Chapter 4
Miles took me back to the river path where we had spent most of our teenage years.
He had packed sandwiches, two bottles of lemonade, and the glass jar of lemon candies I had kept since we were nineteen.
At sunset, he placed the jar in my hands.
A ring was hidden at the bottom.
“Is this why you insisted on carrying that jar?” I asked through my tears.
“I’ve been waiting nine years to use it.”
He lowered himself onto one knee.
“Sloane, I don’t have a house with columns. I don’t have a family company or a trust fund. But I know how you take your coffee. I know you pretend not to cry during old movies. And I know I want to spend every ordinary day I have left with you.”
I said yes before he finished.
For one evening, we told nobody.
We sat beside the river, shared the last lemon candy, and imagined a small wedding in Edith’s backyard.
The next morning, I went to my parents’ house.
My mother noticed the ring before I had removed my coat.
“No.”
That was the first word she said.
My father came out of his office and stared at my hand.
“You’re not serious.”
“I am.”
My mother stood so quickly that her chair scraped across the floor.
“Sloane, take that thing off.”
I pulled my hand against my chest.
“Don’t speak about my ring that way.”
“Do you have any idea what people will say?”
“That I married someone I love?”
My father’s face darkened.
“You will not marry him.”
“I wasn’t asking permission.”
He walked closer.
“Then listen carefully. If you go through with this, you will no longer work at my company.”
“I expected that.”
“You’ll lose the apartment we helped you buy.”
“The apartment is in my name.”
“Because I paid the deposit.”
“I’ll repay it.”
My mother’s voice began to shake.
“We gave you every advantage. Private schools. Travel. A career. And you’re throwing it away for a man who fixes broken radiators.”
“He has never treated me as though love was something I had to earn.”
My father slammed his palm onto the table.
“You know nothing about him.”
“I know him better than I know either of you right now.”
His anger disappeared.
For a moment, fear took its place.
“You don’t understand what that family is capable of,” he said.
“What are they capable of?”
My mother touched his arm.
“Warren.”
“No,” I said. “Let him answer.”
My father glanced at her before looking back at me.
“Miles will drag you into problems you cannot imagine.”
“Then tell me what they are.”
He said nothing.
That silence made the decision easier.
“We’re getting married in six weeks.”
My mother covered her mouth.
My father stepped back as though I had struck him.
May you like
“If you marry that boy,” he said, “do not expect us to be there.”
—
