Chapter Twenty-Two Odette #2
I can’t believe I let myself buy into this.
Let myself get caught up in this wedding and think for one second the curse wasn’t going to come back and bite me or someone I love in the ass.
I can’t believe I let myself dream of a future.
Let myself believe I wanted one. Or that maybe the curse was broken.
I can’t believe I’ve let myself fall for Noah.
And I have fallen for him—big-time.
But this? Seeing Craig break Izzy’s heart like this? I don’t have hope anymore.
All I have is fucking heartache. For my best friend. For my business. And for myself.
I don’t have time to think about that now. I need to be there for Izzy.
I turn around just as Craig finishes pulling up his pants.
“Craig . . .” Her voice is scratchy and laced with pain. “How . . . how could you?”
“Isabelle,” he says, crossing the room toward us.
I step in front of her, blocking him from getting any closer.
“Really, Odette?” He sneers at me.
“Yes, really. You aren’t going anywhere near her.”
“I never liked you, you know.”
“The feeling’s mutual,” I toss back.
But that’s not true. I did like Craig, which makes this even harder. I thought he loved Izzy. He’s never shown any signs of not being head over heels for her.
Or maybe he has, and maybe I just ignored all the signs. Maybe Izzy has ignored them too.
“How could you?” Izzy repeats to him. “And how could you, Tara? I was in your shop just last week buying candles.”
Tara. That’s right. She co-owns the candle shop with her mother.
“I-I-I’m so sorry,” she says, her eyes wide with surprise. “I . . . I had no idea.”
“No idea? We’re getting married. Tomorrow.”
“Izzy, I swear. Craig said you broke up. I ran into him at the bar last week, and he told me the wedding was off. We’ve been texting ever since, and today he invited me over—”
“Shut up!” Craig screams at her, and she flinches at his outburst.
I feel bad for Tara. It’s clear she had no idea he was a lying sack of shit. A lying sack of shit who apparently went to a bar last week when his fiancée was sleeping over at my house.
God, how could we have not seen it? He practically threw us out the door when I picked Izzy up for our slumber party.
“How long have you . . .” Izzy takes a calming breath. “How long has this been going on, Craig?”
“This is the first time.”
“The first time you slept with Tara or the first time you cheated on me?”
He winces. “With Tara.”
The woman in question gasps, just as shocked as we are.
“What?!” She lets out another sob, and it’s the worst sound I’ve ever heard. The only thing holding me back from attacking this prick is that Izzy needs me much more than I need to punch him.
I reach out, grabbing her hand, letting her know I’m here for her.
“How long?” she asks. “How long have you been lying to me?”
“I . . . fuck, Iz. I don’t know.” He exhales heavily, eyes rimmed red with unshed tears.
He looks sad. Broken. I just wish I could tell if it’s because he actually feels bad about what he did or if he’s upset he got caught.
“I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry. But this . . . this is why I proposed, Iz. I . . . I have a problem. I know I have a problem. Getting married will fix that, though. Once we’re husband and wife, I won’t have to do this anymore. We’ll be together for real.”
Her face crumples. “Together for real? We’re already together for real! How is this”—she holds up her hand, flashing the very ring Craig put on it—“not real?! How is five years together not real?”
I can’t believe that’s how much time she’s wasted on the man who clearly doesn’t love her.
That’s a long time to squander, especially for something that ended in heartbreak.
Heartbreak, which is inevitably how the thing with Noah will end too. This right here has proved that. It’s proved that the curse is real and that it’s unafraid to touch those I love.
“I can’t believe this.” Izzy shakes her head. “I can’t believe you’d do this to me.”
“I know, baby. I know, and you have no idea how sorry I am. You have no idea how much this has been eating me alive. I just . . . I couldn’t stop, you know? They were all just so tempting.”
“They?” She lets out another cry. “I don’t even want to know how many. Please never tell me how many.”
“Baby . . .” He tries to reach for her again, and I smack his hand away.
He glowers at me, but I don’t back down.
“What the fuck did you even come up here for?”
What he really means is, this is all my fault. I’m the one who got him caught and is breaking Izzy’s heart.
“My earrings. She came up here to get my grandmother’s earrings. I didn’t want to . . .” She shudders out a breath. “I didn’t want to get married without them.”
Izzy turns to me, and I hold her as sobs rack her body. I hate this. I hate this so fucking much. I hate Craig too. I hate his smug face and his fancy job. I hate his gym bro lifestyle and his obnoxious friends too.
