The Last Time I Knelt for You

I said it without hesitation.

"I'm in."

My mentor paused for a couple of seconds, then sighed.

"You were dead set against going. Did you break up with your girlfriend?"

I made a small sound of assent, my eyes stinging.

"We broke up."

I'd barely wheeled my suitcase out of the building when high beams swept across me.

A brand-new red sports car sat at the curb.

The window slid down. Amos's eyes traveled over my suitcase, and one brow went up as he smiled.

"What's this, running away from home in the middle of the night?"

I gave a thin smile.

"If I don't leave, how am I supposed to make room for you?"

Amos pushed the door open and got out.

"Don't talk like I came between the two of you. It's pathetic."

"Felicia hands me her money because she wants to. What am I supposed to do about that?"

He paused, deliberately.

"You know what? You're actually kind of pitiful."

"Felicia got drunk once and let it slip—if I hadn't been the untouchable Fox heir and she hadn't been some stray the Foxes took in, if the gap between us hadn't scared her off, she'd never have gone looking for second-best. She'd never have settled for you."

"So don't go thinking of yourself as the real thing here."

"If I'd actually wanted to take you on, you'd never have been in the picture at all."

The night wind cut through me, and I felt the cold of it.

Hearing all this, I didn't feel a thing.

I only thought how absurd these five years had been.

I let out a faint laugh.

"Then I wish the two of you a long and happy life. Locked together forever."

My calm threw him—like swinging hard and hitting nothing, the punch just giving way under his fist.

When he saw me turn to go, he grabbed the strap of my suitcase.

"Wait. Who said you could leave?"

"You walk off, and Felicia's still lying in a hospital bed. I don't do nursing duty. You go take care of her."

I looked at the hand gripping my case.

"Let go."

Instead of letting go, Amos pulled out his phone and video-called Felicia on the spot.

"Felicia... did I get Sam all worked up again?"

"I just wanted to show him the new car, but he grabbed his suitcase and insisted on leaving. He won't even go see you at the hospital. I tried to stop him, I couldn't..."

On the screen, Felicia had gauze wound around her head, her face drained of color.

After she heard Amos, she didn't ask why I was out on the street with a suitcase in the dead of night. She didn't ask if I was cold.

She frowned, her voice worn thin.

"Sam, what are you sulking about now? We worked everything out on the phone just now."

"Don't give Amos a hard time. Just get to the hospital."

I stood there in the night wind and almost turned on my heel, until I remembered what my mentor had told me.

"The security clearance for the Iceland polar project is strict. First thing tomorrow, you have to bring your original passport and ID to the department office to start the paperwork."

And my passport, all my important documents, were with Felicia.

Because today was supposed to be the day we met each other's families and signed the marriage license.

My document folder had gone into her bag last night, packed in with everything else.

That bag was sitting on the nightstand in the emergency ward where she lay.

I looked at Felicia on the screen.

"Fine."

"I'm coming to the hospital."

Half an hour later I reached the third floor of the inpatient wing.

I was about to push the door open when I heard Sienna's voice from inside.

"You really crossed a line this time, Felicia."

"That was your down payment, yours and Amos's, for the wedding. And you blew the whole thing on a sports car for Amos?"

"You stood up Amos's parents today too. Aren't you scared Sam's heart finally goes cold this time—that he really walks for good?"