Chapter 16
Marigold felt the cool metal of her car’s roof pressing against her forehead.
The chilled surface was the only thing grounding her as she fought to rein in the wild, chaotic stampede of thoughts that threatened to drive her mad.
Lucian and Ellie. The repetition was a broken mantra of betrayal.
She needed to calm her racing pulse before she dared to put the key in the ignition.
A sudden sound—the crunch of gravel under heavy boots—made her stiffen.
She slowly lifted her head and turned, her eyes, hot with unshed tears, meeting the familiar gaze of Lucian.
He stood a few feet away, silhouetted against the dim lights of the festival, his jaw set hard.
All the carefully constructed walls she’d built came crashing down, replaced by a devastating, raw anger.
"Why are you here on a date with my best friend?” she yelled, the words torn from her throat, laced with all the pain of the last ten years.
Lucian’s ear twitched. He stuffed his hands deep into the pockets of his leather jacket. “What I do is not your business, Goldie."
"Not my business?” A sob caught in her chest, cutting off her breath.
“She was my best friend, Lucian! The closest thing to a sister I had.
Did you two plan this all along? Did you wait until I was broken enough to leave town just so you could finally be together?
Have you been together for the last ten years? "
He took a step closer, his scent—vetiver and leather—a suffocating reminder of everything she had lost. His voice dropped to a low, feral growl that vibrated with old, bitter resentment. “You put a spell on me, Goldie.”
“Love spells don’t work like that,” Goldie whispered. “But heartbreak does.”
His voice dropped to a low, feral growl that vibrated with old, bitter resentment. “You manufactured every single thing I felt, and then you expected me to feel anything for you after that? You expected me to stay?"
The accusation, delivered here and now, was the final, unforgivable blow.
She stood up straight, meeting his gaze with a defiant fire that burned through her tears.
“You accused me of stealing your heart,” she whispered, her voice trembling with conviction.
“Lucian… you handed it to me freely. And then you spent ten years pretending you never did.. "
"I saw proof!” he retorted, the conviction in his voice chilling.
She gave a short, sharp laugh, the sound brittle and humorless. “Proof? What proof could possibly convince you that our love was fake?"
"Text messages,” he said simply, the certainty in the two words crushing her.
Marigold stared at him, bewildered by the sheer stupidity of the claim. “The text messages? Lucian, if I were so evil, if I were some dark witch trying to manipulate you, why would I text someone about it? Do I look like some villain who has to explain the plot to the princess?"
His golden-brown eyes were locked on hers, devoid of mercy. He repeated the words that shattered the last pieces of her world entirely. “Ellie showed me the texts you sent her."
The noise of the festival, the blood pounding in her ears, the cold metal of the car—all of it faded into a sudden, deafening silence.
Every single moment of trust, every whispered confidence, every shared childhood secret with Ellie, collapsed into dust. She felt what was left of her heart—the bruised, fragile remainder—break completely.
She whispered the name, the sound barely audible, tasting like ashes and absolute devastation. “Ellie?"
She didn't wait for his reply, didn’t spare him another glance.
She turned, scrambled into the driver’s seat of her car, and slammed the door shut.
Her hands fumbled for the keys, shaking so violently she could barely turn the ignition.
With a desperate, choked-off cry, she peeled out of the parking lot.
The tires spat gravel, the sound a ragged echo of her anguish, as she drove without direction, her brain completely shut off, no longer able to process the ruin left behind.
Her vision was blurred by a torrent of hot, useless tears, and the world outside the windshield was nothing but a chaotic, smeary mess of lights and dark shapes.
She drove aimlessly for what felt like an eternity; the physical act of moving was the only thing keeping her from shattering entirely.
Finally, her body, guided by muscle memory, made the familiar turns toward her cottage.
She pulled into the driveway; the car bumping slightly over the small curb.
Her eyes were so out of focus, fixed only on the immediate, painful past, that she didn’t notice the familiar, older car already parked there.
She stumbled out of her vehicle, leaving the door ajar, and walked toward the front door, her legs unsteady, moving on autopilot.
She pushed the door open and stepped into the warm, comforting scent of home. Her name was whispered, a sound so tender and unexpected that it barely registered over76 the roaring of her broken heartbeat in her ears.
"Goldie?"
She kept walking, her gaze glued to the floor, her mind still trapped in the parking lot confrontation. She felt a familiar warmth approaching her from behind, and then two tender arms wrapped around her, pulling her close and pressing her against a soft, supportive chest.
The physical contact was the last straw. The crumbling wall of control she had desperately tried to maintain for the last hour collapsed completely. She broke, great, racking sobs tearing out of her as she collapsed, clinging to the lifeline of her aunt.
"Oh, my lovey,” Lettie murmured, rocking her gently and holding her tightly. “I knew I needed to come back. I felt the storm brewing all the way across the continent."
Goldie just clung to her, hiccupping, trying to force the jumbled, devastating words out: Ellie... Lucian... texts... lie... But it all came out as noise, a choked, incoherent stream of misery.
Lettie stroked her hair and whispered, “It’s alright. Tell me what’s wrong, but only after you’ve calmed down, my heart. Just breathe."
Goldie let the warmth of her aunt’s embrace soak into her, letting the torrent of tears drain her body of its tension.
After what seemed like an eternity, the sobs subsided into one last, weary hiccup.
Drained, Marigold just sat quietly in the warmth of her aunt’s arms, listening to the steady, comforting rhythm of Lettie’s heart.
After a profound silence, she finally spoke, her voice cracked and thin, the words a final, terrible admission of defeat. “Ellie betrayed me."