She Got The Ring And The Marriage, I Got The Silence Chapter 06

She Got The Ring And The Marriage, I Got The Silence Chapter 06

The doctor said Tessa wouldn’t wake until morning. Graham went back to base housing.

He packed up every trace of Brielle, clothes, gear, all of it, and threw her government–issue gear into a duffel bag.

Then he opened all the windows to scrub the smell of Brielle’s cheap perfume out of the house.

When it was done, he sat on the couch. The house felt wrong, hollow in a way he hadn’t expected

Before, no matter what he was working on, reports, tactical reviews, Tessa had always been somewhere nearby.

Pressing his dress uniforms. Humming some pop song under her breath. Stretching in the living

room.

He used to tell her she was too loud. But he could never stop looking up from his work to watch her.

Eight years, and she still looked the same to him.

Still the same girl who’d caught his eye at the academy, bright, alive, impossible to ignore.

Except somewhere along the way, she’d stopped smiling.

He leaned back on the couch, and something pressed into his lower back.

He reached between the cushions and pulled it out. The watch.

He barely recognized it.

He remembered the day they’d first seen it in the PX, eight years ago. The diamonds had caught the

light so hard it was almost blinding.

Eight years of Tessa polishing it every few days, and the shine was still gone.

It looked dull, worn down by time and neglect.

Graham closed his hand around it. His vision blurred.

Every piece of jewelry her mother had left her was worth a hundred times what this watch cost.

And Tessa had worn this watch for eight years.

Worn it until the shine was gone and the face was scratched, and in all that time, he’d never once replaced it with a ring.

No wonder she’d stopped smiling.

He fell asleep on the couch that night with the watch still in his fist.

He was at the lawyer’s office before it opened.

Brielle showed up looking like she’d rather be anywhere else. But she showed up.

Graham didn’t let her talk. He pushed the divorce petition across the desk and demanded her

signature.

“Did you bring Tessa’s jewelry?”

Brielle bit her lip. Nodded.

She held out the jewelry box but didn’t let go.

“You told me these would be mine, General Westcott. I love them; they’re all I have. Could I keep

just one…?”

Graham ripped the box out of her hands, opened it, and counted every piece.

“You want jewelry? Work for it. Save up and buy your own on a private’s salary.”

“If your family comes after you again, go to JAG. Don’t ever contact me again. I am done risking my real family for you.”

Graham walked away with the jewelry box and didn’t look back.

On the drive to the hospital, he rehearsed the proposal in his head. A dozen times. Maybe more.

A velvet box and a bouquet of hydrangeas sat on the passenger seat.

He didn’t know if she’d like them.

If she didn’t, that was fine. He’d buy out the whole damn jewelry store tomorrow if he had to.

His palms were slick with sweat when he pushed open the hospital room door.

Bouquet in one hand. Ring box in the other. His heart hammered a brutal rhythm against his ribs as he stepped inside.

“Tessa… Tessa, will you marry me?”

Silence.

He looked up. The hospital bed was empty. The blankets were folded into a sharp, military square. She was gone.