Elise looked at the ring box.
Then at Cole.
“You told me you’d been single for nearly a year.”
Cole rubbed his cheek.
“She’s upset. Obviously.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
His expression tightened.
“This isn’t the place.”
Elise looked around the private room.
Their friends stood beneath the decorations he had arranged. Her sister held a phone at her side. A waiter waited near the door, uncertain whether to remove the champagne.
“You chose the place.”
Rachel reached Vivian and stood beside her.
“Come with me for a minute.”
Vivian nodded, but Elise spoke again.
“Did you know about me?”
“No.”
Elise’s eyes filled.
“Neither did I.”
Cole gave a short, humorless laugh.
“You’re both acting like I planned a crime.”
Vivian felt the urge to answer sharply.
Instead, she took one step away from him.
“I shouldn’t have hit you.”
Cole immediately pointed toward the guests.
“You all heard that.”
“Yes,” she said. “And you can also hear this. You told me you returned that ring. I paid toward it. You promised to send me an accounting, and you kept putting me off.”
Elise turned slowly toward him.
“She paid for it?”
“I paid for plenty of things in that relationship.”
“That wasn’t the question,” Elise said.
The waiter approached.
“Would you like somewhere quieter to speak?”
Elise looked at Vivian.
“Yes.”
Cole began to follow them.
Elise stopped.
“Not you.”
His face changed.
“Elise.”
“I need five minutes without you telling me what every sentence means.”
Her sister joined them.
Rachel guided Vivian through the doorway, keeping a hand lightly against her back.
Behind them, the engagement party had become a room full of people who no longer knew what they were celebrating.
