Chapter Three
Elise's POV
I swallowed my anger and kept my face blank.
Grayson seemed to pick up on something anyway. He got Chelsea settled in a chair, then came back over to me and lowered his voice. "It's too loud in here. Wanna head out? I'll take you somewhere to clear your head."
I thought about it. "Let's go to the marina. We can take the yacht out tonight and watch the sunrise on the water tomorrow morning."
Tomorrow was my birthday. I wanted one last sunrise to close out these five years.
On the drive back, he was chattier than usual.
"I've had your birthday present ready for ages. You're gonna love it."
He kept one hand on the wheel and reached over with the other to squeeze my fingers. "Once things calm down, let's really start trying for a baby, okay?"
I didn't answer. I just turned to look out the window.
I didn't want any of the somedays he kept promising anymore.
We'd barely pulled into the marina when his phone rang.
He glanced at the screen, and when he picked up, his voice went all soft. But a few words in, he frowned and just sat there holding the phone, not saying anything.
I didn't need to ask who it was. Only one person in the world could put that look on his face.
"If you need to go, go," I said first.
"Elise, I..."
"Go." I unbuckled my seatbelt. "I'll wait for you on the boat."
He hesitated for a couple of seconds, then left anyway.
That left me alone on the yacht. I curled up on the couch in the cabin and scrolled until I landed on a new Instagram post from Chelsea.
The photo showed a steaming bowl of soup next to a warm yellow lamp.
"It's 2 a.m. and someone dropped everything to cook for me. It feels so good to be somebody's top priority."
The comments kept pouring in.
"Blake spoils you so much!"
"Someone cooking for you in the middle of the night while you're pregnant? I'm so jealous I could cry."
Everyone assumed it was her husband.
I zoomed in on the bottom right corner. A man's hand was holding the edge of the bowl, and on his wrist was the same watch I'd held in my hand just last night.
In five years, Grayson had never cooked for me once. He said he didn't know how.
Turned out he knew how. He just didn't do it for me.
I called him.
It rang a few times, and then Chelsea picked up.
"Looking for Grayson? He's in the kitchen doing the dishes." She laughed softly. "Elise, why do you even bother? You couldn't hang on to your boyfriend back then, and you can't hang on to your husband now. Just give it up."
I hung up.
A crew member was still on deck coiling the lines. I walked over and asked him for the keys.
"Mrs. Hale, want me to drive the boat for you?"
"No, thanks," I said. "I just want to be alone for a while."
The yacht pulled away from the marina. The lights on shore got smaller and smaller until they were nothing but a thin line.
I cut the engine out on the dark water. Then I sat on the deck with my arms around my knees and waited for him.
I waited until the moon had sunk low and the wind off the water had left my hair ice cold. He never came.
Everything he'd said to me over these five years ran through my head, one line at a time. He remembered I was scared of thunder. He remembered how I took my coffee. He said nothing mattered more than me.
All of it sounded nice. None of it was true.
When the sky started to get light, I called him one last time.
It went straight to voicemail.
I didn't call again. Instead, I opened Instagram and scheduled two posts.
One was a goodbye I'd already recorded.
The other was a video. It went from my very first sketch all the way to the final version of the rings, and every page had a date on it. There were also clips of Martin helping me revise. One look and anyone could tell whose design it really was.
The moment the sun came up over the water, I hit confirm.
Then I deleted everything on my phone that had to do with him. The photos, the texts, and his number.
Five years of it, wiped clean.
Third-Person POV
In Chelsea's kitchen, Grayson dried his hands and grabbed his jacket.
"I've gotta go. It's Elise's birthday today, and I promised I'd watch the sunrise with her."
Chelsea grabbed his sleeve from behind. "Grayson, I'm scared to be here by myself..."
"I'll come back later." He pulled his sleeve free.
He'd barely made it to the front hall when someone started pounding on the door.
Derek was standing outside, so out of breath he could hardly get the words out. "Why the hell can't anyone get through to you?! Elise took the yacht out alone, and there's a storm out at sea!"
