Chapter 4

After we left the hotel, we got in the car and headed for the bridal boutique.

The whole way, Luther held my hand tight.

Every time I quietly slipped free of his grip, the next second he only gripped harder, as if terrified I might leave him.

He could tell I wasn't in the mood, so he kept telling jokes to cheer me up.

He was never a man who smiled easily, yet for my sake he'd search online for jokes and one-liners, and tell them to me all the time.

Back then, even when they weren't funny, I'd force myself to laugh.

He could have been a good husband.

By day the company kept him busy, but he was always home by eight in the evening.

He ate dinner with me, listened to music with me.

In those first years of ours, he built a habit.

Every night before sleep, he read to me.

When it was time for bed, he'd first bring me a glass of warm milk, then sit at the edge of the bed and read to me, never once impatient.

It hurt me to see him do it, and I told him one of those reading apps could do the same thing now.

But he said it wasn't the same.

He smiled and said he wanted to be my eyes, that reading was just a small thing. Later he'd take me all over the world, so I could take in the beauty of every place.

Remembering all that, with those stiff jokes in my ear, I couldn't take in a single word. My head was a tangled mess.

The driver watched us in the rearview mirror, his face warm with a satisfied smile.

"Mr. Sanchez, twenty years and you two still love each other like the first day. That's a rare thing. Oh, right, that ring you had me pick up, I've already got it for you. It's in the compartment in the back seat."

Luther tensed for no clear reason.

"You didn't take the wrong one?"

The driver was sure.

"No. The name on the receipt was yours."

Only then did Luther relax and take a red brocade box out of the compartment.

"Joyce, this is the ring I had custom-made just for you. In a few days at our wedding, I want to put it on your finger myself. Take a look first, see if it fits?"

"I spent half a year designing this ring myself. Scrapped dozens of versions before I settled on it. It's the proof of how deep our love runs. It means everything."

His excited words, the happiness spilling out of him, made all of it feel unreal to me.

I had no interest in it, but Luther was staring at me, so full of hope that I opened the box the way you'd resign yourself to something.

But when I saw the engraving on the ring clearly, my heart clenched all at once.

That line of small print stabbed at my eyes like one sharp needle after another.

【Sanchez & Pruitt, love of a lifetime】

My fingertips trembled as I cradled the ring in my palm. It was heavy, heavy like the heart I'd already let sink too far.

"What's wrong?"

Seeing me stare blankly at the ring, Luther grew tense for no reason.

I shook my head and slid the ring on. In the end it wouldn't go.

"It seems a little tight."

"How could that be?" Half doubting, Luther took the ring from my hand and looked at it.

In that instant, his eyes filled with panic.

He stole a glance at my face, and seeing me calm, he let out a relieved breath at his own luck.

"It—it must be the designer got the size wrong. I'll have them redo it. There's still time."

I nodded and turned to look at the scenery out the window.

Luther studied me without letting it show, an odd irritation prickling at him, though he couldn't say what was off.

The car went horribly quiet all at once, and even the driver grew tense, glancing at me and Luther now and then in the rearview mirror.

But it didn't last long. A buzzing phone broke it.

Luther's phone and mine got a message at the same time.

Each of us with our own thoughts, we glanced at our screens, then quickly shut them off.

Rose had posted a photo, and that was how I learned the ring that should have been mine was with him.

The style of the ring was exactly like the one I'd just seen.

"So sorry, but your ring has already gone in the trash. My ring and Luther's are the one and only pair from now on."

Rose was trying to needle me again, but I wasn't the least bit angry. If anything, I should thank her.

Otherwise, saddled with a ring identical to someone else's, I wouldn't have known what to do with it.

Love isn't a copy. It can't be split in two.