54. Naina
Chapter Fifty-Four
NAINA
I miss you.
I’m right here.
I found it odd and extremely insensitive of the world to continue turning and running while I felt like my soul was being ripped out of my body.
Like, excuse me, universe, the man I loved had just announced that he planned to break up with me, but he didn’t have an exact date yet. Could I get a moment’s peace?
I should have left.
Why the hell was I still here?
We were going to break-up anyway.
It was better that I take charge of said break-up and go back home. But no, here I was, getting dressed for the grand opening, like the pathetic loser I was.
Deep down, I knew it was because I didn’t want to leave Kash alone with these vultures. I might be heartbroken, but I still loved him and I couldn’t just leave him when he needed me.
To make matters worse, when I logged into the Windfield’s bank account this morning, I saw that the debt we owed to the bank from when dad took out a mortgage on it wasn’t there anymore.
I’d thought it was a glitch, and I called the bank, only to find out that the mortgage had been closed with the bank.
Which was funny, because the payments were still going through.
There was only one person I knew who had enough money to fuck around with my mortgage.
“You look morose. Your date didn’t go as planned?” Kat asked. “I thought you would like pottery. You dragged me to enough classes.”
We were in another suite Vera had sequestered for us to get ready in. Gia had brought in rows and rows of dresses she designed for the four of us to choose from. She was out on the balcony taking a call, leaving the four of us alone.
Sami and Vera were riffling through the dresses.
Kat was painting her toenails.
And I was sitting in a chair, looking up at the ceiling and contemplating my life and every decision that brought me to this point.
“We kind of announced our intention to break up,” I said.
I heard the screech of hangers on wire rods and looked to see Sami stepping through the gap she created between the dresses.
Vera had also stopped her riffling, turning to look at me curiously.
“What do you mean you’re breaking up?” Sami asked. “Yesterday you said you were in love.”
I shrugged because I didn’t have an answer. I didn’t want to leave him. I also didn’t want to force him to do something he wasn’t ready to do.
Kash told me he didn’t want love and marriage, and I believed him.
He told me he loved me, and I believed.
Because I trusted him to tell me the truth or as close to the truth as he could.
“I don’t think so.” Vera tilted her curiously. “I’ve seen the way my cousin looks at you.”
I sighed. “How does he look at me?”
“Like a sinner who has just found his own version of heaven.”
I flushed at her words. Was that really how he looked at me?
“I know he loves me. I don’t think that’s going to matter in the end.”
“Of course, it is,” Kat whispered. “No sinner wants to let go of a chance at salvation.”
“I saw the way he reacted when you had your accident and we couldn’t find you,” Vera said. “It was like his soul left his body and he was waiting for his body to join.”
“I’ve gotten used to him, and Lucy, and Jo, and Grayson,” Sami said. “Can’t you work it out so we can keep them?”
Their words were confusing me and giving me hope that Kash was going to crush. It didn’t matter how he looked at me when he said he wasn’t sure about our future.
“Let’s just pick a dress and get this night over with so we can go back to our regular lives,” I said.
This had been nothing but a dream.
I hadn’t expected this many people.
Which was silly because I saw people arriving for the opening. It made sense they would be joining the party.
There were journalists and celebrities mingling about with everyone, and then there was me.
Standing at the edge of the ballroom because just looking at the crowd was making me nervous.
“I can set off the fire alarm,” a voice said behind me. “It will be between you and me.”
I turned, and found Reid Ford-Vanderbilt behind me, looking as if he had just stepped out of the pages of a magazine. I’d seen him around the hotel, but hadn’t talked to him since that day at the hospital.
Usually, his brown hair was raked through with his fingers and he was always sporting a scruff.
Tonight, his hair was neatly swept back and he was clean shaven, highlighting the pout of his lips. His green eyes watched me lazily.
“I don’t think they’re going to like that very much.”
He shrugged his wide shoulders.
“They don’t like anything because they have already experienced everything. Nothing surprises them anymore, and isn’t that just the most boring way to live?”
“I can see why my husband doesn’t like you,” I said.
Kash was always in control, he had to be to survive Edward. And he had already admitted that he didn’t like surprises.
Reid grinned. “It’s not my love of surprises and my dislike of people. It’s because…”
His words faltered and his eyes grew hazy as he looked at something behind me. I looked over my shoulder, following his gaze to Vera.
Despite her mother’s insistence—Amelia had shown up while we were getting ready—Vera had chosen a black, figure-hugging dress, and she looked absolutely stunning.
It would appear that Reid agreed.
“You can talk to her, you know,” I said.
Reid startled, looking at me. His pale cheeks flushed.
“Shall we go in?” He offered me his arm. “You’re going to have a hell of a time finding your husband in this crowd.”
I nodded, taking a bracing breath and putting my hand in the crook of his elbow. Sami and Kat were already inside somewhere, at the very least, I would have their company.
Kash was in there somewhere, as well, standing by his father’s side from what Vera told me.
The crowd parted for Reid, people throwing us curious glances, him more than me, and I was grateful for that.
“Why are they looking at you like they’re surprised you’re alive?” I whispered.
“Because they probably are.”
He led me to the bar and waved to the bartender, ordering a gin and tonic for both of us.
“Trust me, you’re going to need it with this crowd,” he said. “So boring plucking out your own eyelashes will seem fun in comparison.”
Unbelievably, a laugh bubbled out of me at the gruesome imagery. Reid cracked a smile.
“Reid, I wasn’t expecting to see you here.” Leslie appeared next to me, wearing a gorgeous, burnt umber dress.
“Leslie, I was never expecting to see you again. Have you met Kash’s wife?”
Leslie’s eyes reluctantly shifted to me.
