Chapter 31
WILL
“The wedding is in two weeks,” I said without turning around, my gaze fixed on the skyline outside my office windows.
Jesse didn’t respond immediately, leaning against the wall on the other side of the room like this was a casual catch-up instead of a long overdue conversation that would change the course of both our lives.
I finally turned back to him. “This entire situation has gotten way out of control.”
His brows lifted slightly, like he found the assessment excessive. “It has?”
“Yes.” I raked a hand through my hair, beyond frustrated with him at this point. “How could you even ask me that?”
He pushed off the window, taking a few slow steps toward my desk and lowering himself into the chair across from it. “Explain it to me.”
I scoffed before forcing myself to rein it in. “Fine. You want an explanation? I’ll give you one.”
Spinning on my heels, I started pacing and closed my eyes, thinking about seeing Eliza again for the first time in so long when I’d gone to my father’s house that day.
I thought about how her light, golden brown hair had been tucked behind her ears, her face as open and honest as the expression in her eyes.
It almost hurt to go back there, but that was where I started, walking him through it all. Everything he’d missed by not being there and all the things he clearly hadn’t bothered to consider, like her love for the estate and the situation with her family.
When I was finally finished, he was leaning back in the chair with an ankle kicked up over his knee and his head cocked, watching me with his eyes slightly narrowed. “Okay, I hear you. None of this is ideal. Especially how fast they need an heir, but it’s not unmanageable.”
A sharp, humorless bark of laughter came out of me. “It’s not unmanageable? Is that really the best you can do?”
He shrugged. “It’s a business arrangement, Will. Whatever needs to be done, we’ll work it out.”
“It’s not just that anymore,” I snapped, turning back to the windows and looking out at the city she’d agreed to live in, despite not wanting to be here.
“She’s a living, breathing human being with goals and dreams of her own.
She’s taken on this responsibility because it’s what her family needs. Don’t minimize that.”
“I’m not.” He studied me for a long minute. “It’s just the truth. Whether or not you want to see it that way, the whole reason this marriage is happening is because it makes sense to Dad from a strategic point of view.”
“She’s not a goddamn merger, Jess.” I looked at him over my shoulder. “I know how it started and I know why the arrangement exists, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not complicated. You’re not understanding the stakes here.”
He lifted his hands in surrender. “I didn’t say she was a merger. All I’m saying is that this marriage is. It’s business. Plain and maybe not so simple, but still true.”
As I snorted and shook my head, he suddenly spoke again. “Does she know?”
“No.”
“Are you planning to keep it that way?”
“For now,” I said tightly.
He sighed. “Alright, well, do you think she’s going to like Miami?”
My eyelids slammed shut, and once again, I almost lost it. I clenched my jaw, my self-control only just barely clinging to nerves that were already stretched way too thin.
“This is her life, Jesse. I understand that you were put in an impossible position and that you had no control over it. I realize that saying no to Dad is impossible, especially without Alex’s support, but try to remember that she isn’t an asset you can just relocate.”
He shrugged like that was out of his control too, still not taking any of this seriously enough. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that he was looking at all this like we were shifting pieces on a board instead of dealing with a person who had no idea she’d been placed at the center of it.
“Sure, I know all that, but my life is in Miami, dude. What do you want me to do about it?” I just stared at him for a beat, blinking slowly and wondering what it was going to take to get him to pull his head out of his ass. Then he made it worse. “So, what’s my bride doing today?”
Hearing that word from him hit me like a rubber bullet to the heart.
I nearly doubled over from the pain of it, but the worst part was that I couldn’t let him see it.
My identical twin, and I had to hide it from him that he was tearing my fucking soul out—all because he wasn’t the one in the wrong here.
I’d fallen in love with the woman he was marrying. She was his bride. It shouldn’t hurt me to hear him say it.
“She’s doing whatever she wants,” I finally replied. “Hopefully, that includes resting.”
There was a brief pause before he frowned. “Resting? Why? Please don’t tell me she’s one of those people who needs a nap after going out for just a couple hours. Those people are the worst and the party was two days ago. You guys didn’t even stay that late.”
“It’s not that,” I said, my tone sharper than I’d meant for it to be. “This has nothing to do with the engagement party. Shit, do you really have to think the worst of her?”
He shrugged. “How would I know what to think at all? I don’t know the chick.”
