Chapter 1

On the day we were supposed to leave for our graduation trip to the Cloudspire Plateau, my girlfriend dropped off the face of the earth.

While I waited at Bellwarren International Airport, my roommate sent me a strangely loaded message.

"Elliot, don't panic. There's a big surprise coming."

I felt relieved. I assumed Naomi was running late because she was getting dressed up.

She'd always promised that the day we graduated, she'd put on a wedding gown and marry me.

Then our class representative dropped a cash giveaway into the group chat.

@Everyone: "Thanks to every student and faculty member here to witness Naomi Keller and Derek Vaughn's engagement! Three years together, and they finally made it official!"

It was cleaned out in seconds.

One classmate after another posted congratulations.

Then somebody finally put it together and wrote, "Holy hell, Owen. Did you forget to take Elliot out of this group?"

The chat went dead silent.

A second later, all of them started tagging me.

"Elliot, don't come down here and make a scene. They've been together in secret for three years. It wasn't easy getting to this day."

"You're so controlling that Derek couldn't show his face for three years. He's been through enough."

Even our faculty adviser piled on.

"Do it as a favor to me. You're a man, so be the bigger person. Don't ruin their night. Let them keep some dignity."

Their messages closed in around me until I couldn't breathe, let alone ask a single question.

The promise that was supposed to carry us from school uniforms to a wedding gown wasn't the only lie.

Every part of those four years had been one.

Chapter 1

The messages urging me to be generous kept appearing in the group chat.

Then Dr. Colin Reese, our faculty adviser at Bellwarren State University in Westerlyn, called me directly.

"Elliot, listen to your adviser. Today is important. Don't go over there and cause trouble."

I tightened one fist and asked in a low voice, "Naomi and I were together for four years. What does that make me?"

Dr. Reese sighed, sounding even more disapproving.

"Why do you have to be so stubborn?

"Derek never even finished high school. He went straight to work so Naomi could stay in college. Do you have any idea how much he's suffered?

"Your family's comfortable, your grades are excellent, and your future's wide open. You could meet any woman you wanted after graduation. Why fight over one with a man who's had nothing?

"I'm asking you as your adviser. Show some maturity and stay away. A confrontation will humiliate everyone."

My breathing began to shake.

"So all of you knew, and I was the only fool kept in the dark?"

Dr. Reese was silent for two seconds.

"You've got a forceful personality. We were afraid you'd lose control, turn violent, and damage the university's reputation, so nobody told you.

"Naomi's a good student, and she's loyal and softhearted. Once she made her choice, the decent thing was for you to step aside."

He hung up without waiting for an answer.

I stayed where I was in the crowded airport terminal, too stunned to know where to go.

I didn't move until the boarding announcement sounded.

With a bitter smile, I tore the two boarding passes in half.

Naomi had booked them herself two weeks earlier.

She said we'd skydive together and that she'd accept my ring above the Cloudspire Plateau.

Instead, she'd already accepted another man's ring.

I still needed an explanation, so I called her with a trembling hand.

The other end was filled with voices and laughter.

Every few seconds, I heard our classmates cheering.

Naomi found a quieter corner before lowering her voice.

"Eli, I'm sorry. I'm having dinner with a few old friends, so it's loud."

Even now, she intended to lie.

I gave a cold laugh and spoke plainly.

"Naomi, I saw the engagement announcement in the class group chat."

The noise on her end disappeared for a moment.

Then she sighed, sounding helpless rather than ashamed.

"So you found out after all.

"I'm sorry. I know I was wrong, but I really didn't have a choice.

"Derek's health is bad, and he's spent years breaking his body for work. The only thing he's ever wanted is a real ceremony with me.

"It's just an engagement. We didn't file for a license, so it doesn't mean anything legally.

"You're still the one I love. Can't you show me a little understanding?"

I gripped the phone in disbelief.

"You got engaged to another man behind my back, and you're asking me to understand?"

Her voice softened when she heard my anger.

"Eli, you're usually so generous.

"Derek doesn't have anything. All he has is me.

"You're different. You've got a grandmother who loves you, an education, a future. Why fight him over a title that doesn't mean anything?

"After today's over, I'll go to the Cloudspire Plateau with you tomorrow. All right?"

Her certainty made her sound like a stranger.

To her, betrayal apparently didn't count as anything serious.

After several seconds of silence, I answered coldly.

"Naomi, we're finished."

Chapter 2

The moment I ended the call, my roommate Kevin Price sent me a photograph.

Naomi, dressed in white, leaned happily against a stranger in a suit.

