Chapter 1

At twenty-three, saving Cora Henson cost me a brutal blow to the head, and I lost my sight.

After that she became my human cane, refusing to let go of my hand no matter where we went.

But on our wedding day, Cora suddenly told me,

"Emmet Mason, per the schedule, you have to wait for me up at the front. You'll need to go in on your own first."

"All the guests are watching. Be brave. Don't embarrass me, all right?"

I felt my way forward, one careful step at a time, and still tripped on the stairs.

Blood ran down my forehead, and somehow my sight came back.

The next second, I froze at what I saw.

No reception. No guests.

No Cora, either.

Just an empty, abandoned factory.

Two of Cora's friends were tucked off to the side, on a video call with her.

"Cora, Emmet knows you so well. What if he figures out you ran out on the wedding?"

Cora's voice was careless.

"As long as you don't let him hold your hand, and you play the audio I recorded ahead of time, a blind man like him could never tell."

"Allan gave me a son. I promised him a wedding."

Allan Delgado. Her male secretary.

On the screen, she stood in a wedding gown, nestled against Allan.

Behind them was the dreamy blue-themed wedding scene, the one I'd loved most.

So it turned out that at the end of this wedding, no one had ever been waiting.

Then there was no reason for me to keep walking forward, either.

...

The old speakers were still playing the wedding march.

It echoed, hollow, through the empty factory.

I lowered my eyes and pulled my mouth into a bitter little smile.

Because she thought I couldn't see, Cora hadn't even bothered to get me a decent suit.

Some old model dug up from who knows where, the hem yellowed and fraying, now smeared with blood, like a rag someone had thrown out.

The custom suit on Allan, though, the one worth a million, I was seeing it for the first time, and yet it wasn't unfamiliar at all.

Cora had described it to me countless times.

"Emmet, I ordered the gown in your favorite dark navy. I can't wait to see you wear it when you marry me. You'll be the most handsome groom there is."

But the truth was, her groom had been someone else all along.

As if only just realizing I was standing behind the concrete pillar, Cora's two friends jumped.

"Em—Emmet? We were just talking to Cora about something private. Did you hear anything?"

Maybe I wanted to see just how far Cora would carry the lie.

I kept up the empty, unseeing look and shook my head, dazed.

"The music's too loud. I couldn't make it out..."

On the other end of the call, Cora let out a breath.

"Emmet, you're hurt. Let's stop the wedding for now. I'll have them take you to the hospital."

I clenched my fist and asked, unwilling to let it go,

"Cora, I'm a little scared. Will you come with me?"

Before Cora could answer, Allan looped his arm through hers with a wounded look, signaling that the ceremony was about to begin.

Cora pressed her lips together.

"Emmet, you can't depend on me for everything. You have to learn to be on your own sometime."

"The ceremony stopped so suddenly. I have to stay and settle the guests first. Be good. I'll come find you soon."

Slowly I let go of her hand, my palm ice-cold.

In the end, she chose Allan after all.

On the way to the hospital, I leaned back in the rear seat with my eyes closed, resting.

One of them got bored and switched on the entertainment screen in the passenger seat, watching the live stream of Cora and Allan's wedding.

The one driving quickly warned her under her breath,

"Turn it off. Emmet's still sitting right there in back. What if he notices? Don't cause trouble for Cora!"

The other turned to glance at me and curled her lip.

"What's there to be scared of? He's asleep, I've got it on mute, and a blind man can't see anyway."

"Honestly, if you ask me, Emmet's Cora's biggest headache. So he saved her once, so what? He didn't die. Five years of Cora looking after him should be plenty, and now she still has to spare his feelings, has to hide her own wedding from him."

"With who Cora is now, who'd actually want to marry a blind man? It's just embarrassing. Allan suits her much better. They're a perfect match."

"This wedding today is way grander than that proposal back at the start of the year on White Valentine's. Cora really does adore Allan."

No one noticed the two lines of tears running down my face in the back seat.

On Valentine's Day, Cora hadn't come home.

She said something came up at work and she had to stay late, and told me to go to bed early.

At the time I just touched the blisters on my hand and said nothing, only told her not to work too hard.

It was from when I'd been trying to make her a special dish, learning from Cornelia, our housekeeper.

Because I couldn't see, I'd burned myself on the hot pan.

I opened my eyes and looked quietly at the screen up front.

Cora slid a wedding ring onto Allan's ring finger, saying something to him with feeling.

Allan wept, moved to tears, and she rose on her toes and gently kissed them away.

I looked down at my own empty palm.

At twenty-three, when Cora and I were out on a date at the mall,

the billboard overhead suddenly came down. On instinct I shoved her clear and took the hit to my head myself, and that was how I lost my sight.

When I woke, Cora was keeping watch at my bedside, holding my hand, trembling.

I touched her face and found it wet with tears.

Cora said that from then on she'd be my cane and my eyes, that she'd hold my hand everywhere we went, so afraid I might fall.

Later she threw herself into building her company, saying she'd give me the best life, the grandest wedding.

Now she was finally able to do it.

Only it was to marry another man.

While the two up front weren't paying attention, I took out my phone.

And sent a message to that familiar number.