Kylie Cantrall's Arc

Chapter 56 of 78

The ring sat inside the box with Kylie's sealed vows. Arianna wanted to feel it for the first time at the ceremony. Kylie understood that. But the box stayed on the low table by the pool, in the open, where anyone could lift the lid. Kylie had promised herself one thing: she would not peek. She would not cheat Arianna's moment by handling the ring in secret. The trouble was, she had no safe place on the island to keep it. Every room was hers. Every drawer opened. There was nowhere she couldn't reach. She carried the box through the house looking for a hiding spot. A closet shelf. A kitchen cabinet. Each one felt like a lie. If she hid it, she could still find it. The only honest lock on the island belonged to someone else, and Arianna could not hold the ring meant for her own hand. A knock came at the front door. Kylie set the box down and answered. A woman in a white coat stood on the step, a dark ponytail over one shoulder, a small bag in her hand. Kara had flown her in that morning, Kylie remembered. Dr. Emily Carter. Arianna had asked her to come after the wedding to talk about the family they hoped to build. She had arrived a day early. "You look like you're guarding that box with your life," the doctor said. Her voice was warm and plain, the kind that put a nervous patient at ease. Kylie almost laughed. "There's a ring inside. My fiancée wants to feel it for the first time on Saturday. I can't hide it from myself without lying about it." Dr. Carter set her bag down. "So don't hide it. Give it to someone who has no reason to open it." She held out her hand. "I keep things sealed for a living. Embryos, records, promises. I don't peek." Kylie looked at the open hand. A stranger, almost. But Arianna trusted her, and Arianna's trust had never once failed. She thought of the second gift she and Arianna had chosen together, the paired keepsake with two curved forms leaning into one heart, waiting for a future the doctor was here to help make real. If she trusted this woman with that future, she could trust her with a ring for two days. Kylie opened the box and lifted out the small band, leaving her sealed vows behind. She placed it in the doctor's palm and closed the fingers over it. "Saturday morning. You hand it back before the ceremony." "On the island, in daylight, in front of your bride," Dr. Carter said. "Not before." Kylie shut the empty box. The ring was safe now, in a hand that would not open early. She had kept her promise without lying to herself. Two days left, and she had one less thing to guard alone.