Chapter 4

By the time I reached the rooftop,

a crowd had already gathered.

Betty sat on the railing with a knife pressed to her wrist.

Her eyes were swollen from crying.

The moment I stepped out, every head turned, all of them looking at me like I was something strange.

"Ann, I never stole your proposal. Why would you post it online and set everyone loose on me?"

Forrest's eyes were ice when they landed on me.

"You put all of Betty's information up there too. In ten minutes she's taken twenty calls from strangers cursing her out!"

"Ann, if I got something wrong, I'll apologize in public. But there's no need to drag in someone innocent!"

He opened the post and held it out to me.

The IP, the avatar, the username, all of it matched mine exactly.

But the last four digits of the account were different.

I shook my head, helpless.

"That account isn't me. I never posted anything. You can check my phone!"

I pulled it out, unlocked it, and held it up to him.

Something flickered in Forrest's eyes, like he might waver.

"Never mind. I was wrong, all right? I misjudged you!"

Betty was sobbing, the blade already scraping thin lines of blood from her wrist.

"Ann. Apologize."

Forrest's voice was cold.

I stared at him, unable to believe it.

"Something I never did, why should I—"

"I don't want to hear it. Wrong is wrong!"

In that instant it felt like all the air around me had been pulled away.

The coworkers around me joined in, one after another.

"Apologize! Betty's already depressed. Are you trying to get her killed?"

"Don't you know Mr. Yarrow and Betty are engaged? You're wrecking two families here!"

"Apologize!"

Engaged?

I lifted my head, dazed,

and caught the way Forrest's gaze slid away from mine.

And I found myself thinking,

if it came out today that the two of us were the ones engaged,

Forrest would set the whole room straight in a heartbeat.

It wouldn't be the first time.

On a team hike once,

because he wouldn't reach out to pull me up,

I rolled all the way from the slope down to the bottom.

I took a step back and bowed low to Betty.

"I'm sorry. It was my fault. Please forgive me."

Betty went limp all at once,

falling back into Forrest's arms.

And where their hands overlapped, I finally saw it clearly.

Two pairs of blue cufflinks.

I'd seen them in a fashion magazine.

The designer's whole concept was a set for an engaged couple.

Seeing Betty was fine, everyone let out a breath.

Her best friend strode up to me

and swung her hand across my face.

"Bitch!"

Her nails raked across my eye,

a sharp sting in my left, blood dripping from the corner.

I cupped my eye and looked at Forrest.

"Forrest. So this is where you stand, is it?"

He lifted Betty into his arms and didn't spare me a single glance.

"Go home tonight and write a letter of apology. Have it on my desk tomorrow."

Betty leaned against his shoulder

and gave me a soft little smile, mouthing two silent words.

"Dumb bitch."

The ones who followed him out bumped me on purpose as they passed.

I was knocked to the ground, and then a few feet came down on my hands.

Forrest's text came an hour later.

"We'll talk when you're home tonight."

But there was nothing left for the two of us to talk about.

I got up and walked down off the rooftop, one step at a time.

That night, neither of us went home.

The next day he drove Betty to the office,

and they walked into his room together.

There was no apology letter on the desk.

Forrest frowned and went out to the main floor,

only to find my seat sitting empty.

"Did Ann take the day off?"

An HR staffer happened to be passing.

She answered without much thought.

"Ann quit, didn't she? Something about going back home to get married, I think?"