He'd already signed the agreement with her.
These past few days, when she came to the apartment and saw the identical ring in the drawer, she must have been furious.
So Eugene threw mine away.
Maybe he'd been making her the same promise, day after day—that he'd marry her soon.
Maybe just this morning, he'd done for her mother exactly what he did for mine.
Something thick and wet seemed to fill my chest, pressing down, smothering, an ache so heavy I couldn't draw a full breath.
"Lottie, let me explain—"
"Please, Lottie, please!"
Before Eugene could finish, the girl dropped to her knees at my feet with a hard thud.
"I'm sorry. I swear I'll cut things off with Eugene right now!"
"But please, I'm begging you, can you give me back the ring?"
I looked back at the ring in my hand, glanced at her once, and smiled—cold, thin—then stretched my arm out the window.
"Don't—"
She shot to her feet and threw herself at me. I was standing right at the top of the stairs—she slammed into me full force and we went down together, tangled, tumbling the whole way.
The violent collision tore her dress open at the shoulder.
I saw the scar on her shoulder—a distinctive petal shape—and my entire body went rigid.
The first year Eugene and I were together,
he'd told me about his father.
His father had cheated when he was young and brought a woman home.
That woman had a little girl with her, and the little girl had a petal-shaped scar on her shoulder.
Because of that woman, his mother killed herself.
After his mother died, his father threw the woman and the child out. He'd heard the woman's life fell apart after that.
I jerked my head toward Eugene.
"Eugene, she—"
