I Don’t Want the Reunion Voucher You Never Meant to Give Me Chapter 04

I Don’t Want the Reunion Voucher You Never Meant to Give Me Chapter 04

Before the launch started, Adrian pressed a warm oat-milk latte into my hands.

“Forget about last night. After this, we’re going to look at venues.”

He straightened the ring on my finger, his thumb brushing the old diamond.

“Stop getting worked up over an intern. You’re the one I’m marrying.”

I’d waited seven years to hear that sentence.

I looked at him and nodded anyway.

Maybe I just wanted to give this relationship one last chance.

Onstage, the host opened Ivy’s personalized mystery box.

[Adrian Cole’s Unconditional Favor—Redeemable Once.]

A reporter asked, laughing, “Miss Sinclair, what will this favor buy you? Can Mr. Cole be your boyfriend for a day?”

Ivy looked at Adrian through the crowd.

“I want him to propose to me. In front of everyone.”

The room erupted.

My fingers went numb. Adrian didn’t so much as blink—he just murmured, low:

“Play along. Don’t let her lose face up there.”

I looked at him, sharp. “You knew about this?”

“She mentioned it last night.”

“Last night?”

Last night, he’d put my mother’s diamond on my hand and told me he was going to marry me.

Turns out, the same night, he’d promised another woman that whatever she wanted, he wouldn’t say no.

Adrian frowned. “It’s just for show. Where’s your head at?”

“What ring are you planning to use?”

His eyes dropped to my hand.

I curled my fingers instantly. “Don’t touch it.”

“Elise, the press is waiting.”

“This was my mother’s.”

“It’s our engagement ring now.”

He caught my wrist, tried to pry it off by force.

The band caught on my knuckle, tore a thin line of blood.

I flinched, but he didn’t stop.

“Your mom left you this diamond so that you’d marry me someday, didn’t she? What’s the big deal if I borrow it for a few minutes?”

I pressed my hand flat over the ring. “I don’t agree to this!”

Adrian’s face went fully cold.

“Last night you were begging me for a marriage. And today you’re using this to bargain?”

He pried my fingers open one by one and pulled the ring off.

“Me agreeing to marry you is already a gift. Don’t mistake that gift for leverage over me!”

I stared at my naked ring finger, a hollow ache where my heart used to be.

“Adrian. If you use it to propose to her, we’re done.”

He looked at me like I’d said something faintly ridiculous.

“Threatening me with a breakup again?”

He leaned in, voice dropping to a cold murmur against my ear.

“You’ve thrown this fit six times. How many of them did you actually leave?”

“Elise, don’t push yourself too far.”

The spotlight came up.

He walked onstage carrying my mother’s ring and dropped to one knee in front of Ivy to a roomful of cheers.

“Miss Ivy Sinclair, would you let me favor you, unconditionally, just this once?”

She cried and nodded.

The ring slid onto her finger.

Confetti rained down.

On the big screen, they embraced like lovers in some grand, blessed confession.

It really was beautiful.

I stood in the darkest corner of the crowd, feeling my heart get ground down to pulp.

My mother, at the very end, had held my hand and told me that diamond was meant for whoever truly cherished me.

I’d waited seven years.

And in the end, I watched it get slid onto the finger of the woman who’d hurt me the most, worn by the man who’d let it happen.

Backstage, Adrian reached to take the ring off Ivy’s hand.

She covered it protectively, tears already falling.

“The press already got photos. If you take it off now, won’t it look like you were just toying with me?”

I said, “Give it back to me.”

He glanced at me. “Let her keep it on for now.”

“I said, give it back.”

“That’s enough!”

He grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward him.

“This is Ivy’s first solo launch. You’re going to ruin it over a dead woman’s trinket?”

I went cold all over.

“That’s the last thing my mother left me.”

“The dead don’t die twice over a missing ring.”

The room went quiet.

I stared at him, a ringing in my ears.

The tears came, finally, and I couldn’t stop them.

He saw. But he just looked away, irritated.

“I’ll buy you a new one. Don’t cry here, it’s embarrassing.”

I wiped my face.

“Don’t bother.”

I looked at the ring on Ivy’s finger, then at the man I’d loved for seven years.

“Give the ring to her. Give yourself to her too.”

His face darkened. “Say that again.”

“We’re done.”

He laughed, coldly, his grip tightening without warning.

“Every time you’ve broken up with me, weren’t you just waiting for me to come win you back?”

“Actually leave me, and you won’t even get another Reunion Voucher.”

Ivy called. She was trapped in the parking garage by reporters, sobbing that she couldn’t breathe.

Adrian let go of me instantly.

I asked, “Didn’t you say we’d go look at venues after this?”

“She needs me right now.”

“And me?”

He grabbed his jacket, didn’t look back.

“You’ll cry and go home fine. She’s in trouble—nobody’s cleaning this mess up but me today.”

The door shut in front of me.

I didn’t chase him. I didn’t wait, either.

I went back to the apartment we’d shared for five years, packed the last of my things, removed my fingerprint from the door lock, and put the key and seven Reunion Vouchers into a box.

This time, I wasn’t waiting.

…

On the ride home, Adrian leaned back against the seat with his eyes closed. His phone buzzed.

Seeing a mystery box from me, his mouth curved.

“All that fuss, and still can’t let go.”

He tapped it open without thinking.

The moment it loaded, the smile froze on his face.