Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The rooftop of the Renaissance served as the backdrop to the hottest ticket in town on the second weekend of July.
On each side of the shimmering pool, chairs were filled with butts in seats.
The guest list was as intimate as Elsa would allow.
Though it was supposed to be family and friends only, Cooper’s mother ensured the most powerful people in the city were in attendance, including the mayor and the president of the university.
Cooper stood at the front of the pool underneath a white arch with fake black cobras wrapped around red and white roses.
That was another idea of his mother’s: to theme the wedding after the team.
The entire affair was put together on short notice.
The faster Cooper got this over with, the easier it’d be to forget Nico fucking Fallon.
As he waited for his bride-to-be, he leaned slightly backward and glanced over the ledge of the building. It wasn’t too late to jump.
Together, Cooper and Stassi chose to keep the ceremony as traditional as possible, and that meant she walked out to the crowd to the melody of “Here Comes the Bride.” Her father guided her, his elbow locked with hers.
She looked as stunning as Cooper ever could have imagined, wearing a tight-fitting dress with sparkling red rubies embedded into the fabric.
She wore a familiar smile, the kind that pulled at her cinched eyes.
Forced.
They used to dream about this day. Would talk about it all the time, back when Luke was still a part of the equation. Back when the three of them were their own kind of special, fucked-up modern family. One part of that dream was coming true while the rest lay in a grave out in Los Angeles.
Something was wrong.
Stassi turned down the aisle—a makeshift bridge that spanned the length of the pool—and put on a show. She was so goddamn good at acting whatever part the world needed her to be. Today, she played the part of the doting, devoted bride.
And that beautiful smile masked over a decade of lies.
Cooper couldn’t quite fake it as well. Sure, he smiled because Stassi was the closest person he had left in this world.
Love was love, and though he wasn’t in love with her, the love they shared was unconditional.
Unbreakable. While the rest of the world rallied in cahoots to break his heart, Stassi Davies was the one rock that always weathered the storm.
As she reached the halfway point of the walkway, Cooper imagined she was someone else.
Imagined she was Luke, and it was an easy mistake to make.
Same hair color. Same light curls. Same fucking eyes.
In the brief flashes of time when Stassi would morph into her twin brother, Cooper saw him as he’d always imagined he’d look on the big day.
He was dressed in a white suit with navy suspenders.
And then he saw Nico, dressed exactly the same, as if the two were interchangeable.
For a while, Cooper fooled himself into believing that was the case, but Luke never would have left him. Not intentionally.
The music edged to a stop as Stassi took her spot beside Cooper.
He turned to her and when he exhaled, he tasted throw-up in the back of his throat.
This could be his last moment to break out of the cage.
One final chance to stop living a lie. He had been so fucking ready to shout it from the rooftops, but Nico leaving him in that hotel room changed the equation.
He was stuck.
Wayne Holbrook, the pastor at his mother’s congregation, led the ceremony. A religious touch that Cooper and Stassi fought against, but in the end, this was Elsa Callahan’s day more than it was theirs.
Stassi’s lips trembled as Holbrook performed his song and dance of meaningless words. Cooper zoned out whatever rehearsed shit was spewing from the man’s mouth and honed in on Stassi. He brushed a thumb under her eye, wiping away tears that trickled from her drawn eyes.
His gaze flirted to the side, gauging the reaction of the crowd.
Nobody seemed aware that something was definitely fucking wrong.
Cooper and Stassi’s eyes met somewhere in the space between them, and a silent understanding befell Cooper.
“Please don’t do this,” he pleaded in a hushed whisper, his lips barely moving. “Not in front of all these people.”
She stared blankly at him, batting away tears with her lashes. Her throat tensed like a twitch matching the rhythm of her trembling lips. She leaned forward and whispered into his ear, “The day will come when you’ll thank me.”
He grabbed her by the small of her back and pulled her close, but it was more like he was holding her in place. Holding her long enough so he could make her change her mind. “I will never forgive you for this. Please don’t leave me alone in this cage.”
“I’m sorry,” she cried softly into his ear. “I have to go now.”
