Chapter Forty-Eight
Rhys
A text from Angelo pops up on my phone the second I land at LAX.
–Angelo: Sorcha just invited Max to her house. I’m driving her, but slow. You need to get there RIGHT NOW.
Goddamn it! I dash to hop into a waiting car and give the chauffeur Grandmother’s address. “If you can get there under fifty minutes, I’ll give you a five-hundred-dollar tip.” I pull the bills out of my money clip.
His eyes widen, then narrow with determination. “Hold on to that hat you’re not wearing.”
The car shoots onto the 405 like a bullet. It’s an effort to sit back and let the man drive. Grandmother doesn’t approve of Max, and she’ll do whatever she can to push her away from me.
Come on, Freckles. Don’t let her do anything to you.
Max can probably handle Sorcha Kingswood. But she shouldn’t have to. It’s my fault for not making sure she was protected before leaving.
I call Grandmother, to interrupt whatever she’s planning. As the phone rings, I glare at the screen. “Come on. Answer it!”
Nope. Nothing.
–Me: Answer the phone.
No response. Is she purposely ignoring me?
–Me: I’m going to die a bachelor!
–Czarina: Don’t be melodramatic and be quiet. I’m watching a good show.
–Me: What?
My intestine knots.
–Czarina: I’m trying to measure who’s better.
–Me: Stop talking in riddles.
She quits answering. I try calling, but it goes straight to voicemail.
Anxiety winds tight, and my lungs burn from the lack of air. The chauffeur reaches the house in forty-five minutes. I hand him the cash and jump out. Frederich is watering Grandmother’s prized orchids.
“Where’s Max?” I demand.
He gives me his typical placid expression. “In the garden, enjoying the orchids.”
Enjoying the orchids, my ass! More like getting screwed and manipulated.
I dash to the back, but instead of Grandmother, it’s Selena who’s speaking with Max. The latter’s hand is trembling as she clenches some photos. Her face is chalk white, and she sways slightly as she studies them.
Bile rises in my throat. Don’t need to see them to know they aren’t anything good.
Selena has tried to use our history to make Max feel excluded.
Are they old photos of us? Max isn’t the type to hold them against me—she knows I’ve dated before—but her reaction says there’s something far more insidious.
Damn it, I’ve been only worried about my parents. Should’ve had my guard up against Selena, too!
“No! Wait!” I yell as I run faster toward her. “Freckles, just give me a minute to explain. Don’t jump to conclusions! Whatever those are, they’re fake!”
Max looks at me in shock. Hurt flickers in her eyes, until they turn cold and unreadable. “They’re real.”
Her statement punches me in the solar plexus. I’ve never felt so judged and condemned as now. How do I convince her that whatever she’s thinking isn’t true? “Freckles, just…please. Listen to me.”
She raises a hand. “No. Let me handle this first, then you can talk.”
Her voice is quiet, but it hits me like a wrecking ball. I stand, dazed and terrified like a man about to be convicted of a murder he didn’t commit.
She’s going to leave you. Say this isn’t worth it because she needs stability and respectability, not the kind of shit show that comes with being with you.
She turns to Selena. “These were not taken recently, were they?”
Selena laughs shrilly. “What are you talking about?”
Max sighs with the kind of exhaustion one might exhibit for having to explain the obvious.
“You’re fourteen years older than the time you took these photos.
You can’t pass yourself off as a twenty-three-year-old anymore, so you aged yourself a little but you forgot to age him properly.
Rhys looks just like himself, without the corporate battle scars accumulated over the years.
You can see it in his posture and eyes, if you’d bother to look. ”
Selena’s face turns purplish red.
My brain finally starts to process. What the hell did Selena show her, anyway? Regardless, it didn’t work. Thank God. Max has seen through her.
“You say Rhys has you in his heart,” Max continues.
“But can you say the same? I think what you have in your heart is his bank account. I read his profile when I started working for him. He didn’t take a penny from his parents after he finished his degree at MIT and started RF Investment.
You left him because it wasn’t worth it for you if he didn’t have a trust fund, but that sounds cold.
So you just said it’s because his parents were too embarrassing. ”
Relief and pride burst in my chest at Max’s cold, incisive observation.
As she lays out my past in such a matter-of-fact tone, I suddenly realize that perhaps my perception of what happened between me and Selena has been wrong all this time.
I never allowed myself to examine too closely because it hurt like hell back then, and recalling my parents’ antics felt like rubbing salt in my eyes.
“That is not true,” Selena says loudly, as though the volume of her voice could change the truth.
“Really? The only thing that’s different from back then is that Rhys is a billionaire now. Auric and Elita are still as embarrassing as ever, and proud of it.”
“You aren’t even a little bothered, seeing him like that with me?” Selena demands, heaving with humiliation and frustration.
I look at Max, desperate to see some signs that she still cares about me—maybe a tiny bit of the jealousy and possessiveness she’s shown before.
“A little, but like you keep saying—you’re just history. I won’t be upset that he dated before we got together. I don’t need to be his first. What’s important is I’m the last woman in his life. I always look to the future, and I plan to do that with Rhys.”
“His parents will never treat you well! They’ll always be an embarrassment!”
“Probably. But so what? I’m with him, not his parents. He’s the person who sits opposite me every night to have dinner together, shares my bed and life. His parents are just a bit of static, no big deal.”
My heart pounds hard against my chest as she speaks. It humbles me that a woman as amazing as Max loves me, consciously and unabashedly chooses to be with me, regardless of the baggage I bring.
As much as I’d love to continue to listen, I can’t. My heart is near bursting with love. I reach out and lace my fingers with hers, then cradle her face. “I love you, Freckles.”
She blinks up at me, her eyes clouding with concern. “Are you crying?”
“Uh…” I push my glasses out of the way and run a hand over my face. “It’s just that I’m so relieved and happy. Because I love you so much.”
She smiles. “I know. You said that already.”
“I’ll always cherish you and love you. I’ll never do anything to hurt you.”
Her eyes shine as she looks up at me. “I love you too.”
I sink to one knee. “Marry me,” I blurt out, then wince. “Dammit, I planned a proper proposal.”
Max laughs. “You can ask me again. The answer will always be yes, although you better explain why you disappeared for a week. It made me so upset because everyone else seems to know what’s going on.”
I pause as the implications sink in. From Max’s point of view, it must’ve looked horrible.
The fact that she made the very conscious decision to trust me—in spite of everything—makes me love her even more.
“I’m sorry, Freckles. It won’t happen again.
I just wanted to plan a surprise, but probably went about it the wrong way.
I’ve…never done anything like that before.
” I stand up and kiss her, wishing I could show her that my heart beats only for her.
“Oh, for God’s sake! Show some decorum. I’m standing right here!” Selena says.
I break the kiss for a moment. “Not my fault you insist on being a voyeur to our happiness.”
Max’s hand wraps around my neck. I bend down and claim her mouth again.