26. Elliot
ELLIOT
Ididn't want to be here, that wasn't entirely true… I didn't want to be at a gala hosted by Alexander Montgomery while every business publication in North America speculated about why they had decided now was the time for his daughter to step into the empire.
I wanted to be wherever Harper was. Unfortunately, according to Theo, those happened to be the same place. "You look nervous."
I adjusted my cufflinks and glared at him. "I'm not nervous."
"You've adjusted your cufflinks six times."
What had Harper said about that tell of mine? Something about money and board approval? But I wasn’t looking for anyone’s approval tonight.
I looked around the ballroom for what had to be the hundredth time. The room glowed with candlelight and crystal. Waitstaff moved through the crowd with trays of champagne. Politicians, CEOs, old family names, and enough security to overthrow a small country filled the room.
And somewhere in all of it, apparently, was Harper. Theo had told me that Oliver’s family would be here tonight and that should mean Harper would be with him. That made me want to get sick and growl all at the same time.
"Still looking?" Theo asked.
I ignored him. Because yes, I was… Harper had disappeared on me and now I was looking for her like I needed her for my next breath. Which was ridiculous, I didn’t need anyone…
My entire body went still, because across the ballroom, I saw him. Dark hair, and a ridiculously expensive suit. Oliver fucking Hastings. My pulse started pounding.
"What’s wrong with you?" Theo asked.
I didn't answer. Because if Hastings was here… Maybe Theo was right and Harper was too. The thought hit me so hard I almost laughed. Maybe Harper had broken me? Because I was feeling this kind of manic emotional hurricane inside me and did not know how to handle it.
Hastings made his way over to the cocktail area, with who I assumed to be his parents, cameras flashing as they made their way across the room.
I scanned the ball room again for any sign of Harper.
I just needed to get her alone, to talk to her, explain the unexplainable and maybe she’d listen… and we could fix this.
The room shifted, just enough that every conversation softened.
My heart kicked up, and I knew Harper had to be close.
Every head turned, every camera lifted. I followed everyone's gaze.
Alexander Montgomery stood in the entrance.
I had met him once, years ago, long enough ago that I doubted he'd remember me. Could Harper be working for the family?
He looked exactly the same… Then I registered that he wasn't alone. My eyes trailed to the woman beside him… No. My brain refused to accept what I was seeing… Because that wasn't possible. It felt like my heart was in my throat when I took her in…
She looked...
She looked...
I couldn't breathe.
Harper.
The room, the people, the sound all faded away...
There was only her, and she most definitely not working for the family, she wasn’t pretending…
I realized that immediately. This wasn't Harper Lane.
She wasn't the woman who wore neutral colors and hid behind professionalism and rolled her eyes when I was being an asshole.
This was her, the real her, somehow she looked exactly the same and completely different.
"Holy shit," Theo whispered beside me.
You could hear their names murmured throughout the ballroom. "Alexander Montgomery and his daughter, Miss Harper Montgomery."
Daughter. The word bounced around inside my thick skull. The townhouse, the couture, the way money didn’t impress her… Daughter.
No. No. No.
My eyes found Rowan, and I fucking knew it… He wasn't surprised, he wasn't shocked, because he knew. He fucking knew.
I turned toward him so fast my champagne sloshed over my hand. "You knew."
It wasn't a question, and my tone said more than words ever could. Rowan looked at me. "Yes."
The world tilted. "You knew." I repeated.
"I did." Rowan had the audacity to sound bored.
"And you didn't tell me?"
His expression didn't change. "No."
The betrayal hit me so hard I almost laughed; the irony of that wasn't lost on me.
Not completely. But I couldn't process that right now.
Because Harper… Harper was smiling. Not the smile she gave strangers or cameras.
This was a painstakingly beautiful, genuine smile, and Alexander looked at her as if she had hung the moon.
Theo repeated, "Holy shit."
Caleb, for once in his life, looked speechless. I watched as they made their way across the room, everyone drawn to her… then fucking Hastings approached her. And he hugged her, like he'd known her his entire life. Which, suddenly, I realized he probably had. Of fucking course.
This wasn't my world; this was hers, and I'd never even asked anything deeply personal. Not once. Not really. I knew what coffee she liked. I knew how she sounded when she laughed. I knew what she looked like when she came apart in my bed. But I had never asked who she was.
