Chapter 43 Coco
Coco
The chapel goes silent. Dead silent. Like if-a-fly-were-buzzing-it-would-be-as-loud-as-a-siren silent.
“What’s going on?” Pane demands again.
“Be right back,” Stone says nonchalantly, squeezing my hand tenderly while my stomach flattens into a pancake. He moves to greet his brother. “Great to see you!”
Pane gives Stone a stiff hug, the whole time staring at me with fire in his eyes. No doubt this wasn’t what he expected to return home to—his brother marrying, the resort materials changed.
“If you don’t mind,” Stone says, dropping his voice, “I’m a little busy right now. Can we talk after? Better yet, why don’t you stand beside me, be my best man? I’ve even got a ring for you to hold.”
A ring? My knees become Jell-O. It’s even worse than I thought. It’s not just a wedding—there’s another ring.
I bet it’s got diamonds.
Pane grabs his brother by the shoulders. “I’ve barely been gone a month, and Rhett calls to say the resort’s different and you’re getting married.”
Stone presses a hand to Pane’s shoulder. “Can we please talk about this later? And Coco and I have been engaged for a while. The wedding shouldn’t come as a surprise. I’m sorry, by the way, for not officially waiting for you to return before making it legal.”
Pane scowls. Behind him, Rowe tugs on his sleeve. “Maybe we should let them finish,” she murmurs.
“I can’t,” he grinds out, then turns to his brother. “What are you talking about? You weren’t engaged when I left. You weren’t even dating anyone.”
Stone shakes his head as if he’s thinking, My wacky brother, always getting it wrong. “Of course I was engaged. Tell him, Coco.”
It’s my worst nightmare, this happening in front of the entire town and my family. I think Brittany’s even recording. My gaze swivels toward her. Yep. She’s recording.
“Coco,” Stone nudges.
My ribs crack as I fix my gaze on him—on this beautiful man who’s put his faith and trust in me.
My words come out shaky. “It’s true.”
Pockets of gasps spread out over the crowd. A knot forms in my throat.
“What?” Stone says, taking a step forward. “What’s true?”
I close my eyes and exhale. “What your brother said. We’re not engaged.”
He chuckles. “Yes, we are. Tell them.”
For the first time since all this started, there’s uncertainty in his eyes. The man I’ve grown to love with all his confidence and quirkiness, is utterly, completely, totally confused.
I dread what comes next.
“What are you talking about?” he asks gently but firmly, and I know it’s all about to unravel, so I might as well get it over with.
“Maybe we can talk privately.” I reach for him. “To discuss this.”
He shakes his head, confusion scribbled over his features. “Whatever you have to say, say it here.”
Several thoughts hit me at once: Dot’s warning about being invisible, how the town’s magic disappeared, tales of what happens to witches.
There are so many reasons to not do the right thing, but it’s time for me to stand on my own two feet and stop hiding.
It’s the least I can do for Stone.
I lick my lips and steel myself. “Several weeks ago I came to the resort to do an inspection. It was supposed to be run-of-the-mill, but when I arrived, I realized the building was wrong. It was hurting the town’s land.
When I told you, you wouldn’t listen. You called me a bureaucrat, a simpleton, someone wanting to be more important than I was. ”
Pain flashes through his eyes, but he only nods, silently telling me to continue.
“You wouldn’t listen to reason, no matter how much I tried to make you. You threatened to—”
I stop. Can’t say it.
“To what?” he asks quietly, his voice reminding me of a pot on a low simmer.
“It’s not important.” He doesn’t need to know about the blackmail. That’s one thing I can spare him. “I did the only thing I could think of to help.”
“What was that?”
“I found a spell book.”
“What?” someone murmurs.
“Witchcraft,” another says.
“Everybody quiet down,” he commands. “Let her finish.”
A bit of hope buoys inside me. Maybe I haven’t ruined everything after all.
But then he grinds out in a voice so icy the hard edges of it scrape over my heart, “Tell us what you did.”
My insides coil tight, and it feels like my I’m about to crack open. “It was supposed to be a prank,” I explain, trying to salvage something of my dignity. “But I . . . I made a potion and gave it to you.”
A cold sheen flashes over his eyes. “And then?”
“You lost your memory.”
The peanut gallery chimes:
“His memory?”
“He has amnesia?”
“Is that why he came to our book club?”
The candlelight was warm when I arrived, but now the room is stifling. Sweat runs down my spine and sprouts on my palms. I need to get out of here and into fresh air.
“Go on,” he tells me in a chilly voice.
When I look up at him, his jade eyes have turn to flint. My throat shrivels to the size of a pea. I’m lost. But there’s no going back.
“I couldn’t leave you the way you were, so I became your friend. I looked for a cure.”
“Then why aren’t I cured?”
“At first, I couldn’t find it.” I pinch the bridge of my nose.
