"Then let me ask you one thing," I said.
He looked at me, tense. His Adam's apple bobbed.
"Yesterday, when you broke up with me, you said Vanessa forced you?"
"Yes!" He nodded immediately. "She threatened me. She said if I didn't break up with you, her father wouldn't give me the employee referral slot. You know how hard it is to get a Rivergate referral. My parents are ordinary working-class people. They've sacrificed everything to put me through college. Without that slot, I'd graduate straight into unemployment..."
"Then why didn't you tell me?"
He choked.
"Why didn't you say, 'Nora, Vanessa is using the internship slot to pressure me. We need to figure this out together'?"
I held his gaze.
"After two years together, you could not even have one honest conversation with me. You s