Kevin followed it with a long voice message.

"Elliot, do you see it now? This is what real love looks like.

"You always act like some polished future executive who's better than everybody else. Naomi got tired of that years ago.

"Derek's gentle. He never pressures her. Other than controlling her, what have you ever given her?

"Take the hint and get out of Naomi's life."

I stared at the image as though someone had cut open my chest.

I'd spent an entire year of scholarship money on that white dress as Naomi's graduation gift.

Now she was wearing my gift while getting engaged to someone else.

I dragged my suitcase out of the airport and took a cab straight to the Bellrose Hotel in Bellwarren.

The moment I walked in, Owen Parker, our class representative, stepped in front of the head table.

"Elliot, did you seriously come here to wreck the engagement?

"We spent four years in the same class. Do you have to take it this far?

"Derek and Naomi were always better suited. It took them years to get to this day. Can't you be generous for once?"

I ignored him and stared at Naomi behind the main table.

She came toward me and let out a long, weary sigh.

"Eli, I explained everything on the phone.

"It's only a ceremony. It's to settle Derek's nerves.

"Do you have to make a scene now and embarrass everyone?"

She reached for me, but I stepped aside.

"Naomi, you disgust me."

Derek Vaughn came over in his suit.

He had one of those soft, pretty, harmless faces, the kind that never worked a day and knew exactly how useful that looked.

"Please don't blame Naomi, Elliot. This is all my fault.

"I was greedy. I knew she loves you now, but I still wanted one ceremony.

"If you need to hit somebody or scream at somebody, do it to me. Just don't make things harder for her."

He even started lowering himself as though he meant to kneel.

Naomi caught him and pulled him behind her.

"Derek, your health's bad. Don't strain yourself."

Then she turned on me with accusation in her eyes.

"What exactly do you want, Elliot?

"I explained and I apologized. Derek's humbled himself this far, and you still want to corner us?"

Watching them perform as tragic lovers, I suddenly wanted to laugh.

"One of you lied to me for three years. The other chased a woman knowing she already had a boyfriend.

"Have the two of you completely misunderstood what backing down means?"

Before I finished, Kevin, who'd slept in the bunk above mine for four years, snapped.

"Elliot, don't push your luck.

"Derek wrecked his back on construction sites to pay Naomi's tuition. What have you ever given up for her?

"All you do is use your history with her to squeeze her, every single day, until she's too scared to leave."

Another classmate joined in.

"Exactly. Naomi's a good person. You don't get to ruin her."

I looked across the familiar faces.

For four years I'd tutored them, rewritten their resumes, and lent money whenever one of them had an emergency.

Now every one of them was standing on moral high ground and grinding me into the floor.

"Fine. That's fine."

I looked at Naomi with perfect calm.

"If this is true love, I'll stop standing in the way of it."

I pulled a set of keys out of my bag.

They belonged to the apartment Naomi and I rented near campus.

I'd paid the rent. I'd paid the deposit.

I threw the keys at her feet.

"Get everything you own out by tomorrow.

"Anything still there after that goes in the trash."

Naomi's face changed before she forced it back under control.

"Eli, you're angry. I won't hold any of this against you.

"I'll come find you in a few days, once you've calmed down."

I didn't answer. I turned and left the hotel.

The moment I passed through the doors, cheers erupted behind me.

"We finally ran that control freak off."

"Come on, keep going."

"Kiss her. Kiss her."

Chapter 3

I was too sick to my stomach to eat anything that night.

Early the next morning, Dr. Reese called me into his office.

He pointed at my accelerated graduate-admission application and my distinguished-graduate recommendation with open hostility.

"Elliot, what you did at that engagement yesterday caused a serious disturbance.

"Naomi's one of the best students this department has, and she's about to start an internship with one of the biggest public agencies in Bellwarren.

"If you go around spreading damaging accusations now, you'll destroy her future.

"The department may have to take another look at your graduate recommendation."

My hands closed into fists.

"Are you threatening me?"

"I'm teaching you how an adult behaves."

Dr. Reese raised his mug and drank slowly.

"I've met Derek. He's honest and he's respectful. When you've got this much more than he does, you should be big enough to let go.

"A man can't make his whole life about one relationship.

"Don't throw away your future over a woman."

I pulled the application off his desk and looked at him coldly.

"My future isn't for sale, and my dignity isn't the price."

I thought that was the worst thing they were capable of.

Then, as I reached the greenway across campus, my bank sent a transfer alert.

The money came out of the joint account Naomi and I had opened together.

It held fifty thousand dollars I'd earned working part-time all through college.

