“Yes.” Rose’s voice is so low I almost don’t hear her.
“You lied to me.” I push back off the table. I need more space from her, but now that we’ve come this far, I have to know. “So tonight? You’re here spying on me? How did you even know I’d be here?”
“I was here to watch Duke.” Her voice sounds small.
“Why?”
“Because we’re afraid he may be behind the threats against you.”
I let out a strangled laugh at that. “That’s absolutely ridiculous.”
“Maybe.” Rose tips her head to the side, like she knows best. “Maybe not.”
I snap. I’m so angry at her that I can barely breathe. “Don’t patronize me, Rose. Not after everything you’ve done.”
She shakes her head quickly, holding up her hands. “I’m not trying to. I’m so sorry. About all of it.” Her eyes are watery. “I did what I thought was best.” She reaches out and places her fingers over my hand. She grabs my wrist and holds me in place, forcing me to look at her. “They made me break things off when the job was done back then, and they sent me overseas. I hated myself for how I ended things with you. I refuse to let that happen again, which is why I’m telling you all this now. I need you to know my feelings are real. They were back then, and they are now.”
I shake my head and peel her fingers off my arm. “How am I supposed to believe anything you say?”
“Because. It’s me, Anton. You have to believe me. You mean so much to me.” She sounds desperate.
“And I’m supposed to trust you? I let you in—twice—and all you did was act out a role and keep secrets from me. Who even is the real you? How am I supposed to know?”
“Don’t you see?” She’s crying now. “I’ve felt so lost because of this job and the way it forces me to fit into the next role and be a chameleon. The real me all but disappeared. But then I started spending time with you, and you helped me realize who I want to be. Who I can be. I’m the most myself around you.”
I stare at her, and I can tell she means it. I can tell she’s contrite and that she probably didn’t want to hurt me. But none of that matters, does it? What matters is how she acted. How she withheld information. How she was deceitful.
“You chose the palace over me—on more than one occasion. You knew about my complicated relationship with my mother. You knew more than anyone. You still acted the way you did. I can’t overlook that. You know how much I value honesty. How rarely I trust.” My voice sounds hard, and I don’t try to soften it. “You’re another in a long line of people who were play acting around me.”
“You can’t believe that.”
“You don’t get to tell me what I can and can’t believe. You lost that right the second you lied to me. Since our entire relationship, then and now, has been built on a lie, you never had a right in the first place.” I push back from the table. “I need to get out of here.”
“Anton. Wait. Please.” Rose follows me out into the parking lot, but I don’t break my stride. She jogs impressively fast in heels, I’ll give her that.
She gets in front of me and holds up her hands. “Stop. Stop! We’re not finished here.”
“That’s the thing, Rose. I am finished. You’re fired.”
She crosses her arms over her chest. “You can’t fire me.”
She’s right. Because I didn’t hire her. Which is the entire issue here. But as I stare at her, a face I love—a woman I love—I feel my heart crack open, because I know what I need to say next.
“Maybe not, but I can tell you that our relationship…our friendship…our…whatever it is we were doing…it’s over for me. I don’t want to see you again. Please, if you have any real feelings for me at all, leave me alone.”
I side-step her and get into my truck. I start the ignition and pull away. I look in the rearview mirror once before leaving the parking lot. Rose is standing in her dress, shoulders slumped, looking completely defeated.
My heart tugs. It wants to go back to her. To wrap her in my arms and warm her up. But my heart doesn’t know what’s good for it. My head is screaming at me to put my foot on the gas and leave her and her deceit behind.
That’s what I do.
33
Sisters and Secrets
Rose
Idon’t know how I make it from the restaurant where everything exploded with Anton to the office building, but I do. From there, everything goes from bad to worse.
