“Enough. Sarah is not like that.”
<
Katelyn’s eyes welled up. She clutched the
ripped photo to her chest.
“Liam, I didn’t mean anything by it. I was just
worried she’d do something crazy to hurt
you.”
“And the thing with her parents… I didn’t
mean for any of that to happen, either. I just
wanted to help my friends light lanterns, and
even though I did everything, I never thought
something like that would happen…
وو
“Liam, can we take a new wedding picture?
Don’t be mad, please.”
The fire. It was always a sore spot for him.
He knew Katelyn wanted to light lanterns. He
even helped her buy the stuff. But he always
<
felt like Katelyn was too innocent.
When he was hiding the evidence, he couldn’t
find lantern parts.
Everything led back to Katelyn, but he chose
to believe her.
He remembered the way I looked at the party,
the shattered look on my face, my bloodied
hands.
He actually felt disgusted with Katelyn for the
first time in his life.
He snatched the photo out of her hands and
tore it to shreds.
“That picture is from years ago. I admit, I had
feelings for you back then. That’s why I
L
helped you.”
“But now? I just want to make things right
with Sarah.”
He practically shoved Katelyn out the door,
his head swimming with thoughts of me.
He vowed to fix everything, to get the best
jeweler in the world to fix the jade pendant.
Standing in the wreckage of his study, he felt
like he was being born again.
The plane landed. I turned my phone back on.
A tidal wave of messages from Liam washed
over me.
“Sarah, when are you coming home? I miss
you so much.”
Г
“Sarah, you didn’t come home last night. I’m
so worried. I’m sorry about what happened at
the party. I’ll make it up to you. What kind of
jade pendant do you want?”
“Katelyn and I are just friends. I swear. Are
you misunderstanding things?”
Every single message avoided his role in
anything that happened.
It was my fault, my parent’s fault, Katelyn’s
fault, but it was never him.
I felt sick. I deleted his contact.
I was about to call my lawyer to get this
divorce show on the road.
“Sarah, you finally answered. I’ve been calling
you all day.” Liam sounded pathetic. “You
can’t just run off like this after what
happened, you just need to think of your
health for once. When are you coming back?”
His nerve was unbelievable. I sighed.
“Did you ever bother going into your study?
Why are you even talking to me?”
Liam’s voice started to shake. “I went into the
study. Katelyn and I are nothing. I admit I had
feelings for her, but…‘
وو
“I realized that the person I love is you. I will
never talk to her again.”
“Sarah, please, believe me. Let’s make this
work. Okay?”
I laughed, but there was no humor in it. I told
him,
“Check your computer.”
39
وو
“What?” He sounded confused.
“Your gift is on the computer.”
Liam scrambled to his computer. The screen
lit up, and he froze, his mouth hanging open.
He didn’t expect the Amazon history, the
recording of his phone call, and tests that
were done on me.
He started stammering.
But it was the test results that told him I knew
everything.
All the lies, all the truth, were there between
- us.
“No excuses, Liam. We are over.”
I hung up, blocked his number.
Liam collapsed on the floor. He never thought
I’d see through his charade.
He had finally realized he was doing wrong,
but fate played a joke on him.
His face was white. He shakily called his best
friend.
L
“Can you check for any hotels that Sarah
checked into?”
“What? What’s going on?”
