Page 1 of That One Night
Chapter
One
Emery Reed placedthe engagement ring in her fiancé’s palm and stepped back, the weight of it still burning her skin.
“Seriously?” Trenton stared at her like she’d just slapped him. “You’re really doing this?”
Her heart thudded painfully, but she forced herself to hold his gaze. “We agreed. If it didn’t work out, we’d walk away without arguing.”
“We?” He let out a humorless laugh. “Yousaid that. I nodded. There’s a difference.” His voice was tight, jaw clenched. “You have no idea how bad this is going to look. You’re walking away from ten years. Just like that?”
She didn’t answer. What was the point? She’d spent three months trying to make it work. Again. Trying to ignore the app she found on his phone, the late-night messages, the excuses.
Now she was done. Even if it broke her heart.
“You don’t have to worry about seeing me. Or things being awkward,” she told him. “I’m heading home for the summer. To Hartson’s Creek. My mom needs help getting the farm ready to sell.”
It still felt strange saying that.Getting the farm ready to sell.
Her dad had only passed a few months ago. Everything was still raw. For her, for her mom. But the work had to be done, and Emery couldn’t bear to let her mother do it alone.
“You’re going to disappear back there and pretend none of this happened?” he asked.
She shook her head. “No. I’m going to try and start over.”
To remember who she used to be, before she twisted herself into knots trying to be the perfect fiancée. The perfect daughter. The perfect everything.
Trenton stared at her, like he couldn’t believe what she was saying. “Can we at least wait until the end of the summer until we tell people we’ve broken up and the engagement is over? Until my parents get back from their cruise. I don’t have time to deal with this now. I have that project. It’s important.” He sounded almost dismissive. Like she was just another item on his to-do-list.
You never have time, she thought.Not for me.
He stepped forward, his voice softening, like he could sense a chink in her armor. “Come on. Let’s keep it quiet until we’ve both processed it. Just for a few months. It’ll be easier for both of us. You know that.”
She knew it would be easier for him, that was for sure. And Trenton always put himself first. It just took her this long to realize it.
Sensing a chink in her armor, he went in for the kill. “Come on, Emery. You owe me this. After all these years.”
She looked at the ring in his hand. The same one he’d given her after college, when the future had felt bright and uncomplicated. When she still believed in him. In them.
And just like always, guilt curled in her chest. Not because she was doing the wrong thing. She knew she wasn’t. But because she was so damn tired of being the one who upsetpeople. The one who caused ripples. And telling everyone now would feel like setting off a bomb.
Especially with her mom still grieving.
Especially in a town where everybody knew everybody.
And especially becauseTrenton’s family lived there too.
Which meant she’d have to lie. Smile. Pretend, just for a little longer.
So she’d do what she always did.
She’d make it easier. For him, for her mom, for everyone but herself.
“Fine,” she said quietly. “I won’t say anything. Not yet.”
“But it’s over?”
She turned away before he could see the tears brimming in her eyes. “Yes,” she told him, her voice low and ragged. “It’s over.”
