Chapter 10 #3
Or at least she believed Lara believed it.
“No,” Ella said. “You tried to take my place.”
Lara flinched.
Noah’s hand found Ella’s.
Not possessive. Not performative.
A question.
She let him take it.
Lara saw.
For a moment, the last of her composure disappeared.
“She gets everything,” Lara said.
Not loudly.
Not like a villain.
Like a child finally saying the unfair thing out loud.
The words lay there in the cold.
Noah’s fingers tightened around Ella’s.
Lara looked at him. “You don’t understand. I lost my apartment. Evan. My friends are his friends. My whole life feels like it was borrowed, and then I came here and she had this house, and your mother, and your routines, and this wedding, and you looking at her like she invented morning.”
Ella’s throat ached.
Lara turned back to her. “And she didn’t even seem to know what she had.”
The pity died.
Ella straightened.
“No,” she said.
Lara blinked.
“I knew exactly what I had.”
The words came quietly, but they changed something in Ella’s chest as she said them.
“I knew this house. I knew Noah. I knew our mornings. Our mugs. Our ridiculous wedding binder. His terrible pasta. His headaches. The way he goes quiet before he admits something hurt him. I knew what I had because I built it with him.”
Noah’s breath caught beside her.
Ella kept her eyes on Lara.
“You not seeing it did not mean I failed to value it.”
Lara looked as if the words had struck somewhere tender and true.
For one second, Ella saw the argument leave her.
Then fear rushed into its place.
“So that’s it?” Lara whispered. “I’m just gone?”
Noah answered.
“Yes.”
Lara stared at him.
“You need help,” he said, more gently now, which made Lara’s face crumple again. “Real help. Not from me. Not from my mother. Not from Ella. And you need to leave us alone.”
“I don’t know who I am without you,” Lara said.
The sentence was awful.
Noah’s face twisted with pain, but he did not step toward her.
“That’s why it can’t be me,” he said.
Lara covered her mouth.
Ella felt no victory.
Only exhaustion.
Carolina stepped forward then, voice cool and precise. “You need to go.”
Lara’s gaze flicked to her with a flash of anger. “Of course you’d enjoy this.”
Carolina smiled without warmth. “I’m enjoying it less than you think, which is fortunate for you.”
“Carolina,” Ella murmured.
“What? That was restraint.”
Lara looked back at Noah one last time.
He shook his head before she could speak.
“No more texts,” he said. “No calls. No contact with my mother. No vendors. If you have something of Ella’s, mail it. If you need your belongings, the courier will bring them.”
“You’re treating me like I’m dangerous.”
“You used a key to enter our house while we slept.”
Lara flinched again.
There was no way around that sentence.
Lara stared at her.
Then she stepped back from the door.
For a moment, Ella thought she might say something else. Something cutting. Something pitiful. Something that would lodge in the house and have to be removed later.
But Lara only nodded once.
Then she turned and walked down the porch steps.
Noah did not move until she reached the sidewalk.
Ella did not close the door until Lara got into her car.
The chain slid against the wood.
The new deadbolt clicked.
The house was silent.
No one spoke for several seconds.
Carolina looked between them. “I’m going to make myself extremely busy in the kitchen.”
Neither of them answered.
Carolina disappeared with unusual quiet.
Ella stayed in the entry, facing Noah. He looked tired enough to collapse, but he was still standing. Still waiting. Still not reaching for what she had not offered.
“I want to go through the wedding stuff tomorrow,” she said.
“Okay.”
“And I want to call Bethany myself.”
“And I want to postpone the wedding.”
Noah went still.
“Not cancel,” she said quickly, then hated that she had softened it for him.
He seemed to catch that too.
He nodded slowly. “Postpone.”
“I can’t walk into that day feeling like I’m trying to outrun what happened.”
“No.”
“I need to choose it again. Later. When it feels like ours.”
His eyes shone.
“Then we postpone,” he said.
“You’re not angry?”
“No.”
“Disappointed?”
“Yes.”
The honesty startled her.
His voice roughened. “Not in you. Not at you. I’m disappointed because I wanted to marry you on that day.
I wanted the day we planned before I let it get poisoned.
But I would rather wait and have you walk toward me freely than keep a date that feels like something you survived, something tainted.. ”
Ella’s eyes filled. She stepped toward him. His fingers closed around hers carefully, as if too much pressure might make her regret it.
“I wanted that day too,” she said.
“We’ll have another one.”
“Maybe smaller.”
“Good.”
“Maybe no chair angles.”
“I have always supported chair anarchy.”
A laugh broke through her tears.
Noah’s face softened.
He lifted her hand slowly, giving her time to pull away, and kissed her knuckles. Noah dropped his forehead against Ella’s hand and laughed weakly.
She touched his cheek once.
“I’m still here,” she said.
“I know.”