I hate that he hurt my best friend.
“Hey, Craig, you home?”
We all freeze, and Izzy stiffens in my arms. Tara’s eyes grow twice their size, and she looks like she’s hoping a hole would open in the floor and swallow her up.
“I used the code. I hope you don’t mind. I was just coming to check on you. Izzy isn’t at the rehearsal dinner yet, and neither is Odette, but that woman is late to everything.” Noah chuckles lightly as his feet land on the stairs. “I just wanted to stop by and make sure everything was okay.”
His steps grow closer, and I revel in the fear that inches into Craig’s eyes with every single thud of the heavy boots against the floor.
I turn just in time to see him round the corner at the end of the hall.
He pauses, tipping his head to the side. “Odie? What are you doing here? I thought Izzy was staying at your place. Are you . . .”
His words die as he sees his sister curled around me.
“What happened?” he barks as he races toward us.
I don’t try to stop him. I don’t want to stop him. I want him to see this. And I want him to get his revenge on Craig.
I let Izzy fall into his arms as he stops before us, and if this were any other moment, I would smile over how gently he takes her into his arms and whispers into her ear that everything is going to be okay.
But this isn’t any other moment.
“What happened?” he asks me.
I can’t find the words to say it out loud. All I can do is lift my hand and point.
Noah’s eyes follow my finger, landing right on Craig.
Then Tara.
And right back to Craig.
I see the second it clicks.
Then suddenly Izzy is no longer in his arms. She’s back in mine as Noah stomps across the room and snatches Craig up by his throat.
I briefly think back to the time when he had that exact hand wrapped around my throat in the bar as he speared me with his cock.
This is nothing like that, yet I still find it exhilarating, especially watching Craig get what he deserves.
“What the fuck did you do to my sister?!”
“Nothing, man. Nothing. I—”
His protests die there. Not because he’s out of them, but because he can’t talk anymore. Noah’s made sure of that as his grip tightens on his throat.
“Want to try that again?” Noah growls, and it’s nothing like the growls he uses with me. It’s menacing. Spit flinging off his lips.
He loosens his hold, just enough for Craig to say, “I’m sorry. I fucked up. I—”
It constricts again, Craig wheezing as the air is choked out of him.
“I’ll kill you,” Noah says, and it’s eerie how calm his words come out.
Then he draws his fist back and punches him.
Then again. And again. And again.
The room descends back into chaos. Izzy is crying harder, and I’m yelling “stop, stop, stop” over and over. Tara is screaming because . . . well, I don’t even know why.
“Noah!” I scream his name this time, and it works.
His fist stops midair, and when he looks at me, it’s like I’m looking at an entirely different person.
I’ve never seen him like this before, and that includes all the fights I’ve seen him get in during his years playing hockey.
This is something different, something way more intense than that ever was, and that’s saying something because those guys hit each other for fun.
No. This is a bone-deep rage.
And it only makes me love him more.
“Noah,” I say, softer this time. “That’s enough.”
“It will never be enough,” he responds, but still, he lets Craig go, and Craig falls to a bloody heap at his feet.
Noah drops down, his lips going to Craig’s ear. He whispers something I can’t discern, but I can only assume is a promise that his next beating will be even worse if he ever comes near Izzy again.
Noah rises to his feet, scoffing at Craig’s limp body, and he drags his sister back into his arms, where her sobs grow even louder.
That’s how we stand for several minutes. The room is silent, except for Izzy’s cries and Craig’s strangled breaths.
I glance to Tara, who is looking at Craig with her hand over her mouth, tears streaking down her face. I wonder if she feels bad for him. I don’t. Not in the least.
Izzy’s sobs slow, and with a flick of Noah’s chin, I take her from his arms and lead her from the room.
“Izzy, wait!” Tara calls.
We turn toward her.
“I am so, so sorry,” she says, tears streaking down her face. “I truly had no idea. You have to believe me.”
Izzy gulps. “I do, Tara. I believe you. I just . . . I can’t look at you right now. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize to me. Ever. Not after this.”
Then Tara looks at me, and I read the silent question in her eyes.
Can we talk about this later?
I nod, then let her pass, not missing how Noah stares her down with heated eyes.
He’s just as pissed at her as he is at Craig, and a part of me gets it, but Tara is a victim in this too.
We slowly make our way down the hall, leaving Craig alone in the bedroom. He made this mess. He can clean it up.
