If you keep wearing the ring, no one will know that we’ve split up, at least not right away.”
Terri hesitated and then slowly shook her head. “I think a clean break is best for everyone.”
He sighed. “I’ll make some sort of announcement once I’m back in the city, then,” he told her. “I suppose I’ve no reason to come back to Ramsey again, at least not in a hurry.”
Terri didn’t move as he walked to the door. “This is yours to keep, anyway,” he said, putting the ring on the table next to him. Before she could object, he opened the door and disappeared through it.
“Mom? Are you okay?” Thomas asked as he walked into the room as Terri burst into tears.
“Sorry about that,” she said some minutes later. Thomas had sat next to her, passing her tissues, until she’d finally gotten herself under control.
“You’re in love with Lucas Hogan,” Thomas said.
She shrugged. “I found myself caring about him too much. I don’t think you can properly be in love with someone who doesn’t love you back, though.”
He shrugged. “I haven’t seen you cry like that since the first month after Dad left.”
“I tried to hide those tears from you,” she exclaimed.
“I wish you would have told me what was happening.”
“I told you what you needed to know.”
“Did you dump Lucas, then?”
She laughed shakily. “I didn’t exactly dump him. I ended our engagement, but it was more akin to quitting a job than anything else, at least as far as he was concerned.”
“Are you going to be okay?”
“Of course. I’m always okay,” Terri said, forcing herself to sound a good deal more confident than she actually felt.
He pulled her into a tight hug. “I love you, Mom,” he said into her hair.
“I love you, too, baby,” she replied. “You will always be the most important man in my life.”
“It might be nice for you to find someone, though,” he told her. “I mean, you seemed happy when you and Lucas were together.”
“I’m happy on my own, too. I don’t think I’m interested in finding anyone else right now.”
She popped a bag of popcorn and they curled up together and watched an old movie until she began to feel as if she couldn’t keep her eyes open.
“Bedtime,” she announced as the credits began to roll.
“Do I have to go to Dad’s next week?”
“I thought you enjoyed spending time with your father.”
“I do, but things are weird after last night.”
“So talk to him about it. He made a mistake and he hurt both of us, but he’s trying to make amends now. I don’t want what happened between him and me to get in the way of your relationship with him.”
“I’ll think about it.”
Terri climbed into bed feeling worse than she had since the first days after her marriage had fallen apart. She reached for the remote control and then stopped herself. Lucas Hogan hadn’t been that important to her, she told herself sternly. Squeezing her eyes shut, she began to count sheep, ignoring the tears that slid down her cheeks as she struggled to fall asleep.
“Are you okay?” Camille asked the next morning.
“I’m fine,” she said in her brightest voice.
“You’re lying,” Camille countered.
Terri winced. “It was a polite, expected, social lie,” she snapped.
“Of course, but you know I want to hear the truth.”
“And you know I can’t possibly get into that right now.”
Camille gave her a hug. “I’ll bring wine and ice cream tonight,” she said.
“Make it tomorrow, when I don’t have to work the next day.”
“It’s a date,” Camille laughed.
Terri watched the local and national papers and various news websites for the news of her broken engagement to hit the headlines, but nothing appeared over the next few days. Camille brought a bottle of wine and two pints of ice cream to Terri’s house on Friday night.
“I thought the news would be all over the Internet by now,” Terri said as she sipped her first glass of wine.
“Lucas is probably keeping it quiet because he doesn’t want anyone to know that he was dumped.”
Terri shrugged. “I’m sure he’s busy, anyway. He has an empire to run, after all.”
“There is that,” Camille laughed. “Are you okay?”
“I’m…I’m not sure what I am. I kept telling myself not to fall in love, but that didn’t stop me from coming to care for him.”
“Care for him?”
“I love him. There, I said. In spite of the lies and in spite of knowing the entire time that he was simply acting, I fell in love with