He left me kneeling all by myself in the freezing puddles.

“Good,” Vanessa said.

She gazed down at me with a pleased smile.

“I told you to leave.”

At the top of the grand stone staircase, the heavy glass patio doors slid open with a loud metal scrape.

Ethan stepped out onto the upper terrace.

He held a tall crystal champagne glass loosely in his right hand.

He had on a perfectly tailored dark blue suit.