Chapter 23 #2
And those rarely ended well where William was concerned.
The guy’s love life? Let’s just say it never made it past the pilot episode.
“What’s with the bodyguards?” she asked, glancing between the two imposing figures.
“You aren’t exactly a head of state.”
Caroline let out a long, suffering groan and tipped her head back against the chair as if the question itself had physically defeated her.
The reaction alone told Elena she was thoroughly tired of the subject.
Of course it wasn’t exactly Caroline’s style. She was the kind of girl who seemed happiest blending into the background, not being shadowed by two men who could probably block out the sun if they stood too close together.
“After Mom and I got into an accident, Carter completely lost his mind,” Caroline said at last, gesturing vaguely at the bodyguards as though they were an unfortunate weather pattern she couldn’t escape.
Then she leaned in slightly, dropping her voice.
“Apparently I’m now incapable of walking down a street without a security detail. ”
Elena’s posture changed instantly.
“You were in an accident?” she asked, the teasing tone gone so fast it almost startled her. The words came out sharper than intended, concern cutting clean through her earlier sarcasm.
Caroline nodded, stirring her coffee absently as though they were discussing nothing more serious than the weather.
A knot tightened in Elena’s stomach at the realization that she had heard none of this—none of it at all.
“Yeah, it was serious,” Caroline admitted, then waved a hand like she could physically brush the memory aside. “Mom got a fracture and I…” She hesitated, then shrugged. “I’m fine now, obviously. But Carter blames himself for reasons that make absolutely no sense.”
She rolled her eyes and tilted her chin toward one of the bodyguards. “Now Derek and Joe follow me around like I’m some rare museum artifact that might shatter if somebody sneezes too close.”
The man in question didn’t react. Not even a blink.
Which, Elena noticed, only seemed to irritate Caroline more.
Elena offered a small, careful smile, though something heavier had started settling under her ribs.
Four years ago, she would’ve known all of this already. She would’ve known before it became a story Caroline was casually retelling over coffee. Back then, she knew everything—what Caroline was studying, what Carter’s mother was reading, which restaurant she swore had the best steak in Boston.
Now she was hearing about fractures and accidents like they were footnotes in someone else’s life.
“I had no idea,” Elena admitted quietly. The words came out softer than she expected. “Then again… I suppose I don’t know much about any of you anymore.”
The honesty of it hung between them, unpolished and slightly awkward.
Four years shouldn’t have been enough time to become strangers. And yet somehow, it had been.
Caroline studied her for a moment before setting down her cup. "Yeah," she said softly, a wistful smile playing on her lips.
"You and Carter used to have that effortless, cinematic kind of love. The kind where the rest of the room just blurs out." Her smile turned slightly teasing. "Honestly, it’s none of my business, but... why did you reject him? The guy was completely gone for you."
Elena nearly choked on her croissant. "Is that what he told you?!"
"No," Caroline said, leaning in. "But every time I brought you up, he looked like a puppy who got kicked. I just assumed you broke his heart."
"Your brother dumped me !" Elena hissed, leaning across the table.
Caroline’s jaw dropped. "Really?"
"Yes! One minute he’s pulling me into this gorgeous, movie-worthy kiss at graduation and whispering about dinner, and the next? He ghosts. Left a breakup note that had all the emotional warmth of a tax audit.”
“Your graduation?” Caroline added slowly, connecting the dots, “..that was the same night we had the accident.”
Elena blinked, the anger draining out of her. "What?"
“Yeah, but if you didn’t dump him, then why on earth did he mope around like a heartbroken disaster for years… and insist on dragging all of us to London like he needed a dramatic fresh start?” Caroline frowned, like she was thinking out loud.
Before Elena could respond, a familiar voice cut in from behind her.
“Well, this looks serious.”
William slid into the empty chair beside them, but paused halfway, catching their expressions properly. Whatever lightness he’d walked in with faded a little as he registered the tension at the table.
Then he turned slightly toward Caroline, already switching gears. “Caroline, the storm’s serious. They said on TV you shouldn’t fly tonight—your flight’s probably going to get canceled anyway. You should stay a few more days.”
Caroline blinked at him, then gave a small, slightly shy nod. “Oh. Right. Okay.”
William didn’t seem to notice anything unusual there. Or maybe he just chose not to.
Because the next second, he turned straight to Elena. His confident smile disappeared almost at once.
Years of friendship meant he recognized that look on her face immediately—the calm one that usually showed up right before everything stopped being funny.
“Tell me why Carter left four years ago,” Elena said evenly. “Right now.”
William exhaled through his nose, very quietly.
And just like that, he looked like a man who deeply regretted choosing this exact café at this exact moment in time.
“Elena…” he began, carefully choosing every word like it might explode. “That isn’t my secret to tell.”
The hesitation in his voice was all the confirmation Elena needed.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” she said flatly.
William immediately found the back of his neck extremely interesting and started rubbing it like it held the answers to life. He also developed a sudden and intense inability to maintain eye contact with either of them.
Across the table, Caroline slowly narrowed her eyes.
“…You know?” she asked, voice dangerously soft. “You’ve known this whole time?”
William looked between them like a man realizing he had accidentally stepped onto two separate landmines and was now being asked to pick a favorite.
“I—” he started.
William let out a long sigh and dropped his gaze to the table.
“I promised Carter,” he admitted. “And despite what everyone thinks, I occasionally keep my promises.”
Neither woman looked particularly moved by this noble declaration.
Caroline was the one who broke the silence.
“Maybe he’s punishing himself,” she said slowly.
“My brother is such a martyr…he blames himself for the accident.” Her voice softened as she glanced between them.
“He was never really the same after that. And as far as I know, I haven’t seen him with another girl in the last four years either. ”
William was quiet for a moment. Then he finally looked directly at Elena. Whatever joke he had been preparing seemed to die before reaching his mouth.
“That part is true,” he said quietly. “You two deserve to be happy, Elena. You need to figure this out.”
There was no teasing in his voice this time, no attempt to lighten the moment like he usually did—just a rare seriousness that made it sound less like advice and more like something he couldn’t not say.
She had had enough.
Elena pushed back her chair and stood, grabbing her purse in one smooth motion. The scrape of the chair legs against the floor cut through the café’s quiet. Caroline looked up first, startled, and William followed a beat later—both of them frozen in the sudden shift.
Determination settled through Elena like a current, sharp and irreversible. She was done with half-answers, careful omissions, and years of silence wrapped in polite conversations.
“Where are you going?” William asked.
Elena met his gaze without hesitation. “To find Carter.”
Her voice was steady, but her pulse wasn’t.
“And this time,” she added, gripping her purse a little tighter, “somebody is finally going to tell me the truth.”