Chloe’s voice snapped me out of the memory.
Her expression had gone ugly. She was staring over my shoulder.
I turned.
Sebastian was standing beside our table.
He ignored Chloe’s murderous glare, pulled out a chair, and sat down next to me as if he belonged there.
Chloe shot to her feet in fury. “I’m gonna throw up just looking at him. Natalie, let’s go.”
I patted her hand gently.
“It’s okay. Don’t get worked up. He’s not worth it.”
I really meant that.
I had died once already to learn that lesson.
I got up to leave without looking at him. Suddenly, a hand seized my wrist.
Hot.
Firm.
My whole body tensed.
I jerked free in disgust. “Don’t touch me.”
Sebastian’s hand hung there in midair. His fingers curled, and for a moment he looked strangely blank, like he hadn’t expected revulsion from me.
Chloe lost it.
She swung her purse and beat him with it over and over. “Bastard! Die! After everything you did to Natalie, you still have the nerve to show up?”
The metal clasp struck his forehead. Blood ran down the side of his face.
He didn’t dodge.
Didn’t fight back.
He only kept looking at me with the kind of grief that once would have made me soften instantly.
Not anymore.
I stopped Chloe before she hit him again.
“It’s fine. Don’t dirty your hands.”
She was panting with rage.
Sebastian didn’t even wipe the blood away. In a voice so hoarse I barely recognized it, he said, “I’m sorry.”
I actually froze.
In all the years we had survived side by side, I had never seen him look so fragile.
But I didn’t understand.
Shouldn’t he have been with Lily and their child?
Why was he following me around like a ghost?
That apology had come too late to mean anything.
I sighed.
The exhaustion in my bones felt endless.
“You should go.”
I took Chloe’s arm and turned away.
“Natalie.”
His footsteps followed. He reached out again, maybe wanting to stop me, maybe forgetting himself. Panic flashed through me so violently that I stumbled backward, clutching my throat.
The memory of his hand there was still too vivid.
Sebastian froze on the spot.
The blood drained from his face.
Pain flickered through his eyes so sharply it almost looked like he was the one who had been hurt.
I forced down the fear and left with Chloe.
But he followed us anyway.
Not close enough to touch.
Just trailing behind like some wandering spirit who had forgotten where he belonged.
Chloe kept glancing back. “Do you think he’s actually losing his mind?”
“Call Ethan,” she muttered. “Have him come get you.”
At the mention of my husband’s name, the unease inside me eased a little.
I nodded.
I glanced back once at Sebastian’s bloodied figure.
After the breakup, I had slowly realized something terrifying.
Maybe I had never truly known him at all.