He Thought I’d Stack One More Stone, I Threw the Last One Away Chapter 04

He Thought I’d Stack One More Stone, I Threw the Last One Away Chapter 04

I walked over and took my time looking. There were dozens of wedding gifts, some expensive, some plain.

What stopped me was that some of them were things I’d actually loved. One was a handcrafted miniature of my dream house, modeled after one of my favorite architect’s earliest designs, tucked into a mountain village.

I’d fallen for it on sight years ago and wanted to buy it, but Julian wouldn’t let me.

“A dump like that has no business in our house.”

He’d forgotten the roof was scattered with my favorite mountain bluebells.

I ran my fingers lightly over the roof, and warmth bloomed in my chest. So that was what it felt like, to be held in someone’s heart.

Back in my room, I gathered up everything that had anything to do with Julian.

The stubs from our first movie. Three of them.

A photo from our first sunrise on the beach, three silhouettes from behind.

Our first trip abroad. I’d crouched to tie my shoe, and the two of them walked on side by side, neither of them waiting.

The first time…

Out of all those photos, not one belonged to just me and Julian.

None of it mattered anymore.

I tossed every photo and journal into the hearth and watched the fire eat through every memory of us. Something in me went cleanly hollow.

Then I thought of the gifts out in the courtyard, and the emptiness filled right back in.

The last photo had barely curled to ash when Julian shoved the courtyard door open.

He took in the yard full of gift boxes, his lip curling. “Hazel, you really are exhausting.”

“Picking fights with me while quietly setting up your own wedding gifts. You really don’t see how ridiculous that looks?”

I stood and gave him a flat look. “Someone else sent those…”

“Give it a rest, Hazel.”

He looked at me like I was throwing a fit over nothing. “Okay, okay. I’ll apologize. Is that what you want?”

“You know how slammed I’ve been. Yeah, I dropped the ball with you, but I came to you the second I could, didn’t I?”

“I left everything my mom brought at the town line. Apologize to Chloe, and I’ll have it all sent over right away.”

I shook my head. “Don’t bother.”

“I don’t want things that were never mine.”

Julian’s patience finally gave out. “Enough!”

“I already came here to make it right, so what more do you want? This is about getting married, right? Fine, you win.”

“Tomorrow’s Chloe’s birthday. I’m taking her to Opal Island for a few days first.”

“When we’re back, you and I will go make it official.”

“You got what you wanted. So drop it.”

I looked at that same expression he’d worn for eleven years, the one that said he was doing me a favor, and all at once I was just tired.

No matter what we went through, it always landed right here.

Chloe always came first. Everything bent around whatever Chloe was feeling.

Me included.

Once Chloe was happy, he’d toss me a scrap of what I wanted, like charity to a beggar.

As if that kept the invisible tie between us locked in his fist.

He’d miscalculated one thing. The tie had snapped long ago. The cage was open, and the sky with it.

He read my silence as surrender, the way he always had, and he got to his feet looking pleased.

“Good. Get the gifts packed up, and I’ll send people to move them in a couple days.”

Then he turned for the door.

I caught his sleeve one last time. “Julian, I’m marrying…”

Before I could get out Elias Thorne’s name, he shook my hand off, impatient.

“I know you can’t wait to marry me. But like I said, Chloe wants two days at Opal Island.”

“So for two days, don’t come bothering me.”

I watched his back disappear down the path, and I smiled.

Then I turned, went inside, and put on my wedding dress.

…

Julian reached the town line to find a crowd already gathered.

They were pointing, watching him, but the second he got close they all went quiet.

He didn’t think much of it and headed straight for the car.

Over the roar of the engine, a procession of cars honked in a steady rhythm, cheers echoing down the mountain road, the kind of loud celebration that meant the groom had arrived. At the same time, the voices around him finally reached him, sharp and clear.

“The Keeper’s come to marry Hazel!”