Chapter 4

I took out my phone, meaning to wipe every post about Ferdinand from the last three years.

But as my fingertip slid down the screen, I froze.

Every couple's trip we'd taken these past two years had Brenda in it.

I tapped open a few of the group photos.

In every one, Ferdinand's eyes were never on the camera, and never on me.

They always went past my shoulder, fixed steadily on Brenda beside him.

The hand holding the phone began to shake, and I couldn't stop it.

When had I turned my own love story into a three-person movie?

At the start, it was Brenda who'd had her heart broken, and I felt for her, so I was the one who invited her along to take her mind off it.

But somewhere along the way, everything changed.

It changed into this: every time the flights were booked, Ferdinand would say, easy as anything,

"Let's bring Brenda. More people, more fun."

The screen went dark completely.

I sat on the edge of the bed, my eyes on the diamond ring on my left ring finger.

When Ferdinand proposed, he said this ring bound the rest of our lives together, and I was never to take it off, not even in death.

I curled my finger and slid the ring off, little by little.

I set it gently on the sticky note on the nightstand.

"Knock, knock."

Someone was at the door.

I picked up the suitcase I'd already packed and pulled the door open.

A tall foreign man stood outside.

A staff badge from the Botswana residency hung on his chest.

"Ms. Cooley, I'm Percival Gomez. The car for you is downstairs. Are we leaving now?"

"Yes."

I'd just reached the elevator when it chimed.

The doors slid open.

Ferdinand and Brenda were standing inside.

Brenda saw me with the suitcase and froze.

"Tamara? Where are you going?"

Ferdinand's eyes swept over the suitcase and settled, finally, on Percival.

"Tamara, so now you've stooped to staging a scene like this?"

"No wonder you wouldn't answer a single message. You were down here waiting to ambush me."

Percival frowned and spoke up in stiff Chinese.

"Sir, you've got it wrong. I'm here to take Ms. Cooley to the residency—"

"Shut up."

Ferdinand cut him off without the slightest courtesy.

"How much did you pay him to act this out with you? Do you have any idea how dangerous it is here?"

He grabbed my wrist, gripping hard.

"Are you done making a scene? Get back to the room!"

The grip on my wrist hurt.

I looked at his furious face, and inside me there wasn't a single ripple.

When I said nothing, Ferdinand took it for guilt.

He let go, and his tone softened.

"All right. You've made your point. Come back in."

I took one last step.

"I'm not going back."

Ferdinand heard it and stared at me, hard.

"Tamara, if you dare walk off with him today, we're finished."

I met his eyes and gave a calm nod.

"Fine."

"We're breaking up."

Ferdinand went rigid all at once.

His pupils shrank, as if he'd heard something impossible.

I didn't look at his stunned face again. I turned to Percival.

"Let's go."

Percival took my suitcase.

I stepped past Ferdinand, who was frozen where he stood, and walked straight into the elevator.

The doors slid slowly shut.

Ferdinand seemed to finally come to. He lurched a step forward.

"Tamara—"