Ninety-Nine Denials: A Fateful Proposal

The table was set for our 99th engagement anniversary, a running joke Chloe and I shared about my failed proposals.

I touched the velvet box in my pocket, ready to finally make it real, when her phone buzzed-a call from her half-brother, Leo.

Her face fell, and the warmth in the room vanished; she was already a thousand miles away, ready to drop everything for him, again.

When I tried to explain what I knew in my gut-that a superstorm was coming for her grandmother' s coastal village-Chloe dismissed it as jealousy and ripped my data to shreds.