Chapter 1

The night before our engagement party, my boyfriend Ivor Dickerson and my best friend Kate Fox disappeared at the same time again.

It was their favorite game.

Every time the three of us went out, they'd suddenly switch off their phones and hide, just to see whose name I'd call first.

If I found Ivor first, Kate would cry that I cared more about a man than my friends.

If I found Kate first, Ivor's face would go cold and he'd ask me.

"So who's actually your boyfriend?"

I was about to head out to look for them when the tablet Ivor had left on the couch lit up.

A message from Kate.

"She's called me eight times already."

Ivor answered her.

"Twelve on my end."

Kate asked.

"Want to bet on who she goes to first?"

Ivor said.

"Of course."

"If I win, you become my mistress."

My fingers froze. I kept scrolling up.

Only then did I realize they'd been running bets like this for three years.

Betting on how long before I panicked, how long before I cried.

Betting on whether I'd go out in the middle of the night to find them even while burning up with a fever.

A moment later, Ivor sent me a location pin.

"Find me, and next week's engagement party goes ahead as planned."

I looked down and pressed the phone dark.

Every time before this, I'd been terrified of losing them.

But this time.

I didn't want them anymore.

...

I didn't go looking for them again. I just sat on the couch and watched the clock on the wall crawl toward dawn.

At seven thirty in the morning, the keypad lock beeped.

The door opened.

Kate saw me sitting rigid on the couch and rushed over, grabbing my hands.

"Why didn't you contact us? I thought something had happened to you!"

Ivor came over too, his brows knotted tight.

"You just stayed home all night? You didn't even go out to look?"

"I sent you a location pin and you were too lazy to move?"

At the mention of the pin, Kate turned slightly to the side.

She reached out, pinched Ivor's waist with her fingertips, and mouthed two words.

"You cheated."

I lifted my head and looked at them, and suddenly it all seemed absurd.

"I just didn't want to."

"I didn't go looking for you. So what?"

Ivor blinked, as if it had never occurred to him I'd talk to him like this.

"Fine. So you won't come find me?"

"Since you don't even care whether we live or die anymore, then you don't need to show up for today's wedding photo shoot either."

"To punish you for being so cold, I'm taking Kate to shoot them today."

Kate tugged at the hem of Ivor's shirt.

"Ivor, what are you talking about?"

"Those are your wedding photos. How does it make any sense for me to shoot them?"

Ivor closed his hand over Kate's.

"What's wrong with it? She doesn't care anyway."

The wedding photos I'd waited five years for, longed for through countless days and nights.

I thought I'd be devastated, that I'd throw myself at him and demand answers.

But nothing came.

Nothing hurts more than a dead heart. It turns out that when the pain reaches its worst, the tears won't come.

I only felt tired, a weariness that went all the way to the bone.

I nodded.

"Fine. The two of you go shoot them."

Ivor froze again, staring at me with suspicion.

He'd come armed with a whole speech to handle my hysterics, and that light little "fine" from me caught in his throat. "What kind of playing-hard-to-get trick is this now?"

Kate leaned in and took my hand.

"Are you only saying this because you're angry?"

"Ivor's just stubborn, he's trying to provoke you on purpose. Don't take it seriously."

I shook Kate's hand off and said, plainly.

"I'm not angry."

Ivor's face darkened completely, as if my indifference had truly enraged him.

He grabbed Kate's wrist and turned to leave.

"Since she's so generous about it, then let's go. We'll go shoot them!"

"Ignore her. Let's see how long she can keep up the tough act!"

The door slammed shut with a bang.

The jolt knocked down the big red double-happiness sign hanging in the entryway.

I took out my phone and dialed the wedding planning company.

"Hello, this is Ivor's fiancée."

"The engagement party a week from now. Please cancel it for me."