Chapter 4

After the announcement, the party swirled back to life. Ethan stood by a large window, looking out at the dark garden, feeling utterly detached. He saw a reflection in the glass and turned. Olivia and Liam were in a quiet alcove, partially hidden by a large potted palm.

He watched as Liam gently reached out and tucked a stray strand of hair behind Olivia's ear. It was an intimate, unconscious gesture. Olivia didn't pull away. Instead, she leaned into his touch, her eyes closing for a brief second. The chemistry between them was a physical force, a silent conversation he was finally seeing clearly.

A faint twinge, a ghost of an ache, surfaced in his chest. He recognized it for what it was. Not his own pain, but an echo. The last dying ember of the old Ethan's broken heart. He acknowledged it, let it pass through him, and then let it go.

Suddenly, Liam's voice, sharp with panic, sliced through the party's chatter.

"My watch! The watch my father just gave me! It's gone!"

He strode out of the alcove, his eyes wide with theatrical alarm. He looked around wildly before his gaze landed, with perfect precision, on Ethan.

"Ethan! You were just standing over here! You were the only one near me!" Liam's finger was pointed, an accusation in the flesh.

The music screeched to a halt. Every eye in the room turned to Ethan.

Mr. Reed was on him in a second, his face purple with rage. "You ungrateful brat!" he snarled, and the slap came so fast Ethan didn't even see it. The force of it snapped his head to the side, his cheek stinging.

"How could you?" Mrs. Reed shrieked, her hands flying to her mouth in horror. "After everything we've done for you? To steal from your own brother? On my husband's birthday?"

Then, Olivia was there. She walked toward him slowly, her every step deliberate. She stopped right in front of him, her eyes filled with a chilling mixture of contempt and disgust.

Her voice was as cold as ice. "I always knew you were pathetic, Ethan. I knew you were weak and manipulative. But I never thought you were a common thief."

She looked at him as if he were something she had scraped off the bottom of her shoe. "Don't ever speak to me again. Our marriage was the biggest mistake of my life."

Her words were meant to be the final, killing blow. And perhaps for the man in the diary, they would have been.

But for the man standing there now, they were the key turning in the lock of his cage.

A strange sound escaped his lips. A low chuckle. It grew into a full, genuine laugh. It was the laugh of a man who had just been told the funniest joke in the world.

The room fell into a stunned silence. They were all staring at him, at this broken, pathetic man who was supposed to be weeping, not laughing.

Ethan finally met Olivia's gaze, his own eyes clear and steady. The laughter subsided, but a smile remained on his lips.

"You're right, Olivia," he said, his voice calm and even. "It was a mistake."

He took a small step closer, his smile widening. "And you know what the funniest part is?"

He let the question hang in the air for a beat.

"I don't love you anymore."