Hope stood at the front of the room, trying to politely listen to what the man in front of her was saying, but her eyes kept drifting around the gallery. She kept looking at the faces of all the people there, wondering if it could be them. It was a ridiculous thought. She hadn’t gotten a single message since yesterday’s disturbing package. Not since she changed her phone number and armed her house to the roof. It was all over.

“Don’t you think?”

Hope smiled at the man and nodded, quickly excusing herself from the conversation when she saw Landon wander in, hands tucked in the pockets of his dress pants. Hope rolled her eyes. He always insisted on dressing up for her galleries far more than anyone else. 

“Everything okay?” Landon asked as she kissed his cheek gratefully. 

“You just saved me from a very, very boring conversation,” Hope said truthfully. 

“Always a pleasure to help.” Landon smiled, flashing his perfect white teeth. “How are you doing … otherwise?”

“Radio silence.” Hope turned to look back around the room, this time at the art on the walls instead of the people studying it. She leaned back against Landon, resting her head on his chest. “It worked. Cameras must’ve scared them off.” 

“Good.” Landon wrapped his arms around her waist. “Did I see an open bar when I came in?”

“You did.” Hope smiled. 

“Did I see a glass of wine in your hands?” 

“You didn’t.”

“Would you like one?” 

Hope laughed and spun around to face her husband. “Only if it’s red.”

“I will find you the whitest glass possible.”

Hope leaned it to kiss him, pressing her nose to his. “How did I get so lucky?” 

“How did I get so lucky?” Landon gave her one last kiss. “Rafael, MG, and the twins should be here soon, and I will be right back with that wine.”

Landon had no sooner disappeared from the room when Hope’s phone buzzed. She glanced down, expecting it to be him asking a question about her drink, but her heart dropped when she saw it was from an unknown number. She looked up. It felt like everyone in the room was either looking at her or purposely not. It seemed like everyone was on their phones - even the people talking about her paintings had theirs waiting in their hands. 

Hope slowly opened the message.

Your husband doesn’t love you the way you need to be loved.

Hope almost dropped the phone onto the smooth marble beneath her feet. She looked up quickly at the doorway Landon had disappeared through, guiltily making sure he wasn’t there before she rushed to type her reply.

Who are you?

She bit her thumbnail as she waited for a response.

That’s not the question you should be asking.

The next few moments played out before her eyes. Then what question should I be asking? And another cryptic response that did nothing but make her skin crawl and certainly didn’t answer the question. Or Landon coming back and seeing what she was doing. None of them ended the way she wanted it to.

So she just put the phone away in her pocket and didn’t answer. Landon returned with two glasses of red wine in his hands and four sharply-dressed people behind him. 

“You guys made it!” Hope smiled wide, hoping they couldn’t see how fake it was as she took her glass from Landon. 

“We wouldn’t miss it for the world, Hope.” MG looked around at all the paintings in awe. “This is our one chance to see all that art you make locked away in your studio.”

“‘You can’t look at it until it’s done!’” Lizzie mocked.

“‘It’s a work in progress. It’s not going well.’” Josie joined in the teasing with a smile. 

“You’re both ridiculous,” Hope laughed. “That’s not what I sound like at all.”

“I think it was pretty accurate,” Rafael chimed in.

Hope rolled her eyes and shooed them all away. Josie and MG went off towards the bar, and Rafael and Lizzie took off placing bets about how many paintings were of what. 

Hope turned back to her husband, ready to make some humorous remark, but it got stuck in her throat when she caught sight of someone over Landon’s shoulder. She was rushed with a hoarde of feelings all at once - excitement, anger, fear, guilt - while her mind tried to catch up. 

“What?” Landon turned his head to follow her gaze. His eyes landed on Ryan, and he turned back to smile at Hope. “He actually came.”

“What?” It was Hope’s turn to be confused now. 

“I’ve been inviting him to these things for years,” Landon said. “He’s never actually come to one until now.”

Hope took a sip of her wine, hoping no one could see how bad her hand was shaking. “Are you two talking again?”

Landon shook his head. “He never responded to the invite or anything.” He shrugged. “He must’ve wanted to surprise us.”

“Well … consider me very surprised.”