CHAPTER 30
Cate
That Sunday evening, less than a week before Peter and Genevieve’s wedding, I made the final, painful decision to follow my head over my heart. As much as I loved Joe, we didn’t belong together. It wasn’t going to work. Breaking up with him was the only way—and I needed to do it before the press got wind of the story about my father. It was only a matter of time, and I couldn’t wait for that bomb to go off in Joe’s life.
So I picked up the phone and called him. It rang a few times before he answered.
“Hi,” I said, my heart racing. “It’s me.”
“Hi, Cate,” he said, sounding so tired and sad.
“Do you think I could come over? To talk?”
“Of course,” he said. “I’m dying to talk to you.”
“Can I come now?”
He hesitated, then said, “Well, Berry’s here right now, actually.”
Feeling relieved that I could put the conversation off another night, I said, “Okay. What about sometime tomorrow?”
“Wait,” he said. “Can you hold on one second?”
I said yes, then listened to the muffled sounds of voices. Whenhe came back on, he said, “Now’s good, actually. Berry’s about to leave.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I’ll see you soon.”
—
Five minutes later,I was in a cab, headed downtown. The traffic was light—standard for a Sunday night—and I arrived in SoHo in record time. As I slid out of the taxi, I spotted Berry sitting on the steps of Joe’s building, wearing a long, puffy black coat and red Hunter rain boots.
“Hi,” she said when I got close to her. Her expression was inscrutable, but I could somehow tell she wasn’t happy with me. That she’d been waiting for me.
“Hi,” I said, now standing right in front of her, my hand on the railing.
“Are you going to break his heart?” she said, still seated.
I stared at her, speechless.
“Wow…You’re really going to end it…. Aren’t you?”
I couldn’t make myself answer the yes-no question, so I stammered my way through an explanation. “I—I just don’t think we’re right for each other—” I said.
Berry’s expression darkened even more. “Then why did you accept the ring in the first place?” she asked in a steely voice.
“I don’t know…. It was a mistake,” I said, feeling so flustered and guilty. “I shouldn’t have.”
She nodded, her jaw clenched, and I braced myself for her to tell me off. Instead, her voice came back quiet and even. “That’s correct. You shouldn’t have. It’s not right to play with someone’s heart like that.”
“I wasn’t doing that, Berry. I loved him—I still love him…. I just don’t think we are right—”
“Okay, whatever, Cate. I don’t need to hear all of this…. I just wanted to say that he has a family wedding this weekend. And it’s a really big deal. And he needs you to go with him. He needs the support.”
I stared at her, taking this in, thinking that I needed to just rip off the Band-Aid. For his sakeandmine.
Berry continued. “If you don’t go…you’re going to ruin the weekend for him.”