“You’ll be hearing from my lawyer,” he manages to threaten. “You won’t get away with this.”
“Oh, Craigy, I am so fucking looking forward to that,” Noah tells him.
We walk out of the house, and I steer Izzy to my car, carefully closing the door behind her. Her shoulders slump forward as she buries her head in her hands and sobs.
“Where are you taking her?” he asks, face hard as stone as he takes in his sister’s weeping form.
“Back to my place.”
He nods. “I’ll . . . I’ll go to the diner and let everyone know.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s no big deal.” Of course that’s what he says.
He reaches out for me, and I do the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life—I pull away.
His brows inch inward, then he looks down at his busted and bloody knuckles.
“Shit. Sorry about that. I . . .”
But I’m shaking my head halfway through his explanation.
“Odette?”
“I can’t.”
“Can’t what?”
“I can’t. Can’t do this.”
“What do you mean? Like right now? I know Izzy is in the car, but—”
“It’s not her. It has nothing to do with Izzy.
It has everything to do with me. Everything to do with .
. .” Anger pulses through me. “It’s the fucking curse.
I knew this career was a risk. I knew that creating happily ever afters for people when I had this horrible dark thing hanging over me was hazardous, but I didn’t realize that it would ever affect Izzy.
I didn’t realize she would get her heart broken too. ”
“What?” he says in disbelief. “Izzy didn’t get her heart broken because of the curse.
She got her heart broken because Craig is a fucking asshat.
A giant slimy asshat who is lucky I left him breathing.
It has nothing to do with you or the curse.
You can’t . . . Odette, you can’t keep letting it control your life. ”
He doesn’t get it, though. He doesn’t understand what it’s like to watch the people you love get hurt over and over again. My grandmother never found true love, even though she gave it hell. Now she’s old and alone, and it breaks my heart to see her like that.
And my mother . . . God, my poor mother. My father walked out on us and never looked back and her second attempt failed just as spectacularly.
My aunts and cousins too.
And now Izzy . . . fuck, I never wanted this for her. Deep down I hoped that the bad luck I had with weddings was just that—bad luck. That the couples who got divorced quickly after I planned their weddings were just anomalies. That it wasn’t because of my darkness.
I was wrong, and I don’t understand why Noah can’t see that. I don’t get why he can’t see that I can’t keep doing this. I can’t keep trying. I can’t keep letting my heart get broken or getting my hopes up that maybe something will work out.
And I absolutely cannot love Noah Stevens, even though I do.
He’s already been hurt once before, and I can’t hurt him again.
He might be enough for me, but that might not be enough for the curse, and I won’t let it break him too.
“Odie?” He takes a step toward me.
I shake my head, giving us back the distance he just took. “No, Noah. I can’t. I’m . . . I’m done.”
“You’re . . . done?”
I nod, pushing my chest out. “I’m done. We’re done.” I exhale a steadying breath. “Besides, that’s what we said, right? Just until the wedding. We weren’t going to last longer than that anyway.”
Even though I believed we could have. Even though I wanted us to.
But I can’t risk it now. I might not survive the next heartbreak.
I dare a peek up at him. I’ve never seen him look so grumpy before, and that’s saying something.
“Noah?” I hedge.
“No.” He shakes his head, his hands going to his hips as he lifts it, looking anywhere but at me.
“No. You’re right. That’s what we said. Just fun until it isn’t anymore, and I guess it isn’t.
Whatever. Besides, I have a lot of work to do.
Got the farm to take care of. The cidery.
The rink. Renovating my house. I’ll be too busy for lo—” He cuts himself off, rolling his lips together. “I’ll be too busy.”
His mouth may be saying all of this, but I swear his posture says something else. A part of me wants him to take it all back. I want him to stand here and fight for me. To fight for us.
But how can I ask that of him if I’m not willing to do the same myself? How could I ask him to beg me to try again if I’m too damn scared to do it?
So I don’t.
Instead, I open my car door, doing my best to ignore his sweet gesture of helping hold it open even when I’ve just broken things off with him, and climb inside.
“See you around,” he says, before closing it softly.
I turn the key and the car fires up. Izzy reaches over, lacing her fingers in mine as I pull back onto the road.
I make it past one house, then two. My eyes go to the rearview mirror, where Noah stands, watching me drive away, looking every bit like I’ve taken his heart with me.
And it’s funny, because I left mine with him too.