Chapter 5 - THE INTERN WHO SENT THE WRONG EMAIL
I stayed with my older sister, Caroline, in Brooklyn.
She opened the door, took one look at my suitcase, and said:
“Do I need wine or a shovel?”
“Tea.”
She nodded.
“Worse than I thought.”
Caroline was forty, divorced, and a public-school principal.
She had never liked Donovan.
But she had loved me enough not to make every family dinner a referendum on my engagement.
That night, she made grilled cheese sandwiches and listened.
When I finished, she asked one question.
“Did he ever make you feel that being loved required being useful?”
I looked down.
Then nodded.
Caroline reached across the table.
“That's not the same thing as love.”
I cried for the first time since leaving the train.
The following morning, an email arrived from Juliet.
Subject:
I'm sorry.
I almost deleted it.
Instead, I opened it.
Juliet wrote that she hadn't intended to cause trouble.
She claimed Donovan had told her I preferred aisle seats and had agreed to switch.
I stared at the screen.
That was a lie.
She also wrote that Donovan had been helping her because she felt overwhelmed by the project.
Then came the sentence that changed everything.
He said you'd be moving to the Boston office after the wedding, so the client account would eventually become his anyway.
I read it twice.
Moving to Boston?
Donovan and I had never discussed moving.
My mother lived in New Jersey.
My sister lived in Brooklyn.
My career was in New York.
I had no plans to relocate.
I called Evelyn.
“Did Donovan tell anyone I was transferring to Boston?”
She was silent.
Then said:
“Yes.”
My stomach dropped.
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
I gripped the phone.
“Who approved it?”
“No one. He described it as a personal arrangement between you.”
I stared out Caroline's kitchen window.
May you like
Donovan hadn't just been making decisions about my seat.
He had been planning to move my entire life without asking.
