The vibration hit low and sharp against my hip.

My fork scraped the plate. I pressed my knees together under the tablecloth and smiled at nobody.

"Ivy?" Kieran waved a hand in front of my face. "Babe. The date?"

"I... need to think about it."

Rhys tilted his head. "You've gone pale. Are you feeling all right?"

Every face at the table turned toward me.

"I'm fine."

"You're shaking." He said it gently, like a worried older brother. "Mom, maybe she should lie down."

"Oh, sweetheart." Celeste reached over and touched my forehead. "You're warm."

"It's just the wine."

Rhys's fingers rested on the remote. The buzz dropped to nothing. I sagged against the chair.

"So," he said, cutting into his lamb. "What do you actually do, Ivy? Besides wedding planning."

"I work at a gallery. In acquisitions. I—"

The buzz came back stronger.

My voice broke in half. I grabbed my water glass and drank until it was gone.

"Sorry. Went down wrong."

"Take your time." Rhys didn't look up from his plate. "Acquisitions. So you know how to judge what something's worth."

"Most of the time."

"Only most?"

"Sometimes people lie about what they're selling."

He finally lifted his eyes. Something like approval flickered there. Then he turned the dial again.

I bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted copper.

Kieran laughed and leaned back in his chair. "Look at her. Trembling like a rescued puppy." He spread his hands to the table. "This is what she does. Ivy loves playing the victim. One little fight and suddenly she's the tragic heroine."

"Kieran," his father said quietly.

"What? I'm being honest." He turned to me, voice silky. "Where'd you go after you left my place last night, anyway? You didn't come home. Your mom said so."

My stomach turned to ice.

"Out," I said.

"Out where? With who?"

I said nothing. The thing in my pocket hummed against my skin like a secret about to be spoken out loud.

"See?" Kieran snapped his fingers. "Nothing. Because she was probably—"

"I didn't—"

"—with some guy she met an hour earlier. And now she's here, staging this whole meltdown so she can wriggle out of the engagement and blame me."

"That's not—"

"You've wanted out for months. Admit it."

"Enough."

Celeste set her napkin down hard. Silverware rattled.

"You are humiliating your fiancée in front of her parents," she said. "Do you understand what that makes us look like? Both families?"

Kieran's mouth opened. Closed.

My mother straightened in her chair. For the first time all day, her voice wasn't soft.

"My daughter found you in bed with another woman, Kieran. And you're questioning *her* night?" She folded her hands. "You'll apologize to Ivy. Right now."

Kieran's ears went red. He stared at his plate like it had insulted him.

"Fine. Sorry."

Nobody believed it. Not even him.

The silence that followed was thick enough to choke on.

Then Rhys wiped his mouth and set his napkin aside.

"May I suggest something?"

Mr. Vale frowned. "Go ahead."

"The merger needs a marriage. Kieran clearly doesn't want one." Rhys spoke like he was reading a quarterly report. "Swap the groom. Let it be me."

My father's eyebrows rose. Celeste blinked twice.

Kieran laughed, short and ugly. "You're joking."

"I rarely joke about contracts."

I pushed my chair back an inch. "No. Absolutely n—"

The remote clicked under his thumb.

The vibration surged, deep and relentless. The word died in my throat. I clutched the table edge and stared at my plate, lips pressed tight, eyes stinging.

Kieran jumped in before I could find my voice again.

"She's not good enough for you, Rhys. Trust me." He jabbed a finger at me. "Half the men in this city have had her. You want *that* carrying the Vale name?"

Something inside me snapped clean.

The buzzing went quiet. Maybe Rhys turned it off. Maybe I just stopped feeling it.

I stood up.

"Half the men in this city?" My voice came out loud and strange. "You were inside another woman yesterday, Kieran. I watched you. You didn't even stop to apologize. You asked why I didn't *call*."

"Ivy, sit down," my father said.

"You're a liar. You're a coward. You can't even own your own filth, so you smear it on me in front of your mother." Tears spilled over, hot and fast. I didn't wipe them. "I'd rather die alone than marry you."

I turned and walked out. Then I ran.

---

I got as far as the foyer before a hand closed around my elbow.

"I'll look after her," Rhys called back toward the dining room. Calm. Responsible.

"Let me go."

"You're crying in my parents' hallway. Come with me."

He steered me up the stairs and into a guest room, the door shutting soft behind us.

"Give me the remote." I held out my palm. It trembled. "Give it to me."

"Sit down first."

"You *told them* to marry us off. Like I'm a—"

The buzzing returned, low and steady. My sentence crumbled.

"Like you're a what?" he asked.

I sank onto the edge of the bed, arms wrapped around myself. "Please. Turn it off. Please, Rhys."

He crouched in front of me so our eyes were level. He didn't touch me. He didn't need to.

"You'll understand eventually," he said. "Everything Kieran couldn't give you, I can."

"I don't want anything from you."

"You wanted it last night."

He turned the dial.

I stopped arguing after that. I stopped being able to. I pressed my face into my hands and shook, sobbing and hating my body for answering him anyway, until it broke over me and left me curled on the bedspread, hollow and burning with shame.

The room went quiet.

Rhys pulled the toy from my pocket, slipped it into his jacket, and laid the remote on the nightstand beside me. Like a gift.

"Wash your face," he said. "They'll be deciding things downstairs."

---

They were.

By the time I came down, my mother's eyes were red and my father was shaking Mr. Vale's hand.

"Nothing is final," Celeste said carefully. "But given the circumstances... we'll revisit the terms. Who stands at the altar may change."

My mother didn't look at me. She just nodded.

Across the foyer, Kieran stood in the open front door, his face gray with fury.

He wasn't looking at his parents.

He was staring at Rhys, who stood one step behind me, close enough that I could feel the heat of him at my back.

Kieran's lips moved. I couldn't hear it.

But I didn't need to.

*This isn't over.*