Clara blinked, and the apartment came back into focus. Her hands were trembling now. She wiped her cheeks, surprised to find she had been crying.
She was closing the final box when a knock came at the door.
When she opened it, Sofia stood there, smiling, with Riley at her side, holding a bottle of champagne.
Riley grinned. "Did you think we were just going to let you spend your last night as a single woman packing?"
Clara tried to laugh it off. "It's not really a wedding. More like a one year contract. I'll be single again before you know it."
"Uh-huh," Riley said, stepping inside. "Contract or not, we're celebrating. Come on."
Before Clara could argue, Riley was behind her, looping a scarf around her eyes.
"Is this really necessary?" Clara asked, trying not to trip as they guided her out.
"Yes," Sofia said, her voice bubbling with excitement. "Trust me."
The blindfold came off an hour later, revealing the velvet interior of one of Manhattan's most exclusive clubs. For a while, she let herself forget. They danced. They laughed. They toasted to "future freedom," as Riley called it.
But when she finally came home past midnight, slipping off her heels and collapsing into bed, the quiet returned.
She stared at the ceiling in the dark, her throat aching.
She had given up on love a long time ago. Giving up Cade had destroyed something in her she would never get back. At twenty seven, she had climbed to the top of her career, her name spoken with respect in courtrooms across the country. But none of it mattered.
She had gained everything… while losing her heart.
And if someone offered her the choice right now to trade it all for the simple life in a coffee shop, just to hold Cade one more time, she would take it without hesitation.
Clara turned onto the other side of the bed, clutching the pillow, and let the tears come as she thought..tomorrow, I will step into a new life. But that tonight she fell asleep with the ache of an old life still bleeding inside her.