Chapter 176

Abby

I found the pins at seven, when I took the blue dress out of the case.

The velvet bag was tucked into the fold of the skirt, exactly where Ivy had said it would be, with the string pulled tight. I hadn’t forgotten. I had only not let myself think about it. I stood in the middle of Sebastian Thorne’s beautiful bedroom with the dress over my arm and the little bag in my palm, and for a moment I couldn’t do anything at all.

Kade came out of the bathroom with his shirt half buttoned, and saw my face, and stopped.

“Ivy,” I said.

He didn’t ask. He came and took the bag out of my hand and opened it, and tipped the pins into his palm, and looked at them. The small pale stones caught the gray light from the river.

“Sit down,” he said.

I sat at the dressing table. He stood behind me and braided my hair. Badly. He had never done it in his life, and he did it with his big careful fingers and his tongue between his teeth, and when I told him