Exactly. Fuck.
I shoved a hand through my hair and reminded myself that this had always been part of the deal. I was always going to have to tell him what I’d learned about her. To prepare him to spend the rest of his life with the woman I wanted.
“She’s been managing that entire estate by herself for years,” I explained.
“They’re on the brink financially and she’s the one who’s been keeping them afloat.
There’s at least a dozen different things on her to-do list for every hour of every day and she hasn’t ever even been on a real vacation.
The woman never rests until she’s forced to. ”
Jesse didn’t interrupt, just watching me as I started pacing again.
“She never asks for anything and she doesn’t expect it either.
I think that makes it easy for people to assume she doesn’t need those things at all, and that includes help.
She works damn hard and she doesn’t ever complain about it.
She just does what needs doing and carries on. ”
Something flickered across his face. Suspicion, probably. I should’ve stopped as soon as I saw it, but I didn’t. He needed to know these things about her and the sooner I could get them out, the sooner my role would be over, and the sooner I could finally walk away.
It was the last thing that I wanted, but considering that it was inevitable at this point that I would have to, I needed it to happen as soon as possible.
“She notices everything,” I said, the words coming faster now. “She’s the strongest woman I’ve ever met, but she’s also soft, you know? A real romantic. She’s one of those—”
I cut myself off when Jesse tilted his head slightly, one eyebrow arched as he looked at me like I’d become the most interesting thing in the room. “Wow. That’s a lot of detail.”
“It’s called paying attention.” I held his gaze, unflinching, but he must’ve seen the guilt in my eyes before he shook his head.
“No,” he said slowly. “It’s called something else entirely.”
“No, it’s not.” I scoffed, but it was a beat too late. “I just—”
“You just have feelings for my fiancée?”
I didn’t react immediately, but I knew in that moment that there was no point denying it. Besides, Kate and Nate already knew because I hadn’t lied to them either. Jesse had seen me with Eliza.
It was safe to assume that me going on and on about her had only served to confirm a suspicion he’d already had. I swiped my tongue across my lips, my heart suddenly thudding in my ears as I looked back at him.
“Are you capable of giving her the life she deserves?” I countered.
Jesse’s gaze locked on mine and he finally sat up a little straighter. “How long, Will?”
“What?”
His gaze didn’t waver. “How long have you been in love with her?”
He didn’t ask it flippantly or even lightly. He wasn’t making fun of the situation or trying to remind me that it was just a business deal again.
Before he could push further or I said something I couldn’t take back, I closed my eyes and inhaled a deep breath. “This was fun, but I’ve got work to do.”
“Will—”
I didn’t stop, suddenly desperate to get out of this office.
I was already halfway to the door by the time he stood up.
I didn’t look back, though, simply seeing him move in my periphery.
I yanked open the door and walked down the corridor, past people who had no idea that I was living in the seventh circle of hell right now.
It felt like my life was unraveling. I was running out of time so fast that I could barely comprehend it myself, and now, Jesse knew it too. I didn’t know what he would do with the information, but for some reason, I also didn’t really care.
If he went to Alex, he would save me the time of doing it myself.
I’d meant to talk to him at the party anyway, but I hadn’t actually even seen much of him there.
I also hadn’t seen much of Sterling. Callum had told me the two of them had disappeared into Dad’s study, which had meant that it hadn’t been the right time.
Right now, the only thing I could focus on was Eliza. About that inevitable moment when she found out the truth. Because that moment was closer now than it’d ever been before.
All along, I’d known that being with her was only temporary. I just hadn’t realized how much that would eventually matter, but hearing Jesse say it out loud…
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
I already had my phone in hand by the time I reached the conference room down the hall and I stepped into it, locking the door behind me. Before I could even think about it, I was scrolling to her number.
While I knew it wouldn’t make a lick of difference once she found out, I just needed to hear her voice. The phone rang for only a few seconds before she picked up. “Hi, Jesse.”
As soon as she said it, I knew something was wrong. She didn’t sound like herself. There was a strange tension in her voice, subtle but definitely present. “Hey, you. What’s going on?”
It also took her a few moments too long to respond to what should’ve been a simple question. “It seems I have a guest.”
My stomach bottomed out. I had no idea who’d gone to my townhouse, but the tone of her voice suggested that it wasn’t someone she’d been wanting or expecting to see.