Beckett found out through a passing comment.
"So... big day's sooner than expected, huh?" a staffer said with a grin. "I didn't think she'd move that fast."
He froze. "What?"
The guy chuckled. "The wedding. They bumped it up, didn't you hear?"
Beckett walked out of the meeting without saying a word.
Drove straight to the Holdings estate.
Waited for her outside the gallery lobby, pacing like a man with a live wire in his chest. When Emery stepped out, the look on her face nearly shattered him.
"You moved the wedding?" he asked, voice strained.
She didn't blink. "Why do you care?"
He stared at her. "Because I thought what we had - "
"You thought wrong."
"Emery - "
"I heard you," she snapped. "I heard what Grayson said."
Realization dawned on him. "You think I did this for him?"
"You let me believe you cared. You kissed me like you meant it."
"I did mean it."
Her voice shook. "Then why did you disappear?"
He stepped closer, desperate. "Because I was scared you'd pick him over me. That I'd ruin everything. That if I stayed, I'd cost you your whole future."
"You already did." she said calmly
She turned.
And this time, when she walked away -
He let her.
He stood in the same spot long after she disappeared, gripping the edge of the building like it might hold him together. But nothing could. Because she didn't just walk away from a man.
She walked away from their chance at forever.