The sports suite.
The trust.
Three requests refused.
Three reasons she resented my mother.
Mom dried her hands.
“Nathan, whatever you decide about your marriage, don’t make the decision because of what I own.”
I looked at her.
“Then what should I decide it on?”
She considered that.
“Whether the person you married can tell you the truth when the truth costs her something.”
I glanced at the gold ring on the table.
Then I reached for my phone.
I needed to speak to Ashley again.
And this time, I wasn’t going to let the conversation end when she became angry.
Ashley agreed to meet me that evening at the apartment we’d rented together before the wedding.
She was sitting on the sofa when I arrived.
Her wedding dress hung on the door of the spare bedroom, still wrapped in its protective cover.
The flower arrangements from the reception were scattered across the kitchen counter.
One vase had begun to leak.
Ashley didn’t get up.
“Are you here to apologize?”
I placed my keys on the table.
“For taking your ring without your permission, yes.”
Her expression changed.
I took the band from my pocket and placed it beside her.
“It was wrong of me to do that.”
She picked it up immediately.
Then she looked at me.
“And everything else?”
“I regret stopping the reception so abruptly and upsetting our guests. I should have handled that differently.”
