Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"If I hadn't come, you'd be a pancake at the bottom of those stairs."

Caleb's arm was rock-steady around my waist.

He was the boy next door I'd grown up with. And the man I was going to spend the rest of my life with.

Before I could say anything, an ice-cold voice spoke behind me.

"What are you two doing?"

Elias was wearing his lab goggles. Behind them, his eyes were red.

He was staring at Caleb's hand on my waist.

The crowd of onlookers kept growing.

A little embarrassed, I brushed it off. "It's nothing. It was just an accident."

Normally, Elias wouldn't bother asking a single question if the sky fell. But this time, as I walked past him, he suddenly grabbed my wrist, his voice strangely serious.

"You didn't answer my question."

The words had barely left his mouth when someone nearby started to sob.

No one had accused Chloe of anything, but she'd started crying all on her own.

Elias's face changed. He let go of my wrist without a second's hesitation and hurried to her side.

"Who upset you?"

Chloe raised her head and looked at me silently. She didn't say a word. She just cried harder.

Elias followed her gaze to me and rubbed his brow, extremely impatient. "Do you have to make everything so ugly?"

"I've told you before. Whatever's going on between us, don't drag other people into it."

"I'm flying to Geneva tomorrow for a conference. But I promise I'll be at the wedding next weekend, on time. Stop being unreasonable, okay?"

Caleb let out a cold laugh.

He took a step forward, his tall frame blocking me completely, and stared Elias down with real menace.

"Are you deaf or blind? She just told you it was an accident."

He gave his tie a tug. His eyes had gone dangerous. I thought he was about to throw a punch, so I put a hand on his arm.

I turned to Elias, my voice calm and without a trace of warmth.

"One, I didn't touch her. Two, you're not the groom. You don't need to fly back."

Elias obviously didn't believe me. He took Chloe by the arm and walked straight off through the crowd.

That night, Chloe posted an Instagram story:

He says she's just an obligation. We're the real soulmates.

The picture was a huge fireworks show over a mountaintop.

I'd begged him so many times to come watch fireworks with me, just once. Every time, he'd brushed me off: The lab's really busy.

So it wasn't that he didn't have the time. He just didn't want to spend it on me.

Elias had said he'd be back in two days. But Chloe came down with a sudden case of acute gastroenteritis, and he pushed his return back a whole week.

The other researchers on the trip couldn't help worrying for him. "What about your wedding? Vivian's really not going to forgive you this time."

Elias pushed up his glasses, unconcerned, perfectly sure of himself. "She's easy to win back. Once I'm home, she'll be the same as always."

But when he showed up at my parents' door with a gift, full of confidence, what greeted him were my parents' frosty faces.

"Where's Vivian?" He didn't see me anywhere and seemed puzzled.

My mom had finally gotten her chance for revenge. She beamed. "Oh, Vivian? She's on her honeymoon."