Not because she lied. She had deflected when I had asked her about Thomas and her townhouse… but so much was making sense. And really, it was more a twisted, jealous curiosity rather than genuinely caring about the answer, because I assumed it didn't matter.
The realization hit harder than I expected. Then Harper's eyes lifted and found mine. Her smile disappeared. Just… Gone. And somehow that hurt more than if she'd slapped me.
I turned on Rowan because it was easier than standing there with the full weight of Harper's stare on me. "How long?"
Rowan's jaw flexed. "Long enough."
"What the fuck does that mean?" I ground out low enough not to make a scene.
"It means long enough."
"You knew who she was this whole time?" I felt like I was spiralling.
"No."
I blinked. "What?"
"I knew there was more to her than Harper Lane. When I did my initial search, not much came up, but the more time I spent with her, I knew there had to be more to it."
"That is not an answer."
"It is the only one you're getting." He said with a shrug, his eyes trailing over the sea of people all jockeying to try to get time with the Montgomerys.
My temper flared because anger was easier. Anger was familiar. Anger made sense. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Rowan looked at me as if I had lost my mind. "Why would I?"
"Because she's Harper." I answered, my voice pitching and drawing some attention.
"Exactly." The word cut sharp. I stared at him, and he leaned slightly closer, voice low enough that only I could hear. "You never cared who she was, Elliot."
My mouth opened, closed. "That isn't…"
"You never cared who she was, just what she could do for you," he repeated. "You assumed a whole lot."
"I didn't know." I wasn’t even sure what I was trying to say at the moment.
"No," he said. "You didn't care enough to know. I almost told you, almost… But then I asked myself, what would you do with that information? Would you be one more person who would try to capitalize on her family… would you be one more person she needed to be protected from?"
My first instinct was to deny it. To tell him that he was wrong.
To tell him I knew Harper. That I knew her laugh, her temper, her mouth, the sound she made when she was trying not to laugh, the exact look she gave me right before she decided I was an idiot.
And suddenly all the things I did know felt small.
Rowan was studying me, I opened my mouth to say something, which was apparently the wrong thing to do because Rowan added, “But it didn’t matter anyway because you fucked up, and she ran… Tell me Elliot, would knowing she was a Montgomery changed how you treated her?”
I wanted to punch Rowan in his smug face. Because I didn’t care about her wealth or her family. My chest hurt, and I had to clench my hands into fists at my side to stop myself from rubbing at the ache. I was realizing that I had messed up long before that night…
Harper moved through the crowd with Alexander beside her.
I watched as everyone moved around them, as if she was the moon pulling them along like the tide.
She handled every greeting like she'd been born to it.
That wasn't right, she had been raised for it.
Then hidden from it, and I had thought she was a PR consultant with expensive taste and a few rich lovers in her past.
My stomach turned. I had said that to her. I had asked her about her sugar daddy… My throat tightened. I was going to be sick.
"Pull yourself together," Rowan whispered.
Harper reached our side of the room with Alexander, and the Hastings family nearby.
Rowan stepped forward first.
"Miss Montgomery."
Harper's lips curved faintly. "Mr. Black." There was warmth there, not much, but enough to tell me it existed between them and that they respected each other.
Caleb stepped in next. "Harper."
Her expression softened. "Caleb."
He leaned in and kissed her cheek; my vision tunnelled, not because I thought there was anything between them. Because he had the right to greet her like someone who knew her, and I didn't.
Theo grinned as he approached. "Well, well, well."
Harper arched an eyebrow. "Careful, Mr North."
Theo laughed. "Harper…" he tsked, then added, “We can’t go from being besties to such formalities.”
Harper smiled, which hurt, and then without addressing Theo’s ridiculousness she asked, "Where's Julian?"
Theo's grin widened. "He had another event with our girl, Luce."
Harper's expression softened again. "That's nice.
" Her eyes flicked toward the ballroom, then back.
"I'm happy for them." The words were kind, genuine, and they went through my chest like a blade.
Because I thought of Julian and Lucy. The way he watched her.
How she softened him, and before I could stop myself, before I could be smart or careful or anything other than pathetic, I said, "What we had was better. "