Chapter 25
25
E zra
My chest aches. I think I’m about to get a heart attack. Why the fuck did my brother open his big mouth and spill what I began suspecting all along? I knew something was wrong. And he knew too. The more he looked at her, the more I knew.
I saw how all the blood drained from her face. I knew this was the moment I lost her. She detached herself from me more effectively than I’ve been able to detach myself from reality the moment my brother showed up in our little paradise. Spending these days on the island with her was the best thing that has ever happened to me.
Me begging for her to look at me did nothing. And even if she did, what the fuck would I say? Yes, I’m an asshole who slept with you while I knew I was going to get married in a few days. I haven’t even seen the bride. Not once. Let alone kiss or fuck her, but it doesn’t matter now. It’s her sister, and she’ll never forgive me. I don’t even know if I want her to forgive me. What will it change? A chance of making her my mistress after?
What are the odds of them being related? I must have done something really bad in my previous life if fate has done me this dirty.
I felt so alive. I don’t even remember when I’ve had a similar feeling before, and like an addict, I couldn’t say no to it. I knew she’d be the one to get hurt in the end. I knew I’d have to go through with the deal. It’s the only way to save our company. Something that has been in our family for four generations. Something I’ve spent my life rebuilding and prospering. We have almost doubled our profit and employees for the past five years. And yet, my company is about to be ripped away from me.
I should have told Maeve everything yesterday, right after we had sex, and explained that it was an arranged marriage, and I didn’t have a say in the matter.
But the day was too good to ruin.
And now, everything is ruined.
I wish I could blame my brother. I wish.
“Maeve,” I call her name quietly, but my brother chimes in with a stern look on his face. He looks so righteous, it’s fucking sickening. I know about the orgies he participates in, and he’d be the last person to judge me. “Maeve,” I repeat louder. “Can we talk?”
She’s staring at the window without giving me the slightest indication that she’s heard me. Feeling Noah’s stare on the side of my face, I turn to him with a silent question. He subtly shakes his head and nods at Maeve.
I want to rage. To grab him by his shirt and throw him out of the car for daring to tell me how to speak with her. But common sense prevails for a moment, and I decide to actually think about what he’s suggesting. Giving her time. Can I do that? I don’t have it. I need to talk to her before she goes into that hotel where the whole family—including my fiancé —are expecting our triumphant arrival.
I can give her until then.
The rest of the drive is miserable. Maeve’s shoulders slightly shake from time to time, and I can almost imagine her big, blue eyes shedding tears. I know she’s trying to cry silently and be strong because she is strong. She doesn’t want me to see that, I’m positive of it. I bet if I was out of the car, and my brother was the only person here, she’d jump on his lap to cry on his shoulder. She needs to be held right now, and the fucker has always had this ability to make any woman pliable. Not me. Never. It’s hard for me to connect to anyone, that’s one of the reasons I love control. If I rule the process of sex, it’s predictable. The connection can’t happen because I don’t let it.
With Maeve, it was different. The connection came whether I wanted it or not. Before I even buried myself deep inside her. She just blew through all my defenses leaving no prisoners. I bet when I’m back in the hotel and dealing with the aftermath of my decision, he’ll swoop in like a damn knight in shining armor.
I’ve never been jealous of my brother, but I guess there’s a first time for everything. He needs to know she’s off limits. Especially now when she’s so vulnerable.
When the car pulls up to the hotel, I get a little surprise. It’s not exactly the kind of hotel I’m used to. The greeting building is a large, one-story bungalow that doesn’t look like the grand place I know I’m paying a shit ton of money for. But again, I’ve never vacationed, so maybe this is what people like.
When the bellman opens the door of the car, Noah jumps out first and stretches his arm toward Maeve to help her when I intercept and jump out before her. His face is marked with irritation, and I wait for his eyes to meet mine. When they do, I talk in a low voice so only he can hear.
“She is off limits, Noah.”
He rears back as if I just punched him in the face. “You’re so fucking stupid, I don’t even know how you survive around people. Hitting on her is the last thing on my mind. Trust me.”
With that, he shoves me away and waits for Maeve to climb out. “Do you want to meet your parents now, or I can sneak you into your room?”
She swallows and glances at him like he hangs the moon. “My room, please.”
My brother nods and takes her hand. “We’ll go this way.” He points toward the row of bungalows. “Your parents booked you a room that way.”
