Jocelyn's POV

When Shawn heard my question, a look of genuine confusion crossed his face.

"What day?" he blurted out.

It seemed I was the only fool who'd actually kept track—the only one holding onto the dream of us getting married, the only one who remembered that, from the moment that basketball came hurtling toward me, I'd wanted to spend forever with him.

Watching his blank expression, I felt the knot of resentment in my chest suddenly unravel.

"It's nothing," I said quietly.

Alyssa's footsteps were drawing closer.

Shawn straightened his cuffs and walked away without looking back.

"We'll talk when we get home later," he tossed over his shoulder. "I'm going back out. Don't let Alyssa see you."

"There you are, Shawn! I've been looking everywhere," Alyssa chirped as she rounded the corner.

Shawn shifted half a step sideways, his tall frame deliberately shrouding me in the shadows of the hallway.

She tugged at his sleeve, her voice dropping into a practiced, pouty whine. "Shawn, my flight got in so late that all the hotels downtown were fully booked. Could I crash at your place tonight? Please?"

That place was where Shawn and I lived together.

Instinctively, he started to refuse, but Alyssa beat him to the punch. "Mrs. Lowell wants to see me tomorrow. Just give me a lift, Shawn. You're headed there anyway, aren't you?"

For five years, Shawn had promised he'd handle his mom's hostility toward me. And yet, every time I showed up in front of her, she'd end up dragging me by my hair and slapping me across the face.

Alyssa, on the other hand, had always been the apple of her eye.

Shawn went silent for what felt like an eternity. Just as I felt the hope drain out of me, he broke the silence.

"Okay."

That single word was the breaking point. Whatever had been keeping me upright finally collapsed.

My phone kept buzzing with Shawn's messages.

"Josie, don't come home tonight."

"I don't want Alyssa to see you and tell my mom about us."

I had no intention of waiting until tomorrow. If he wanted to spend his life playing the dutiful son and the doting childhood sweetheart, I wasn't going to stand in his way anymore.

I slipped back home under the cover of night and packed everything that mattered into a single suitcase. Everything else went straight into the trash.

When I found my old medical records in the nightstand, the ache in my chest throbbed all over again.

Years ago, when Shawn was desperate to save his company, he'd cut into the business of some local thugs. They'd kidnapped him, intent on teaching him a lesson.

Back then, the Lowell family was on the verge of collapse, and no one else was willing to step in.

I was the one who called the police and went in there alone to get him out.

In the chaos of the rescue, someone lunged at him with a red-hot branding iron.

I threw myself in front of him. The iron seared into my chest, missing my heart by less than an inch.

At the hospital that day, Shawn knelt by my bed and finally returned my feelings.

He touched my wound with trembling fingers, his eyes rimmed red as he made his vow to me.

He begged me for five years, promising he would match my stature so I wouldn't have to settle for a man less than my equal.

And for all those years, he did love me. He never missed a single gift on a single important day.

Though our love stayed in the dark, behind closed doors, he was devoted to me to the point of obsession. If I so much as stood too close to another man, he'd take it out on me in bed for days, making me cry his name until my voice gave out.

I'd been pathetic enough to enjoy that side of him—and honest enough to admit I'd taken advantage of Alyssa's absence, slipping into the place she'd left behind.

Now that she was back, the dream was over, and I was willing to step aside.

I dragged my suitcase down the stairs and out to the curb. Just as I was about to call an Uber, a car horn chirped. The man who'd been watching me all night at the party was sitting behind the wheel, grinning at me.

"What are you doing here?"

I was stunned, but he just hopped out and popped the trunk open like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Just trying to make a good impression. Now that the great Ms. Clarke has finally agreed to marry me, the least I can do is be her chauffeur."

A free ride was a free ride. I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

I started to lift my suitcase into the trunk, and he stepped in to help.

Unexpectedly, the suitcase slipped, and our hands brushed.

Just as I was pulling mine back in a panic, Shawn's inscrutable, icy voice cut in from behind me.

"Jocelyn, I told you to stay out for one night, and you've already found someone to keep you company?"