Chapter 8: The Second Ring

On Wednesday the whole firm gathered in the big conference room for the quarterly lunch.

Catered sandwiches, a sheet cake and every employee on floors six through nine standing along the walls.

I came in late, carrying the sign-in sheet, and stopped at the door.

Someone had pushed the long table to the side.

Braden stood alone in the middle of the open floor in his best navy suit.

He had a small velvet box in one hand.

Lenora stood near him against the window. She was holding up her phone with both hands.

She was filming.

"Tilda," Braden said. His voice rang. "Come here, please."

Sixty faces turned toward me.

I didn't move. My stomach went cold and flat.

"Tilda," he said again, softer. "Everyone here has seen how hard this month has been for you. I made a mistake. I let a hard week make me stupid."

A paralegal near the cake put a hand over her mouth.

"But I know what I want," Braden said. "I want you. I want the life we were going to have. I'll take the hard parts. I'll take all of it."

He dropped to one knee.

He opened the box. The ring inside was twice the size of the first one.

"Will you marry me again?"

Nobody breathed. Somebody had raised a phone behind me, and then another.

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