Ethan took Sophie’s bleeding hand and treated it like an emergency. He disinfected the cut, wrapped it carefully, and kept asking whether it hurt while I sat on the floor with blood trickling down my temple.
That was when I understood.
This was the script.
This was how she won.
I forced myself up, picked up the crown that now had a smear of blood across the diamonds, and held it out.
“You like it?” I asked. “Then keep it.”
Both of them looked at me like I had said something insane.
Ethan frowned. “My parents sent that for you.”
I gave a soft laugh. “No. They sent it for their daughter-in-law. She won’t be one much longer.”
Then I set it down in front of Sophie.
“I have a thing about blood. Once something gets stained, it feels unlucky. Since she likes it so much, she can have it.”
I turned and walked out.
For years, everyone had known I loved two things: real estate and jewelry. Ethan knew that better than anyone. Every time we fought, he used one or the other to win me back.
And now I had just thrown away a treasure worth more than most people would earn in ten lifetimes.
He should have understood something then.
He didn’t.
On my birthday, he still didn’t come home.
At the party, guests kept asking where he was. In previous years he never left my side. Some even smiled and said he was probably off preparing a surprise.
I couldn’t care less where he was.
I popped a bottle of champagne like fireworks and lifted the glass.
“Happy birthday to me.”
There was something so free in my own voice when I said it that the room laughed and lifted glasses with me.
“To the most adorable, beautiful, entertaining Mrs. Frost—happy birthday!”
I smiled. “Not Mrs. Frost for much longer. Ethan and I are divo—”
The front door opened before I could finish.
And there was Sophie again, dragging in a drunk Ethan.
The room turned as one.
I walked over calmly, intending to help him inside, but he refused to let go of her hand. Worse, he pulled her closer and kissed her forehead in front of everyone.
The silence in the room went so deep it almost roared.
Sophie blushed and put on an embarrassed face. “Mrs. Frost, Mr. Frost is drunk. He’s just talking nonsense. He’s been so busy he accidentally forgot your birthday…”
Her fake delicacy was enough to make me lose my appetite.
So I stepped aside.
“Bedroom’s upstairs, first door on the left. Take him.”
She hadn’t expected that. Her smile twitched.
Still, she helped him up.
After they disappeared upstairs, I turned back to the guests, lifted the champagne bottle again, and said, “Anyone still in the mood for a drink?”
No one was.
People started offering awkward excuses and leaving one by one until the entire house fell quiet.
At eleven, Sophie finally came down.
With the audience gone, she dropped the shy act completely. She looked smug, triumphant, almost regal as she swept out the door.
The moment she left, my phone rang.
Noah.
“Didn’t we already talk this morning?” I said.
His voice came through low and slightly sullen. “It’s your birthday. You wouldn’t come see me, so I’m not even allowed to call and say happy birthday?”
My heart softened instantly.
“This is the last birthday I’ll ever spend while still legally married,” I told him. “If you’re upset, I’ll compensate you by giving you ownership of every birthday after this one. You decide how we celebrate, okay?”
He laughed quietly. “Any way I want?”
“I divorced for you,” I said. “When have I ever lied to you?”
We talked for nearly an hour.
After the call ended, I was just about to sleep when fireworks exploded outside my window.
I looked up.
The sky over the city was suddenly full of light. Blossoms of gold and white opening over the dark like a dream too expensive to be real.
And then Noah’s voice came back through a second call, low and serious in a way that made my breath catch.
This time, he didn’t call me sis or tease me.
“Lily,” he said, “happy birthday. From now on, I’ll spend every one of them with you.”
I ran to the window.
The fireworks seemed to be going off across the whole city.
It had to be a coincidence, I told myself.
No college student could possibly afford that.