Chapter 21
Chloe
Chapter Twenty-One
Cillian sits me down opposite him and all the memories of my disastrous night flow back to me. He must think so little of me after finding me in a place like Decadence, seconds away from becoming a whore.
We look at each other and I don’t know what to say to him. I told him everything that happened, and he took care of me.
Even the sleep he allowed me was another way of taking care of me.
“Thank you for allowing me to stay here, and for…everything,” I speak first because I should. There are a million things to thank him for.
“You know you don’t have to thank me for that.”
“I do. I’ve just had such a rough couple of years. I swear I’m not so messed up. If you’d met me maybe five years ago, you’d like me a lot better. I wasn’t the broken ballerina.”
“I like this version of you better.”
My breath catches and I feel close to tears again. “Cillian, I’m a mess. In case you didn’t notice, look where you found me last night.”
“You were desperate and I wish you'd told me what was happening.”
I shake my head. “After you released me from a quarter of a million dollars debt, no, I couldn’t tell you. It was too much. I was hoping to get the loan, but everything just went to hell.”
“You should have still come to me instead of going to a place like that. Never do that again. Do you hear me?”
“But my mom?—”
“Your mom will be having surgery either today or tomorrow.”
I’m so stunned by what he just said that all I can do is stare at him. “What?” The question comes out on the edge of a breath, barely there but there.
“I called Roxanne and Dr. Chase earlier and sorted it all out. Everything is paid for and if there’s anything else that needs to be paid for, I’ll take care of it.”
My hands fly up to my cheeks. “You did that for me?”
“Yes.”
“Oh my God, Cillian. Thank you. I… I can’t thank you enough.” I throw my arms around him and hug him hard. The weight that’s been pulling me under lifts off my shoulders and that spark of hope lights up in my heart again.
“It’s okay.”
“I have to pay you back.”
“No. It’s a gift.”
“This is way too much money to just give me. You’ve already given me so much.”
“It’s not too much money for me. You don’t have to pay me back for this. But there’s something I need to tell you.”
I move back and search his eyes. “What is it?”
“I have to get married in a few weeks.”
I suck in a breath and my heart stills in my chest. “Married. You’re getting married? I didn’t know you were with someone. I thought…”
“I’m with you.”
Confusion sets in and I try to blink past it. “But you can’t be with me if you’re getting married.”
“There’s some legal stuff surrounding my legacy and I need to get married for at least six months to fulfill it or I lose everything. My uncle is arranging my marriage as we speak.”
“Don’t you have a choice?”
“I choose you. Be my wife for six months.”
“Me?” I stand, but my legs feel shaky. “You’re asking me?”
He stands, too. “Yeah. You. Please don’t feel obligated to me because I paid for your mother’s care. That was a gift to you. But if you say yes to me, I’ll sweeten the deal and pay all the restaurant debts.”
“That would be way too much again,” I pant.
“But I’d do it if you agreed. I calculated a prediction and you should be able to clear the debts within eight months to a year without me, so you can say no. But I want you to say yes.”
Say no, and I lose him to someone else. I don’t think so. “Yes. Yes, I will.”
“You’ll do it?”
I smile and it feels so freeing. “Yes.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m a hundred percent sure.”
He picks me up and spins me around, then we kiss and it feels different again. More passionate, more real, more true.
Cillian brushes his nose over mine. “You’ll be my wife.”
Those words seal on my heart. “And you’ll be my husband.”
I didn’t know it was possible to fall so crazy in love with one guy after such a short time. But it is, and I just agreed to marry him.
I’ll take whatever I can get with this guy.
Cillian O’Ridian must be the dark angel the universe sent to make up for all my years of pain.
Roxanne stares back at me with a mixture of shock and disbelief contorting her face.
We’re in the kitchen at my mother’s home. I just broke the news to her. The news of my engagement.
Mom has surgery in an hour’s time. I wanted to wait until she was being prepped for surgery before I told Roxanne. The surgery should last for about twelve hours, but we both want to be there.
I wanted her to know about Cillian before we left.
“I feel like I need to ask you to repeat yourself, but I know what I heard.” She blinks several times, then touches her cheeks.
“I know, it’s shocking.”
“Shocking? You only met Cillian about a week ago.”
“You think it’s a bad idea?”
“No, I’m not saying that. Oh my God. I would never say that.”
“Even with who he is?” She did warn me away from him at the start. “The mafia boss.”
“After all he’s done for us, I don’t care who he is. Cillian O’Ridian has more than taken care of us. I almost died of shock when he called this morning, then he just took charge and made all our worries go away. I’m worried because this is a little spontaneous and you’re not so much into that. Are you really okay with this?”
“Yes. I’m okay.”
“I know the stuff with Nathan is still fresh. How are you feeling in regard to him?”
She’s possibly the only person I can talk to about Nate and not get dragged down at the mention of his name.
“It will always be fresh. I realized that I don’t think I’ll ever get over what he did to me. At the same time, I don’t want to live in fear.”
She nods, wholeheartedly agreeing. “I don’t want that for you either.”
“Cillian has saved me so many times. If all I have is this pocket of time with him, then I want to take it.”
“You really, really like him?” She looks me over.
“Yes.”
“So you’ll be okay with the six months thing?” Roxanne presses her lips together.
“I have to be.”
“Then I’m okay. This is a good thing, and we all benefit from it by him paying the restaurant debts. It means we can achieve other things quicker.”
“We can.” I think of my dance school. That might not be so far away from me now. I contacted the owner and let him know I’d get back to him as soon as I could. Of course, at the time that meant I wasn’t going to get back to him because I had no money. But things might be different now. I could use that fifteen thousand dollars toward the deposit for potentially buying the place. I could save for the rest in the meantime.
“I think he more than likes you, Chloe.” Roxanne takes my hands into hers. “He could have picked someone else to do this but he seems to have shifted everything around so that you’d agree to marry him.”
“I think so.” I don’t know why, but his ex’s twin comes to my mind and I wonder if that was why she was in his office that day.
“He picked you.” Roxanne smiles with more enthusiasm.
“He picked me.”
“Well, I’m a hundred percent behind you.”
“Thank you.”
“This has been one hell of a month.”
“Now we just need Mom to be okay.”
“She will be. She will be okay if only for you. You two have a second chance you both deserve.”
“We do.”