Right before they’re about to leave, a female voice cries out. “Maeve!”
We all turn toward it and find a petite blonde woman in a pink dress running toward us.
“Bea?” Maeve asks weakly, and my heart sinks. I know who she is. I’ve seen her in the pictures of their occasional family outings. This is my future wife, or at least, as it was initially planned. “Bea.” Her voice drops to a guilty whisper.
The blonde runs to Maeve and envelops her in a hug. Her body is shaking. “You’re alive, Mae. You’re alive,” she says through tears, moving her hands along her sister’s back like she can’t believe Maeve is real.
“Yes, I am,” she replies unenthusiastically and hugs her sister back. “I’m sorry.”
“What for?” Bea pulls away and starts looking at her. “It’s not your fault your boat sank, silly.”
“Yeah.” Maeve averts her gaze from her sister to quickly glance at me .
Bea wraps her arm around Maeve’s shoulders. “Let’s go. Mom and Dad can’t wait to see you.”
“Where are they?”
Bea looks to the side, replying. “They’re playing tennis. They were very stressed, you know.” Like playing tennis can reduce the stress while you thought your daughter was dying.
“I know,” Maeve sighs, accepting this answer.
“What the fuck is wrong with them if they don’t want to meet their daughter after they thought she was dead?” I’m well aware I’m not containing my anger very well, neither am I trying if I’m honest.
Bea shifts her attention to me. With a slowly raised brow, she says, “And you must be the groom.”
I notice the exact millisecond when Maeve flinches and pulls away from her sister, visibly withdrawing into her shell she’s created since Noah opened his big mouth. My jaw clenches, seeing her hurt.
“I see your father has made a decision without me.”
“Would you be here if you didn’t agree with it?” Bea looks like a China doll at first, but now her nostrils flare like she’s a wild animal sniffing for blood. Probably mine.
“Maeve, you okay?” I ask in a lowered voice because there’re already too many people watching us. I don’t give a fuck about that, but she seems to be anxious by all this attention.
She gives a short nod without watching me.
“Let’s go. I’ll walk you to your room. You need to catch your breath.” Noah swoops in, walking toward Maeve and putting his arm around her shoulder in a protective gesture I don’t appreciate very much right now.
I watch his movements carefully, not blinking. Scared to miss a tiny indication that the Noah I know is after her. But I find none. He’s treating her like a sister. I want to go with them and talk to Maeve before she clamps down even more or worse, like escape this fucking island. But I can’t. A heavy stare from my not-happening wife needs my immediate attention.
“I’ll come to you in a second,” Bea calls out to Maeve and switches her fairy attitude back to glaring at me with her arms crossed over her chest. “So, the groom.”
“Hello, Beatrice.” I can try being polite even if it’s the last thing I’m feeling right now—or ever—because I’m the asshole in this situation.
“You missed all the official announcements for obvious reasons, so now?—”
“What?”
She blinks. “What what?”
“The announcements were made?” I feel the blood draining from my body. “Who the fuck made them when I was missing? What if I was fucking dead? Who’d you marry then?”
She rears back at my outburst, but I don’t feel sorry. Or ashamed. All I feel is fucking rage.
“How about your board or whatever’s taking over the company? My father did you a huge favor, and you should be grateful.”
I lean back toward her. “Without me fucking agreeing to it.”
“Yeah?” She rises on her tippytoes. “Then why are you here?”
I don’t know why I’m so mad at her. Because she’s right. I knew her father would want to marry off his daughter to me. And this would be the only way I’d get the decision-making voting power. The majority of the shares would be back to me and Noah.
“When was it announced?” And why the fuck hasn’t anyone told me about that yet?
“The moment Noah texted my father,” she says quietly, visibly losing all of her anger. “He called the board and said that you were found and now he’s happy to announce that you’ll be marrying his daughter.”
I squeeze my jaw together so tight, my molars grind.
I wanted to talk to Beatrice and put everything on the line, but I need to speak to my brother first.
Without saying another word, I turn away and march to the reception where a smiling lady with a white flower behind her ear greets me while glancing between me and Beatrice. Curiosity on her face tells me that our conversations weren’t as quiet as I thought.
“Mr. King, I’ll get your room keys,” she announces, typing something on her computer. “You have an over-the-water bungalow with all the?—”
“The keys,” I bark, stopping her unnecessary explanations I don’t have patience for.