My grandmother, Eleanor Fraser, had taken a bad turn and was in the hospital back in Mossfield County.

That money was for her surgery.

I called Naomi immediately.

"Why is the account empty?"

She answered as though the decision needed no defending at all.

"Derek's little sister needed her tuition. I lent it to him for the emergency.

"Eli, you don't need that much right now. What's wrong with helping his family out?"

My whole body started shaking.

"That's my grandmother's surgery money. What gave you the right to touch it?"

I expected at least a second of hesitation.

Instead, she sounded annoyed.

"Stop using your grandmother as an excuse for everything.

"She's been sick for years. What difference does putting the operation off a few days make?

"If Derek's sister can't pay her tuition, they'll drop her. That's her whole life.

"Can you stop being so selfish?"

I closed my eyes and forced myself to stay calm.

"Naomi. Put the money back. Now."

She sighed as though I were the unreasonable one.

"It's already gone through. I can't pull it back.

"I'll cover it after my first internship paycheck next month.

"Stop making trouble. I'm busy today."

The call ended, and I sat down on a bench and breathed hard.

A new post went up a few minutes later.

Owen had put up a whole photo dump.

Naomi and Derek were wrapped around each other in every shot, smiling like nothing in the world had ever gone wrong.

The caption read, "True love always wins. Congratulations to the couple who finally found their way to each other."

The comments were nothing but praise from our classmates.

While I was reading them, an unfamiliar number sent me a message.

"Naomi said that watch you gave her was too cheap to wear, so she passed it on to me.

"You don't mind, right?"

I'd given her that watch for her eighteenth birthday.

Of course I didn't mind anymore.

I didn't want the woman who'd accepted it either.

Chapter 4

I blocked Derek's number, then spent the day crossing Bellwarren and humiliating myself asking one friend after another for a loan.

By evening I'd finally scraped together thirty thousand dollars.

At least my grandmother's surgery could move forward.

But just as I boarded the intercity train to Mossfield County, our neighbor Ruth Harlan called.

"Eli, come home. Something's happened to your grandmother.

"This afternoon a man called her and told her he and Naomi were engaged.

"He said Naomi had thrown you out but you wouldn't stop hounding her, and he told Eleanor to make you quit embarrassing yourself.

"Then he sent her picture after picture, and videos too.

"She passed out right there looking at them.

"She's at the county medical center now, but the doctors are saying she might not make it."

A violent ringing filled my head.

The phone slipped out of my hand and hit the floor.

By the time I reached Mossfield County Medical Center, they had already stopped working on her.

The physician looked at me with regret.

"She had a massive heart attack. We did everything we could."

I stood where I was as they wheeled my grandmother past under a white sheet.

The woman who raised me, who always saved the sweetest piece of pie for me, who used to put a hand on my head and call me her good boy, was never going to wake up again.

I dropped down beside the bed and couldn't produce a single tear.

The grief was so total that my body stopped registering anything at all.

I don't know how long it was before Naomi came in, straight off the road and out of breath.

She froze at the white sheet, then came toward me and tried to put her arms around me.

"Eli, I'm sorry. I got here too late.

"I didn't know your grandmother was this sick. If I'd known, I never would have touched that money."

I slowly raised my head and looked at her through bloodshot eyes.

"Get out."

Naomi wrapped both arms around me from behind.

"Eli, I know you're devastated, but I never meant for any of this.

"You can't undo it. Stop punishing yourself. I'll stay and help with the funeral."

Derek called before she finished speaking.

"Naomi, I miss you.

"My heart's acting up again. When are you coming back?"

She hesitated and looked at me as though I'd put her in an impossible position.

"Eli, there's nothing I can do here that'll change anything.

"I'll go check on Derek and come back first thing tomorrow to help with the arrangements. All right?"

I stared at her, barely able to believe it.

My grandmother was dead.

And Naomi still meant to leave me for the man who'd killed her.

I closed my eyes against the hatred.

"Go, Naomi.

"Don't ever show your face in front of me again."

As for what Derek owed me, I'd be collecting it myself, sooner or later.

Naomi assumed I was only talking out of anger.

"Take care of yourself. Call me if you need anything."

Then she hurried out of the hospital.

Three days later I finished my grandmother's funeral.

I sold the little house in Mossfield County and shut down every old number and account I had.

As my train pulled out for Port Aurell, Naomi went back to the empty property.

She stared into the bare rooms, then grabbed Ruth Harlan's arm.

"Where's Elliot?"

Ruth looked at her coldly.

"Eli's gone.

"He isn't ever coming back."