The word snaps through my fog like a whip.
I blink and my body realigns itself with the present, like someone has yanked me from another reality and slammed me back into this one.
He leans forward. Eyes blazing. The previous performance has shifted—it's raw now, personal, a pivot that cuts through the haze like glass.
"Marry me."
The velvet box appears and the world tilts.
A Harry Winston diamond sparkles. It’s enormous. Flawless. Candlelight catches it at every angle.
My chest empties.
My stomach knots and suddenly all that wine I'd been sipping feels like it's about to come straight back up.
Time lurches into focus.
How long have I been absent from my own life? Watching it through a tiny window.
Years, gone. Smiling, nodding, existing without ever really existing.
A violin swells to the instrumental of“Young and Beautiful."
"Together," he says, voice bright with certainty, "we're going to be absolute powerhouses."
I taste fear, disbelief and anger all at once.
The hollowness spreads—the recognition of how much of my life has passed me by while I waited for a world that never asked me to breathe on my own terms.
My mouth opens. Closes. Nothing comes out.
Wes is still talking. Still smiling. Still holding that box like it's a done deal. Like my answer is a formality.
The restaurant is silent except for the violin and the pounding of my heart.
I stare at the ring. At him. At the life he's offering that looks nothing like the one I want.
And I can't say yes.
I can't.
But I can't say no either.
So I do what I've been doing for two years.
I smile.
I reach for my wine glass.
And I say nothing at all.
CHAPTER 5
RED CARPET ILLUSIONS
NORA
"What the fuck!?”Camilla doesn't bother easing into it. Her voice is sharp enough to slice through the quiet of my bedroom. "Please explain why I wasn't made aware you were getting married before the rest of the world."