“And then I waited.” The crowd erupts into gasps again, and I plead with them, “Because Stone was a different person. The potion knocked out his memory, but it also softened something. Before, he was different, rough. But after—he cared about our land, about our town. He changed the materials so the resort wouldn’t disrupt the magic. ”
My gaze locks on Clarice. “He came to our book club. Everyone loved him.” I whirl toward Stone.
“This whole time, you’ve worried about who you were, about being someone worthy, and I didn’t know you well, but I can tell you the person you were before didn’t care for Hercules.
You hated him. But now? You don’t leave him anywhere.
You bought him a bed. He loves you and you love him. ”
I press a hand to the base of my throat. “I didn’t change you. You became you, and I fell for that person. Yes, it was my fault, but I’ve never lied about my feelings. In fact, I tried not to fall for you because I was scared to, scared that when you remembered, you’d hate me.
“But, Stone”—the words clog my throat and tears blur my eyes—“the truth is, you helped me see myself in ways I never have. You made me believe I was someone worth seeing, and I’ll never forget that.”
Stone wipes a hand down his face. “The engagement? It was a lie?”
The word lie comes out slowly, like his mind is trying to wrap around it. He gazes at the floor, but when he looks up at me, his eyes brim with hurt, betrayal.
“You lied,” he repeats as if he’s doing his best to absorb what I’ve done.
And then I remember what Isaac told me his mother did—took away his father—and I get the sense that even if Stone doesn’t remember the details of that, the pain is still real. It haunts him.
And now I’ve lied to him.
“What about the ring?” he asks.
Oh, God. There’s still more to tell him.
“The ring was my grandmother’s. You saw me wearing it when we first met and commented that no one would marry me, or something like that, and after .
. . I think you remembered seeing it on my finger, and that’s why you thought we were engaged.
I wanted to stop everything, I did. But I was afraid of losing who you’d become. ”
“And the town,” he grinds out. “You were afraid of losing your town.”
I nod, ashamed. I can’t look at him.
“None of it was real,” he murmurs in a voice so broken my rib cage shatters.
“Yes, it was real. I’m real. You’re real.”
He murmurs, sounding confused, “This whole time I thought it was an accident.” He touches his head. “But you did this on purpose. You let me believe this lie, and you had weeks to tell me the truth. Weeks.”
“I know what I did is unforgivable.”
He stumbles back and Pane grabs his shoulders, catching him before he hits the ground. Stone shakes off the help and swallows hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing.
“You let me believe we were engaged. You showed up to this wedding I planned. You would have married me? For what? For money? I don’t even know how much I have, but I’m pretty sure it’s a lot.
” He glances at Pane, who nods. His next words come out so cold I don’t recognize the man who says them: “You’ve taken me for a fool. ”
“No!” I reach for him, but he steps away. “No, Stone. I tried to tell you! I wanted to tell you! But whenever I did, I always got interrupted.”
Stone runs a hand down his chest. It’s like he’s thrown up a thousand impenetrable walls.
And that’s when I know there’s no coming back from this.
“You had more than enough time to admit you gave me amnesia.” He looks at his brother.
“Had it for weeks. That’s why I changed my cell number, because I couldn’t get into my phone.
That’s why I changed the resort. Because I thought what I was doing was better.
But it wasn’t.” He exhales. “I’ve been betrayed.
” Without looking at me, he murmurs, “I never want to see you again.”
“No! No, Stone! I tried to cure you. I did. I made the potion from that bloom we found the other night, but Hercules ate it.”
He laughs. It’s bitter, and it rips me in half. “Right.”
“I swear!” I grab his hand, but he jerks back. “Please, you have to listen to me.”
He shakes his head. “I’ve made up my mind. I never want to see you again.”
My emotions swirl, ungrounded, untethered, wanting to cling to something.
I’ve never felt so awful in my whole life.
Yes, it’s my fault. I’m not saying it isn’t.
But I wanted the lie as much as I wanted him.
I just wanted to be seen and loved for myself for a little while longer. Who could blame me for that?
As Stone moves away, power surges inside me. Before I can stop it, blue sparks jump from my fingers, shooting like lightning toward the floor, the ceiling, smashing candles and causing them to explode into fountains of liquid wax.
People scream, “She’s a witch! Get out! She’ll kill us all!”
“No!” I cry. “No! I’m not going to hurt anyone. I’m so sorry! Wait! Please!”
I look over as Stone turns on his heel and leaves with the crowd, who’s clambering for the double doors.
His brother puts a hand on his shoulder and Hercules follows behind, kicking up his feet, excited to be going somewhere with his family.
His family.
Not my family.
Never my family.
As people flood out from the chapel, I watch them, all alone, standing in a beautiful dress on what could have been the happiest day of my life.
Who am I kidding? This was never going to end well. The question was, just what degree of awful would it be?
Level terrible is where it ended up.
I’m left standing alone, shunned, just as I feared.
My magic may have been the reason why people are leaving, but it’s not the reason I’m alone.
I did that to myself, and there’s no way to salvage this.