She ended the call.
I sat in silence for several minutes.
I wanted her to forgive me. I wanted her to tell me she understood why I had trusted Grayson. I wanted some sign that I could undo what had happened at that engagement party.
But Saoirse owed me none of those things.
For two years, I had accepted a story about her without ever asking whether it was true.
She had tried to give me one sentence that might protect us both.
I had carried it straight back to the people she feared.
Now all I could do was stop asking her to make me feel better about it.
***
The warning had come at the engagement party, five months before the wedding.
I remembered it clearly now.
The reception room was crowded, warm, and loud. People were laughing near the bar, and the music was too high for private conversations.
