Terms + Conditions (Strangers #3)

Chapter Forty-Four

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

NOW

THE RECEPTIONIST OFFERS US a tight smile when I follow Elizabeth into the Winchester office of DV Designs. I haven’t been here much in the last few years. After Michaela moved to New York and Nina started spending more time opening other offices across the country, there wasn’t anything here for me. It’s crazy to think that only six years ago, I dragged Nick through the door to drop off some pies to Michaela and introduced him to Nina. Who would’ve imagined life would turn out the way it has? Nina taking him on a once-in-a-lifetime vacation? Sure. Them falling in love and having known each other longer than anyone knew? That wasn’t on the bingo card.

“She’s a little tense,” the brunette behind the desk says.

Great. That’s just what we need walking into this conversation.

Elizabeth takes a deep breath and smiles at the receptionist before pushing down the hallway toward Nina’s office.

“Good luck,” the girl says to me before turning back to the ringing phone, but her words do little to comfort me. If anything, they make me more nervous.

From the hallway, I can see Nina pace the length of her office. I’m surprised there isn’t a wear stripe on the rug beneath her feet. Her footsteps falter when she catches sight of me through the door. Elizabeth sits with her back to the door in one of the blue velvet chairs in front of the desk. Nina looks between us as I walk into her office and I can hear the person on the other end of the phone calling her name.

“I have to call you back.”

She hangs up without waiting for a response and looks between us once more before shaking her head with a scoff. She closes the office door but still doesn’t say anything, and right now, the silence is worse than whatever she’s about to say. She sits on the edge of her desk, directly in front of us, crossing her arms. “Does someone want to tell me what in the hell is going on?”

Isn’t it obvious?

“We’ve decided to stay together,” I say, beating Elizabeth to it.

“Just like that?” Her sharp green eyes bore into ours. “You’re just going to call off the divorce and…what? Go back to your pretend marriage and act like none of this ever happened? Act like you didn’t cause problems within the family.”

Her words are met with silence. It’s not that we hadn’t realized any of this, but nothing can be done about it now.

Nina mumbles something in Italian, pinching the bridge of her nose. She takes a deep breath before crossing her arms. “Maybe you two are fine going back to pretend, but the rest of us now have to live with the consequences.”

“We understand that, Nina,” Elizabeth says.

“Davvero?” She hisses the simple word, leaning forward in the slightest, challenging us. Do you?

“We never meant for it to be like this,” I push back.

“That doesn’t change the fact that your secrets have changed things. The family—”

“Will be just fine!” Elizabeth yells with a harsh breath. “The family will be fine, Nina. If anything, it’s going to save everyone from a bunch of awkward family dinners and lonely holidays.”

Elizabeth shakes her head. “I know that I hurt you by lying, but can you honestly say you would’ve accepted us the same way had you known?”

Nina doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t have to—her avoidant stare says it all.

“There were real reasons we kept this to ourselves, and as much as Brina pisses me off, she knew what was best when it came to handling this.”

“So, all of this just to get your inheritance.” I can see the way Nina’s words hurt Elizabeth, the same words Ric had used six years ago, but unfortunately, it doesn’t make them any less true. When Nina turns to me, she chews on her bottom lip, thinking. “But the question I still have is what did you get?”

I swallow hard, and my tongue sneaks out to wet my lips. Do I tell her the truth? What’s one more thing to add to the fire, right?

How my sister has managed to keep her mouth shut about this, I don’t know. She is the worst secret keeper in the world. Nick and Nina still don’t know the real reason, and maybe I didn’t tell them because I feared how they would view me if they knew the truth. It was hard enough seeing Michaela’s reaction. Knowing I had let her down because I’m not the person she always thought I was. It’s definitely the reason I haven’t come clean to Dad. Seeing that same look of disappointment on his face would kill me.

“You got something out of it,” Nina pushes. “You aren’t going to enter an arranged marriage for free.”

I look at Elizabeth. Her shoulders rise and fall with a sigh. “Nina, it doesn’t—”

“I was about to be expelled from Chadwick,” I confess, holding Elizabeth’s gaze.

“You were part of it, weren’t you?” Nina asks, and when I finally look at her, I can see the disappointment I feared sinking in her features. “The Theta Pi hazing.”

I nod and my gaze falls to the floor. “I didn’t…I didn’t do it, but I was there. I was the one who took him to the hospital.”

“Cazzo,” Nina mumbles. Fuck .

“My mom…That’s why I came home. I went to her first and told her everything, but she told me not to tell anyone. She was looking for a way to keep me out of it. Your mom—”

Nina raises her hand to stop me. She doesn’t care. She doesn’t want to know. It’s not like knowing is going to change anything.

“So what’s your plan, huh?” She massages the crease in her brow. “Where do you go from here? The rest of the family will be rightfully confused when you show up on Christmas Day together .”

Elizabeth and I share a glance before looking back at Nina.

“Please tell me that you’ve discussed this. You can’t just waltz in there and act like the past seven months didn’t happen.”

So maybe we haven’t completely thought this through…I guess we were riding the wave of getting back together.

Nina scoffs. “Did you two talk about anything ? Did you discuss the issues in your relationship that led to this or did you just apologize and act like it was sunshine and rainbows again?”

“We know it’s not, but Nina—”

“You guys cannot just go back to normal. You will never make this work if—”

“Nina,” Elizabeth cuts her off. “I love you very much, but right now, I need you not to be Davina Villa, matriarch of the family. I need you to be Nina, my sister.”