“Once or twice.”
“I’m surprised you’re not with Vera,” Leslie said to Reid.
Reid stiffened, swallowing his drink.
“Les, if I were you, I would worry more about the fact that you’re in a room with your ex-boyfriend and the man you cheated on him with, repeatedly,” Reid said.
I almost choked on my drink as Leslie’s face colored, and she walked away with a huff. I leaned closer towards Reid.
“She cheated on Kash? My Kash?”
“With a distant Sutherland cousin,” Reid said.
What the fuck? No wonder Kash has had enough of people.
Yeah, and you’re not any better. Remember the secret you’re carrying around?
Oh, shut up.
“Whisky, neat,” someone said behind me.
I looked behind me and found Lex. He smiled when he saw me.
“Mrs. Sutherland. Good to see you looking well.”
“Thanks to Reid.”
Kash had grumbled about the fact that out of all people, it had to be Reid who saved me. Now, he would have be eternally grateful to a man he didn’t like.
“It was all in a day’s work,” Reid said.
Rosalie stepped up behind Lex, wearing a black column dress, her blonde hair twisted up. She was stunning and so quiet, she moved like a cat.
“Hey.”
“Hello, Mrs. Sutherland.”
“Is this your fiancé?” Reid asked. Lex looked behind him.
“No, this is Carter.”
Rosalie sighed, softly tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.
“Rosalie Carter, Mr. Kingston’s assistant.”
“You still have a fiancé, don’t you?” Reid asked.
Frustration flashed in Lex’s eyes for a moment before disappearing just as quickly. I had a feeling Reid like frustrating people for fun.
“Yes, Reid, I still have a fiancé.”
Reid raised up his hand. “Can’t fault me for checking. You’ve been through a lot of them.”
An arm snaked around my waist, and I was so thoroughly attuned to Kash’s touch that I didn’t even have to look up to see if it was him.
“I think you lot have monopolized my wife’s time enough.”
Reid smirked. “We’re just entertaining her. Which is not what you’re doing.”
“I’m sure she doesn’t find you entertaining, she has better taste than that.”
“She married you.” Reid shrugged.
I raised my glass to my lips to hide my smile. Lex laughed, sipping his whisky.
“We’re leaving,” Kash said.
“Thank you for entertaining me,” I said, as Kash pulled me away.
“Anytime.”
Kash pulled me into the throng of people.
“He’s your best friend, huh?”
I looked up to see his jaw flex. “He’s not my best friend.”
His eyes dropped down to me, and his steps faltered as he took me in.
I was wearing a burgundy dress with metal detailing along the thin straps, on the sides of the bodice and down the front of my chest.
The bodice was cinched at the waist and flared out above my hips to emphasize an hourglass figure, assisted by the piping along the front which dropped down into a v.
The skirt of the dress was naturally parted over my left leg in a slit. I’d kept my hair straight and down, my make-up light.
“Fuck,” he breathed. “How are you even real? Do you actually exist, or you just a figment of my imagination? It’s not possible for someone this beautiful to be real.”
“I—”
His surprise at my existence floored me each time. He had seen me rotting away in bed following my concussion. I had my period and two zits on my face. He had to know I was real. No woman wants to experience cramps every single month.
Which begged the question I wanted to scream in his face.
Why do you want to leave me?
“I figured I should look at least as good as my husband,” I said. “Because damn.”
If I thought Reid had looked good in his tuxedo, that was only because I hadn’t seen Kash yet.
There wasn’t a lot that could be done with a tuxedo, and it all came down to how the man carried himself.
And Kash always carried himself with confidence. He was so sexy, I wanted to rip off his clothes right there, but I also didn’t want other people to see him.
“I should hide you away where other people can’t see you. It should be illegal to be this sexy.”
Kash’s cheeks turned a little pink.
“Good, we have accepted that we’re the two sexiest people in this room.”
“We’re so conceited. How do people stand to be around us?”
We grinned at each other and then slowly, my smile dropped as I remembered that this was our last night together. I couldn’t keep this up for the next four months. And the fact that he probably bought out my mortgage, which he had no right to do.
“Naina,” Kash whispered.
I shook my head. “Did you buy out the mortgage on the Windfield?”
Across the room, I saw his father watching us. A lot of people were probably watching us, waiting for me to fumble and prove to them that I wasn’t worth their precious surname.
Kash’s face remained blank. “Goldie, now is not the time to discuss this.”
“Kash, seriously. Did you, or didn’t you? It doesn’t need to be a discussion.”
His jaw flexed. “I had to.”
My stomach dropped.
“You had no right,” I whispered. “I told you I didn’t need your help paying it off, and you outright disrespected my wishes. It’s bad enough I need your money to renovate the Windfield. You had no right to do this.”
Kash pulled me close, pretending as if we were just having a normal conversation. Over his shoulder, I saw Nick with Sami. He raised an eyebrow, as if asking me if I needed him to interfere. I shook my head imperceptibly.
“I fucking had to. It left you vulnerable. Do you think my father wouldn’t have bought it and forced you to pay all of it? He would have taken everything from you, and he still wouldn’t have been satisfied. I was protecting you.”
I didn’t want to believe that his father cared that much about me, but of course he did. I was the woman he saw as a threat all because Kash had gone against his wishes and married me.
“I hate you for doing this to me,” I said.
Kash’s arm dropped from mine, his eyes growing cold, face hard.
“You can hate me all you want, sweetheart. Nothing is going to stop me from protecting you.”
I realized then that Kat was right. He was a Sutherland. Not because he was evil or cruel. It was because some part of him would always need to control the people around him.
I did the only thing I could.
I turned, and walked away.