Page 39 of Meant for Me (Magnolia Bay #3)

“No, it doesn’t. Not with us.” Zoey stepped closer, wrapping her soaked arms around herself. Her hair hung in damp waves down her back. “You said nothing would change, but everything changed, Linc.”

So add that to his list of failures. He couldn’t keep his word.

“Change it back, then.” He turned and pointed to the pile of mail. “You have your money—you’re free. We can annul, if you want. It’s all the same to me.”

His chest hurt—almost as much as the hurt filling Zoey’s eyes. He looked away, started to crumble under the regret, then stopped. This whole scene had always been inevitable. Why put it off? He’d known all along he would lose them both. Probably why he kept fighting so hard to keep them.

The little fight he had left had to go toward getting Amelia home safe. Then—well, Zoey could live her life, and Amelia could go wherever she wanted. He could be alone again.

“Annul.” Her voice grew cold, still. “Is that what you want?”

No. He closed his eyes, summoned everything in him, and opened them. Met her gaze. “It’s the way it was meant to be.”

Then without looking back, he wrenched open the door and walked out into the rain.

* * *

Her money had come.

Just when Zoey thought she wouldn’t have to be a burden anymore, just when she thought she could contribute, get back to having a purpose and a career…finally feel like she had a whole life again…she’d lost the only parts of her life she’d come to enjoy living.

She wanted to rip that check into shreds.

Rain sluiced off her windshield as Zoey drove, faster, down Village Green. As hurtful as Linc had been, she couldn’t let him search for Amelia on his own. She’d given him a head start, then got in her SUV and headed back toward town. Surely they’d missed something, somewhere.

Amelia couldn’t have just vanished.

She watched out the window for any sign of the teen. Streetlights glowed in puddles on the flooded road. Thunder rumbled, farther in the distance this time, the lightning less bright and frequent as she drove past Magnolia Blossom, then Chug a Mug.

She hadn’t driven this far past the coffee house in a while—almost to her old shop. She hesitated, foot over the gas, ready to floor it past. Not look, per her usual.

Then she braked. Hard. Her tires skidded on the wet pavement as she pulled over and parked. Got out.

Zoey stood in the rain, staring up at the remains of her building, water soaking her skin and the dry hoodie she’d thrown on before she left. There it was. Her precious, crispy building, stuck in limbo just like Zoey had been.

She closed her eyes, still able to easily picture the cute black iron tables that once sat inside, the clusters of fairy lights and fleurs-de-lis wall sconces.

Could remember painting those green walls, ironically the same color as her bridesmaid dress, painstakingly one weekend before opening, kneeling for hours, cutting in the baseboard and trim all by herself.

She’d spent more time in that shop than in her apartment, baking, creating, dreaming up new marketing ideas.

It’d paid off too. She’d become a local favorite, had even won Best Dessert on the island last year.

She couldn’t bake cookies to save her life, apparently, but her beignets and kolaches were award-winning.

And just like that, it was all gone.

Funny how one decision—the purchase of a new fryer—had changed the entire course of her life. She opened her eyes, studied what remained of the framework with a fresh realization. It’d never be the same again. Even if she rebuilt it.

Forever changed.

Tears pricked. What if she had never ordered that stupid fryer? Her building wouldn’t have burned. Zoey would have never been broke, or homeless…

Never would have married Linc. She swallowed. Bonded with Amelia.

Fallen in love with her husband.

Okay, so maybe God really did work good in all things. Or at least, they could have been good, had Linc not turned on her tonight. Made her the enemy somehow, rejected her.

Not sure how God was going to pull this one off.

She wiped water off her face, chest burning. It didn’t make sense. She’d prayed about their marriage, prayed before going to the courthouse. Prayed after they drove away in the limo. Every day since.

Maybe she still hadn’t prayed enough. Or maybe she’d been too negative—didn’t have enough faith. Faith and prayer—that’s what moves mountains. You do your part and God does His.

Somewhere along the way, she’d gotten something wrong.

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

The thought came through, louder than the others. Solid. More secure. She drew a breath, staring at the exposed beams of Bayou Beignets. The blackened shell of a dream.

And then it clicked.

She had gotten something wrong, but it wasn’t in not praying enough or having enough faith.

It was in trying to hold everything together herself.

Her parents, her career, her relationships.

Her heart. She’d never allowed herself to fall apart because she never knew if she’d find the strength to put it back together.

Never allowed herself to tell her parents what she really felt about their absence, in case she created conflict that couldn’t be repaired.

Never allowed herself to admit to Linc her changing feelings for him for fear of losing him completely.

And all she’d accomplished with all of that “holding” was a whole lot of grief. A whole lot of loss. Fake smiles that led to empty hands.

Her tears mixed with the rain, slowly, then steadily, until she wasn’t sure which was which.

She grieved—for her shop, her sudden loss.

Her uncertain future. For her inevitably changing friendship with Elisa, for the pain Amelia had endured in her short life.

For her own parental absence over the years.

For her marriage. For the end of her friendship with Linc.

Because just like her shop, even if she rebuilt it, it’d never be the same again.

Forever changed.

But maybe that was okay? She sniffed, wiped her eyes. Wasn’t that what she tried to tell Linc? That God worked it all out, for good. Even when it hurt.

Maybe especially when it hurt.

She squinted through the rain. Tried to see the vision. Tried to hope. Who knew? Maybe her next shop would be even better than her old one. Maybe her relationship with Linc could eventually thrive. The possibilities were limitless when God was involved. She just had no idea.

But one thing she did know for sure.

She’d burn it all down again if she could just find Amelia.