“Right!” She squints, nearly jumping. “Of course. Room one-oh-ten.” After quickly pushing the sleeve with the cards toward me over the counter, she jumps backward and tries to plaster the same friendly smile on her face.
I grunt and grab the keys, leaving the lobby as fast as I can. The instructions with arrows are pretty clear, and I find my bungalow without troubles. It’s the largest and furthest from the shore. I press the card to the scanner and go inside. A quick glance around is all I can do before heading to the fridge and grabbing a beer. After chugging it down, I change into clean sweats and a T-shirt I find in the closet and go outside. I don’t have time for a shower. I need to speak to her.
When I open the door, I’m met with Noah’s lifted fist he was about to knock on the door with.
“Going somewhere?” he asks with a raised brow.
“Yes,” I bark, angry at him ruining my life at the moment. “Move away. ”
“Not yet. Go back. We need to talk.”
“Noah,” I growl a warning.
He levels me with a stare. “You wanna hear it first.”
I take a deep breath, go back, and fall on the couch. “What?”
He slowly walks to a chair and sits in it. “First of all, I’m glad to see you alive. This is not how I imagined our reunion to be.”
“No shit.” I wipe my face with my hands.
“I was—” He clears his throat before continuing, and this is the first time I focus on anything else other than my pain about possibly losing Maeve.
I look at him. I actually look at him. His cheeks are sunken, and there’re dark circles around his eyes. He lost weight. Possibly as much as I have, which makes no sense. I was the one on the damn fruit diet for days. His usually perfectly styled hair is a mess. Clothes in disarray.
He takes a deep breath before continuing. “I’m really glad you’re okay.”
I place my elbows on my knees and lean forward. “I’m sorry, Noah. I—” My turn to pause enough to collect my thoughts. “I don’t know what came over me.”
“I know.” He nods. “I figured that out the moment I saw you watching Maeve on the island and then nearly biting my head off.”
“It’s such wrong fucking timing.” I fall on the back of the couch, covering my face. “Why didn’t I meet her before? Before I made this decision and accepted Wrong’s offer.”
“Then you wouldn’t have met her,” he says with a sad smile.
I shift my attention to his face and find him mindlessly staring ahead.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t have.”
Suddenly, he pulls his wide smile back on and slaps his knees with his open palms. “This is the time for my ‘I told you so.’”
I drop my hands. “You could have the decency to look a little remorseful.”
“I’m not.” His tone is firm. “I told you from the beginning it was a fucked-up idea to marry just so we can have the voting power back.”
“Not the voting power, Noah. The company. Our company. The company we’ve been rebuilding for the past five years.”
He leans his elbows on his knees and leans forward. “Is it worth it?”
“What?” I ask, not knowing what exactly he’s asking.
“Proving our father wrong. Is it worth it?”
“The company was in our family for generations,” I hiss. “Until he fucking decided that he didn’t trust us enough to lead it. It’s our company, Noah. Our name on the building. Our legacy they want to take away from us.”
Our father inherited the company, and he didn’t have to fight for the rights for it like he’s making us do.
Noah’s quiet. Deep in his thoughts. “I don’t care that much, Ez. I really don’t. I can find another place to work. Look what you’ve done already. Every company will fire their CEO the moment you resign from King Developers. I can build any place on earth, I don’t give a fuck. Let’s just leave.”
I know he doesn’t give a fuck. Because I’m the eldest one. I’ve always been trying to prove myself worthy of our father’s time. I was supposed to lead the company. It had to be me and my brother. But now we have a bunch of assholes breathing down our neck and dragging our company down with their wrong decisions.
“I can’t,” I say. My words are final. “But I need to talk to Maeve. Explain things. ”
“Yeah, about that.” He averts his eyes. “You might want to do that now then.”
“Why, Noah?” His tone makes me clench my fists. “What did you do?”
He throws his hands in the air in a surrendering gesture. “I didn’t do anything, but the blonde sister was storming down the path toward Maeve’s bungalow when I was leaving. And she looked furious.”
“Fuck.”
Noah winces. “Yeah. Apparently, the eldest daughter ran away from home about five years ago. She’s on a shitlist. No money. No trust fund. And today is the first time she’s meeting them since she left.”
“What?” I rear back. “And her parents are just playing tennis?”
