They Wanted Her, I Gave Her Everything, Now He’s Begging for Me Back Chapter 05

They Wanted Her, I Gave Her Everything, Now He’s Begging for Me Back Chapter 05

The color drained from Holden’s face. He staggered back a step.

He didn’t even notice when the pendant Reese gave him cracked against the doorframe.

“She’s dead? How? That’s impossible!”

“Did one of Edward’s business rivals come after her while we were gone? Target her for

revenge?”

He was unraveling. Completely.

The words death certificate shattered his composure like a gunshot.

His mind flooded with gruesome scenarios, each one worse than the last. He couldn’t think

straight.

Gideon stood still. Surface calm. But his knuckles had gone bone-white around his phone.

He forced the words through clenched teeth.

“Keep digging. I don’t believe it.”

Then his hand clamped down on Holden’s shoulder.

“Get a grip. This is just her latest move. Another tactic.”

“We’ve been focused entirely on Reese lately. Neglected her. She’s unhappy. That’s all this is.”

Holden’s fingers dug into the doorframe. His eyes had gone red.

“No.”

His voice dropped to a murmur.

“If this was just a tantrum, she’d never file a death certificate.”

“A death certificate is tied to identity. Filing one means she’s giving up the name Sage

Caldwell…”

His breath hitched. Voice splintered.

“It means… she’s giving up on us.”

Two paths lay in front of them now.

One: believe I was dead.

Two: believe I didn’t want them anymore.

The room plunged into silence.

Gideon’s phone slipped from his grasp and crashed to the floor.

They’d grown up with me. They knew how I operated. Every decision I made was deliberate.

Once my mind was set, nothing could drag me back.

The last few months replayed in their heads. My quiet compliance. My refusal to fight.

And it hit them all at once.

That wasn’t love. Wasn’t me being mature and stepping aside for Reese.

That was me weaning myself off them. Training myself to feel nothing. Preparing to leave.

Neither of them could name the taste in their mouths.

Reese’s voice called from behind them.

For the first time ever, they didn’t answer instantly.

She shuffled closer, head down, voice trembling on cue.

“Sage… if you don’t want to be my maid of honor, that’s okay. Just please-please don’t ruin

my wedding. I never knew Holden held onto me all these years.”

Neither Holden nor Gideon spoke.

The image of her pleading to an empty room was grotesque.

In the quiet, Reese finally caught on.

She lifted her head and saw the vacant room.

The delicate mask of hurt on her face cracked wide open.

Shame. Fury. Humiliation flooded her so fast she wanted to claw through the floorboards. Her mind spat curses at me. Vicious. Venomous.

And she didn’t spare Gideon or Holden either.

Resentment boiled over. She snapped.

“Why didn’t you warn me? You just stood there and watched me embarrass myself?”

Both men’s brows furrowed.

But old habits won. The indulgence. The protectiveness. It swallowed their irritation whole.

They explained the situation. Gentle voices. Careful words.

When Reese heard I’d abandoned my identity, the corner of her mouth curled.

Sure. She hadn’t managed to keep me at her feet forever. But with the eyesore gone? She was

thrilled.

She basked in the afterglow of victory. I’d lost. She’d won. I’d slunk off,pathetic and defeated.

She was so high on the rush she completely missed it.

The two men beside her, their frowns deepening with every passing second.

Holden pressed his lips thin and shot Gideon a look.

The meaning couldn’t have been clearer.

Sage is devastated. Gone. And Reese is smiling?

Shouldn’t Reese be in tears right now? Worried sick? Begging us to find her?

Isn’t that who she’s supposed to be?