When she pulled back, a redness was painted around her swollen eyes and her cheeks were stained with tears of black mascara. She turned to the crowd and said the quiet part out loud, “I can’t do this. I’m sorry, everyone.”
And just like that, she was gone.
A runaway bride racing down the center of the pool while the audience gasped, lost in a state between confusion and entertainment.
Cooper heard the glass cracking all around him, rippling through the darkest corners of his mind. He looked to his mother whose lips were drawn tight.
“Go get her right fucking now,” Elsa mouthed to him.
Cooper gave chase, fleeing down the makeshift bridge. Up ahead, Stassi stormed through the rotating glass door, spinning her way to freedom. By the time he caught up to her, she was in the elevator and facing him.
“You had to have known,” she said, her voice exhausted. “This cage was always going to break.”
The doors began to draw to a close, but stopped when he rushed inside the elevator. He waited for what seemed like forever for the elevator doors to come to a close before turning to her. Stassi couldn’t look at him, instead opting to stare ahead at the elevator doors.
Cooper stabbed the emergency stop button with his thumb. “If this isn’t the life you want, then I’m not going to be mad at you for it.”
“This is the life I want,” she said, closing her eyes.
“Then what the hell is the problem?”
She opened her eyes and glanced up to him. “Because it’s not the life you want.”
“Can we please go back upstairs and finish this?”
“That’s my point, Coop,” she scoffed. “You see this as something to finish. Something to get over with.”
“Stassi, you are the only person in my life who hasn’t let me down.”
She slammed the button and the elevator started moving again. “Then I’m sorry for doing this.”
“I am begging you to come back upstairs.”
“And then what, Coop? We pretend for the rest of our lives that you aren’t missing the life you could have had? I know how this story ends for both of us and I think I’ve known it for a long time, but I was too terrified to do anything about it.”
He slammed the button again, forcing the elevator to jerk as it came to a sudden stop.
“Coop, please,” she pleaded. “You have to let me go.”
Cooper shook his head violently. “You once said you would live forever in this cage with me. I’ve lost Luke. I’ve lost Nico. I can’t lose you, too.”
Stassi turned to him and placed a hand over his chest, right over his heart that felt like it was about to break out of his chest. “Do you love him?”
“No,” Cooper lied.
Her eyes searched his and he knew that she fucking knew. “I’m going to ask you again and this time I want the truth. Do you love him?”
“It doesn’t matter. He fucking left me.”
“You know the difference between us right now?” She dragged her palms over her eyes and cheeks, wiping away the tears.
“My heart is being ripped apart because I’m running away from the only thing that’s ever made me feel safe.
Your heart was broken a long time ago, and then Nico broke it again.
This hurt you feel? You’d never feel that for me and that’s okay.
I promise you it’s okay.” She placed a steady hand back on his chest. “Nothing has to change between us. I’ll forever love you just the same, but not as your wife. ”
“I can’t do this life without you.”
“No, you’re afraid to do this life without me.” She forced a smile through the pain and caressed the side of his cheek. “There’s a difference. And I know now, more than ever, that this thing between us is only holding you back.”
Cooper leaned back against the railing and cupped his hand over his mouth. “What am I supposed to tell everyone?”
“I wish I would have done this sooner. I wish it didn’t happen this way.
But I was getting dressed for what is supposed to be the happiest day of my life, no matter how fraudulent it is.
And I thought to myself, you’d never feel that same happiness.
It broke something in me. It’s like you were talking to him. ”
She quietly poked the button, and the elevator began moving again.
This time, Cooper didn’t fight it. Didn’t try to wrestle back control.
“So tell them I got cold feet, or that I cheated. Tell them it’s a private matter.”
The elevator dinged and the doors slid open.
“I love you more than anything in this world,” Stassi said as she kissed him on the forehead.
And then she was gone, and Cooper was left alone, standing in the elevator.
He watched Stassi race through the lobby, cinching the fabric of her dress so as to not drag it on the floor.
And as the elevator doors drew to a close, he leaned back against the golden railing and stared up at his reflection on the mirrored roof.
His eyes were swollen and his cheeks stained with tears.
the next day