“Guess so,” he says, spreading his arms. “Almost forgot.” He speedwalks to the bedroom and comes back with a phone in his hand. “I got this updated for you. Should have all your shit in there.”
I take the phone. “Thanks.”
He nods and heads toward the balcony. “I had Martin order you some clothes and deliver them here. No one knows your style choices better than him. By the way, your view is better than mine. Plus, we still have shit to discuss. Room three-three-one. It’s on the left. Follow the chickens, they have a giant nest next to her bungalow.”
“Alright.”
I run to the door and out. It doesn’t take me long to find her bungalow, but seeing it makes me mad. It’s the smallest one on the whole shore. Tiny. Really tiny. Not much bigger than the shelter we had on the island. And not much nicer.
I take a deep breath for bravery before I knock on her door when I hear the raised voice. One raised voice. Beatrice. She’s yelling at Maeve who doesn’t fight back .
“You left me. I was seventeen!”
Without wasting any time, I knock. Loudly.
The door flies open, and my not-happening wife meets me with furious eyes.
“He’s here. I’m done anyway.” She storms past, knocking her skinny shoulder into me. I pretend that it hurts and step away. It’s wise not to aggravate the situation, despite how much I want to tell her to come back and apologize for yelling at Maeve.
When the door is closed behind me, I look at the woman who has changed my life perspective in the short time I’ve known her. She looks so small with her arms wrapped around herself.
“Hey,” I say quietly.
She doesn’t respond.
“Can we talk?”
“You’re talking already.” Her voice is coarse, as if she’s been crying.
“Yeah, I guess I am.” I look around, not knowing how to actually start saying what I came here to say. I was in such a rush that I didn’t rehearse a speech or even think through what I wanted her to know. “This room is small.”
“It’s fine.” Even her voice is small.
“I’ll get you another room.”
“I said it’s fine. I don’t need anything from you.” She wipes her nose with her sleeve.
“Right.” I nervously look around, feeling like I’m totally fucking it all up. “Are you okay?” I ask when I find my voice again.
“I’m fine.” A sniffle.
“Maeve.” I take a careful step toward her, and when she doesn’t back away, I take it as a good sign and take another one. At that, she looks like a deer caught in headlights, and I instantly stop. “I’m sorry. ”
“For what exactly?”
Good question. “For everything I guess,” I reply, unsure of what would be the right thing to say.
“For lying to me?” Her voice is stern.
“I wasn’t lying. We just didn’t talk about our lives outside of the island.”
“Sure. We didn’t talk about anything because you didn’t want to.” For the first time, her hard eyes focus on mine. “Now I see why.”
“It’s not that.” I feel like the biggest scam on the planet.
Her brow goes up.
“I mean, that’s not all of it. I generally don’t get close to people. I’m very…” I clear my throat. “How to put it?”
“Emotionally undeveloped?” she suggests helpfully. “Stupidly self-centered? Outrageously dumb?”
“Not exactly,” I deadpan. This is so not the way it was supposed to go. “Cautious with people.” She still looks guarded, so I continue with my explanation. “I don’t get along with anyone, and I prefer not to. This is why I wanted to keep our lives away from the island. All I wanted was to get by and get back to our normal lives. Without forming any attachments. But then you happened.”
“Me? How? Was I climbing into your lap or something?”
I smirk. “You actually were. At one point. And on my face.”
Her cheeks pinken as she flattens her lips into a very thin line. I know it’s probably the wrong thing to say, but her sheepish look is worth it.
She looks around as if someone is listening and speaks in a low voice. “I slept with you while you were engaged to my sister.”
“I wasn’t engaged.”
“But you were, Ezra.” The way she says my name has changed. It’s different. Cold. Detached. “You were coming here to announce your engagement.”
I move toward her, and she backs away. So I stop again. “Not exactly. I was coming here to discuss the engagement with your father. Well, I didn’t know he was your father. It’s purely a business deal, nothing else. We’ve never even seen each other.”
“It doesn’t matter. The whole world knows now.” Her voice waivers at the end. “You have to marry her. She has to marry you.” Her voice turns panicky. “And I have to watch it.”
She moves to the window. “I am the other woman . In my own sister’s relationship.” She places her hand on her chest. “Today was supposed to be the day when I came back to my family. I knew it would be shameful.” She laughs sadly. “I just didn’t know how much. You made me the other woman, Ezra.” She looks up at me. “And now, you’ll have to marry your real woman.”