Chapter 3

Back in the café, Jessica Bellwether was still looking at Sarah with that pitying, knowing expression.

"It's okay, Sarah. We all make mistakes. Ethan is a forgiving person, deep down."

Sarah looked directly at Jessica.

"I'm not looking for Ethan's forgiveness, Jessica. And there was no mistake to admit, not on my part."

She paused, then delivered the words calmly.

"I'm happily married. I have a son. He' s five."

Jessica' s perfectly made-up face went slack. Her jaw literally dropped.

"Married? A... a son? But... when? Who?"

"His name is David Carter. He' s a history teacher. My son' s name is Leo. We live in Portland, Oregon."

Sarah watched the shock ripple across Jessica' s face, followed by a flicker of something else – confusion, maybe even a touch of envy. The narrative Jessica had clung to, the one where Sarah was pining for a lost life, had just crumbled.

"Portland?" Jessica repeated, as if the city itself was an offense. "But... your career? Boston was everything for you."

"I have my own freelance design business. It's successful. I like my life, Jessica."

Jessica seemed to deflate. The old Boston social circle, the status, the drama – it was clear Jessica still lived in that world. A world Sarah had escaped.

The memory of another conversation surfaced, unbidden. A phone call, a few days after the disastrous rehearsal dinner. Sarah was at her mother' s small apartment, trying to breathe through the wreckage of her life. The phone rang. It was Mrs. Eleanor Hayes.

Her voice was cool, impeccably polite.

"Sarah, dear. I' m calling to see how you are."

A lie, of course. Sarah knew it then.

"I' ve been better, Mrs. Hayes," Sarah had managed, her voice still raw.

"Yes, well, these things are... unfortunate," Eleanor Hayes had said, a distinct lack of sympathy in her tone. "Perhaps, in the long run, it' s for the best."

Sarah had remained silent, gripping the phone.

"Ethan needs a partner who is... more aligned with our family' s trajectory," Mrs. Hayes continued smoothly. "Someone less burdened by the past, shall we say. Chloe Vance, for instance, has such drive, such wonderful connections. She understands the world Ethan moves in."

The implication was clear. Sarah, with her modest background and her grief for her brother, was a liability. Chloe, ambitious and well-connected, was an asset. Mrs. Hayes wasn't just commenting on the breakup; she was endorsing it, subtly reinforcing the idea that Sarah was not good enough, that she was the problem. The call had been another layer of dismissal, another push away from the life she thought she was building.

Sarah pushed the memory down. She looked at Jessica, who was still processing the news.

"It was... interesting seeing you, Jessica. But I have to go. My flight back to Portland is this evening."

She turned and walked away, leaving Jessica standing alone in the café, the Boston buzz fading behind her.