Chapter 10 - The Woman in the Red Dress
Vanessa came to Claire alone.
Claire almost refused to see her.
Vanessa surprised her.
“I owe you an apology.”
“For what?”
“For hating you before I knew you.”
Vanessa admitted she had loved Drew.
Or believed she had.
Their families had encouraged the relationship.
But Drew had never proposed.
Never promised anything.
Vanessa had simply assumed time would erase whatever woman had broken him.
Now she understood that Claire had never broken Drew.
Their families had.
“You don’t need to worry about me,” Vanessa said.
Claire looked at her.
“I wasn’t.”
Vanessa laughed.
For the first time, they were not rivals.
Just two women who had been placed into roles other people had written.
Before leaving, Vanessa gave Claire something.
A photograph.
Drew, five years earlier, sitting alone at a charity dinner.
“He carried your ring on a chain around his neck for three years.”
Claire stared at the photograph.
“He told everyone he was over you,” Vanessa said. “Nobody believed him.”
That evening Claire found Drew playing dolls with Lucy.
He looked ridiculous.
And happy.
Claire touched the ring hanging beneath his shirt.
Drew froze.
“You kept it?”
“I couldn’t throw it away.”
Claire whispered, “Neither could I.”
From her pocket, she removed her wedding ring.
Drew stared.
“I thought you left it.”
“I did.”
“Then—”
“Richard returned it.”
Claire slid it onto her finger.
Not as a promise.
Not yet.
But as an acknowledgment that their marriage had been real.
Drew’s eyes filled.
He did not touch her.
May you like
He waited.
And Claire realized waiting was the first gift anyone had given her in years.
