Chapter 11: Forty Thousand Views

Cadence's POV

I left the Fairbanks' house at dawn, and nobody tried to stop me.

I drove home in the wedding dress because I could not stand the thought of taking it off in front of anyone.

In my apartment I stood in the middle of the kitchen and could not remember where I kept the scissors.

I found them in the drawer with the takeout menus.

I cut the dress off in pieces, from the zipper down, and let it fall on the tile.

The veil was last.

I held it in both hands.

Ewan had spent a whole Saturday finding it.

He had come home from the third mall with a paper bag and the face he made when he was proud and trying not to show it.

"It's for when we need it," he had said. "I'm not asking yet."

I had put it in my closet and laughed at him.

I carried the veil out to the fire escape in a steel mixing bowl and lit it with the lighter from my junk drawer.

The tiny crystals popped in the heat.

I watched every one of them go.

Then I sat down on the cold metal and took out my phone.

For five years I had trusted that Ewan was the strong one.

He fixed things and did not complain.

When his family forgot his birthday, he said it was fine.

When they sat him at the end of the table, he said it was fine.

When I told him it was only an act, he went quiet and said, "It's not an act for me."

I patted his shoulder and told him to be sweet.

I had been so sure that he could take it.

I opened the camera app and found the file.

It was a short clip of the hallway.

Pierce at the door, looking at his wrist, smiling.

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