PART 3
Several guests shifted uncomfortably.
"You are not going to throw away our engagement because some delivery girl folded paper birds with you twenty years ago."
Lily lowered her gaze.
Delivery girl.
She'd heard worse.
Ethan looked at Vanessa for a long time.
Then he said quietly, "Do you know why I built the children's hospital?"
She frowned.
"Because it was good publicity?"
A few people looked at her.
"I built it because of her."
The room became very still.
Vanessa's face changed.
"What?"
"I spent twenty years believing she died."
Lily looked as though she wished the marble floor would open and swallow her.
He continued.
"I built hospitals because I couldn't save one little girl."
Nobody spoke.
Vanessa's voice grew thin.
"You never told me that."
"No."
"Because you never trusted me enough?"
He didn't answer.
Again, silence.
A reporter lowered his camera.
Even gossip had limits.
Vanessa's eyes filled with tears.
Then anger replaced them.
"So what now?" she asked. "You see her again and suddenly I'm nothing?"
"That's not what I said."
"But it's true."
She looked at Lily.
"I know your type."
Lily's head lifted.
"You think this is a fairy tale. Billionaire remembers poor girl from childhood and falls in love."
"I don't think that."
"Then leave."
Lily looked exhausted.
"I was trying to deliver a cake."
That unexpected answer caused a few people to laugh awkwardly.
Even Vanessa looked thrown.
Lily took a slow breath.
"I didn't know this was your engagement party. I didn't know Ethan Sterling was the boy from the hospital."
She turned toward Ethan.
"I came here because I had an address."
He looked at her as if afraid she would disappear again.
"I should go."
"No."
The word came too quickly.
She blinked.
He softened his voice.
"Please."
There was something in his expression she recognized immediately.
Loneliness.
The same loneliness he had carried at nine years old.
She looked away.
Vanessa suddenly laughed.
A brittle, painful sound.
"Oh God."
She took off her engagement ring.
Everyone watched.
"I've been competing with a ghost."
"Vanessa—"
"No."
She looked tired more than angry.
"When I talked about charity events, you didn't care. When I talked about children, you looked sad. Every year on your birthday, you disappeared for hours and never told me why."
She swallowed.
"It was her."
Ethan said nothing.
Tears slipped down her cheeks.
"I think you loved her all along."
"I didn't even know she was alive."
"That's not an answer."
A long silence followed.
Finally he said, "I don't know."
Vanessa nodded slowly.
Strangely, she smiled.
A small, broken smile.
May you like
"At least that's honest."
She placed the ring on a nearby table.
