A Bead for Every Heartbreak
Diego Vaughn won me over with a spectacular, year-long pursuit that culminated in him placing a ring on my finger on a snowy winter day.
On the night we exchanged vows, I showed him a platinum bracelet strung with sixty-six city-themed beads. I made a pact: for every time he broke my heart, I would remove one bead—the price of my forgiveness.
Yet, in our six years of marriage, he chose his first love, Isla, over me, time and time again.
After I’d tucked the sixty-fourth bead into a dark corner of my jewelry box, Diego seemed to notice a shift in me. I'd stopped challenging him about Isla, stopped asking where he'd been.
But when he was about to leave me for her once more, I caught his arm. My cool fingertips traced the few beads still on the bracelet. "Should I take another one off?" I asked softly. His hot breath ghosted across my ear as he murmured, his voice laced with weariness, "Do what you want." He thought it was just another one of my empty threats, another hollow gesture of forgiveness.
He didn't know the box already held sixty-four beads. Only two remained.