Don't kid yourself into thinking Hubert actually cares about you. He's planning to propose to me at my birthday gala. You're welcome to come watch, of course, but he'd really rather you didn't.
I turned off the phone and stared out the window at the blue sky and drifting clouds. My mind pulled me back to the day Hubert had proposed to me.
After I'd said yes, he'd lifted me off my feet and spun me around, laughing, again and again. He'd even had fireworks set off over Crestfall for nine straight nights to celebrate.
Back then, he'd been so happy he wanted the whole world to know I was his.
But after that... everything changed. The house was the same. The man was not.
The next day, I was discharged and went home. I punched in the door code, and the screen flashed red. Incorrect password.
I tried again. And again. Each time the same cold rejection blinked back at me, until the lock froze me out entirely.
That code, the one my fingers had entered thousands upon thousands of times, now told me I didn't belong here.
I remembered the day I'd first moved into this house. Hubert had taken my hand, and together we'd set the password.