Page 169 of For Better or Hearse

“Listen, I had a question.” Dread and anxiety join forces, stake a claim in her gut. But she goes on. “That photo you gave me.”

Camellia’s breath hitches on the other end of the line, but Ash ignores it, powers through.

“It was Nathaniel’s sister.”

There’s a long, telling silence.

Ash swallows the burn in her throat. “But you knew that, didn’t you? You knew it was Delaney.”

“Ash—”

She closes her eyes. “You told me he was cheating on you. You hired me to break up your own wedding. You did that to your fiancé. To Nathaniel.” Her words come out in short, shaky bursts of anger. “Why? Why would you do that to him?”

“Because I didn’t want to marry him,” she snaps.

Ash freezes. Holds her breath.

A long silence, then— “I didn’t love him.”

“Fuck,” Ash breathes, pressing a hand to her heart. It hurts. She hurts for Nathaniel.

“Look, you don’t know what it was like,” Camellia protests. In the background, the sound of a baby crying. “Our parents wanted it. We had a big write-up in the LA times. Everyone had flown in.” Desperation laces her voice. “I put four years into that relationship. How would it look if I ended it?”

Heart pounding, Ash shakes her head in disbelief. “I think it would look like you were considerate enough to sit down with your fiancé and tell him you wanted to end it. Treat him like, you know, a real human being? Be a mature, reasonable adult.”

“I couldn’t. I couldn’t do it. It was better this way. I didn’t want to hurt him.”

“So you let me do it instead?” Ash asks with an incredulous laugh.

Fury boils her blood. Camellia and Jakob, they’re the fucking same. Gaslighters to the end.

“You let me destroy your wedding, let the world think he was a cheater, let Nathaniel think god knows what for all these years. That’s incredibly fucked up.”

Camellia’s tone is chilly. “I did what I had to do. I don’t expect you to understand it.”

Bristly protection rattles her spine. “Nathaniel’s a good man.”

“Look, why do you care? It was just a job, right?”

“Right. Just a job.” Ash lets out a drained breath. “You never deserved him anyway,” she tells Camellia. Without waiting for a response, she hangs up.

After Augustus’s, they stop at Nathaniel’s to grab his bags. Then they’re off to the airport.

Between his imminent departure and the phone call with Camellia, Ash is struggling to keep it together. She feels carved open. Raw. A great, gigantic, messy secret burrowing a hole in her gut.

But that’s the real world. Full of mess and exes and heartbreak.

Ash stands in the middle of his living room while Nathaniel retrieves his bags from the bedroom. A hollow ache builds in her gut.

“I was thinking—” Nathaniel returns and sets his bags down. Leans back against the counter. He crosses his tan arms, the sunlight from the window slipping across his hooded blue eyes.

The sight of him makes her go soft.

“What if,” he says, wearing a tentative frown, “we got a place together?”

She shakes her head. Clears her daze. “What?”

“Maybe I should have saved this conversation for when I return, but I don’t want to wait.” He sweeps a hand over her shoulder, kisses her throat. “My place is paid off. I can pay the fee to break your lease. Or we can keep it if you need a place to work.”