Nina looks up to the ceiling, her hands gripping the edge of her desk, like she’s asking God himself for strength to deal with this. “You want me to be your sister?” With a slight scoff, she meets Elizabeth’s gaze again. “If you want me to be your sister then I’m going to step outside and give you two the chance to have a conversation.” She looks at me and adds, “The real conversation you should’ve had a long time ago, but didn’t.”

Without waiting for a response, Nina snatches her phone off the desk, mumbling something in Italian as she walks out.

“She’s right.” Elizabeth sighs after a moment.

As much as I hate to agree with her, Nina is right. We didn’t have the full conversation that should’ve been had. Sure, we talked about work and Juliet, how that was the straw that broke the camel’s back, but there was so much left to say.

“Josh—”

“I—”

“No,” Elizabeth stops me. “Let me say this.” She takes a deep breath and stares down into her hands folded on her lap, twirling her thumbs as she chooses the next words. “I-I should’ve been honest with you from the start about Ryan. I don’t know why I kept it a secret. I guess…I was scared because that would have made it more real. I didn’t even tell Nina until last month. She introduced us last year by accident, and when she found out he had asked me on a date, she warned me not to pursue it. Not only because he was a dick, but because I was still in love with you.” She meets my gaze and a small smile tugs at the right corner of her lips. “When she found out…Well, let’s just say she wasn’t happy. I’d hidden it for over a year.”

“Was he there when I told you about Michaela and Finn?”

Elizabeth nods but refuses to look at me. “We were just talking, getting to know each other.”

“Elizabeth, we slept together at Nick and Nina’s wedding!”

“I know, Josh. I know! And I should’ve never let that happen. I should’ve stopped it, but…I missed you. I missed us. Being with you at the wedding really clouded my judgment and I took advantage of it. I took advantage of you.”

“Did you sleep with him?” I ask. I don’t know if I want the answer, but if we’re going to put everything on the table…

“No.”

“You were together for over a year and never slept together?”

Elizabeth chews on her bottom lip. “I couldn’t do it, Josh. We started to…last month, but I couldn’t do it. Despite what had been going on between you and me, I felt like I was cheating. Before that, nothing with Ryan felt real, it felt like we were playing house…but when the moment came, I couldn’t do it. He got pissed and broke up with me.”

“That’s why you took me last weekend.”

“Honestly, I was always going to invoke the clause. Can you imagine if I had taken Ryan to meet the girls? Georgie would eat him up.”

“I don’t know, I think motherhood has softened her.”

Elizabeth rolls her eyes.

“I’m sorry for accusing you of telling her about Noah wanting a divorce,” I say.

“As if I didn’t accuse you of worse things.”

“Elizabeth, I pushed you away time and time again. And I lied to you. I don’t blame you for thinking the worst. But the truth is…” I sigh, staring down at my hands.

I don’t know how to say this, to admit what we both already know but have refused to ever voice to one another.

“I buried myself in work because I know I’m not…I’m not worthy of this, of you. I haven’t earned this life. It was given to me because of a stupid decision I made in college. I was a scared kid who didn’t know any better and I took the easy way out. I’m not William or Ryan or these other guys who can give you the life you deserve, I’m not—”

“I’m going to stop you right there.”

I hadn’t even noticed she had stood from her chair until her delicate touch gripped my chin, forcing me to look at her.

“I love you, Josh, because you’re not them. You are the most kind and gentle man I’ve ever known. You have the biggest heart and the way you care for your family, your friends…me. They’ve never loved me the way you do. You say you don’t deserve me? I don’t deserve you. I’ve spent the past ten years waiting for you to wake up and realize this isn’t the life you wanted. You’d been forced into it because of some unexpected circumstances, none of which were your fault.”

“Theta—”

“Wasn’t your fault, Josh. Imagine if you hadn’t been there. Imagine what would have happened then.” Elizabeth takes my hands in hers. “That boy would have died, I guarantee it. You saved his life, Josh. Whether anyone else knows it or not, I know it. You know it. Hell, everyone there knows it. Despite whatever story was told to scrub your name out of it, whatever legal action Brina threatened to keep them quiet, everyone there that night knows it would have been so much worse if it wasn’t for you. But regardless of why this happened, I’m happy it did because it means I have you.”

I swallow the lump in my throat, trying to contain the blur in my eyes.

“Josh, you don’t have to earn this.” Elizabeth motions to the world around us. “Or me or my love or the love of our family. That’s given to you, freely. My inheritance isn’t just mine, it’s ours, to build our life together.” She pulls my gaze to hers. “I love you, Josh. You don’t have to continue to prove yourself to anyone, including me. You’ve already done that. You don’t have to try and exonerate yourself for something you didn’t do. I wish you would’ve told me you felt this way…I could’ve put your worries to rest and maybe we could’ve avoided all of this.”

“I was scared that my mom would be right.”

“What are you talking about?” Elizabeth’s gaze narrows.

“Every time I tried to talk to Mom about things…she’d tell me to stop whining and be grateful for what I had…before it was gone. Before you were gone. Enjoy it all while it lasted because one day it would disappear.”

“Josh—“

“She used to remind me I couldn’t mess this up because losing you meant losing everything. And she was right…Elizabeth, you are my everything. I could lose everything else and be okay, but losing you…I’d never recover from that.”

When I meet her gaze, her eyes are full of unshed tears.

Elizabeth clears her throat. “I wish you had told me. We could’ve faced this together. You didn’t have to be alone, Josh. You were always there for me when I needed you most, but you didn’t let me do the same.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I love you, Josh. And, I’m not going anywhere,” she says. “I’m yours.” Elizabeth pulls my mouth to hers but she stops just before they touch. “And you’re mine.”