will they clean up what you said to me, too?"

He exhales.

"Audrey. We're getting married."

"No."

"You don't mean that."

I fold a sweater.

He watches me for a moment.

Then his voice goes cold.

"Fine. Go stay with your parents. Calm down."

The door slams behind him.

I keep packing.

At seven the next morning, I send an email to Julian, both sets of parents, and the event planner.

I am ending my engagement to Julian Hayes. I will not attend the engagement celebration. Please remove my name and image from all event materials.

I attach nothing.

The words don't need evidence.

My phone lights up before I zip the suitcase.

Nathan Cole.

We've known each other for years through work and mutual friends. Once, before Julian and I got together, Nathan asked me to dinner.

I wasn't ready.

He never made that my problem.

His message is short.

I saw what happened. Do you need anything?

For once, I answer honestly.

Help carrying a suitcase.