She nodded, and when she shifted to turn, Elias lowered his hands to his sides. She felt his gaze on her as she walked the few steps to the coffee table and grabbed her phone from the top.
Ana had called while she’d been asleep, undoubtedly to check on her after she’d broken down and Elias had been forced to come to her rescue yet again.
“Stay inside the cabin,” Elias said. “Don’t forget there are cameras outside. Maybe more than the one by the door.”
“I’ll call in my room.” She would’ve liked to take a walk while talking to Rhys. Get some fresh air, but not when leaving the cabin meant the door cam or a field camera might get her recognized and reveal her whereabouts…
She shut the bedroom door behind her and moved to the sitting area near the bathroom. It consisted of two chairs, a floor lamp and a small bookcase with well-worn paperbacks stacked on the two shelves.
She picked the larger chair and curled up as she tapped in Rhys’s private number and waited for him to answer.
“Hello?”
Rhys didn’t identify himself or say more, and she figured it was a precaution in case the press had somehow gotten hold of his carefully-guarded number.
“It’s me,” she said in a small voice. “Rhys, I’msosorry.”
“Where are you, Quinley?”
His deep voice sounded tired, frustrated, and her heart squeezed. “I’m safe. I just… I couldn’t. But I should’ve talked to you. I should’ve done things differently, but I-I panicked. I never meant to hurt you, though.”
“You never meant to hurt me? How did you think I’d feel, Quinley? The hotel was full of our family and friends and guests from all over the world. Did you really think that wouldn’t hurt?”
Tears filled her eyes and burned hotly, but she was either dehydrated or cried-out because they didn’t overflow. “Ipanicked.”
“Who’s the guy? The limo driver? I know he’s Cole’s brother, but who is he to you?”
“Rhys, no, it’snotlike that.” She gripped the phone so tight; her fingers cramped and ached, the plastic phone hot in her sweaty hand. “Rhys…”
He cursed, and the single four-letter word revealed every ounce of his frustration and anger.
“Whoishe to you?”
“No one,” she said, her voice raw. “He’s…a friend now, I suppose, but it’snotlike that, Rhys. I’m not cheating on you. I’venevercheated on you. I just… I just couldn’t go through with it. I couldn’t marry you.”
“And you were so desperate to not marry me you risked your life by hanging off a penthouse balcony? Do you know how that looks? There are articles circulating that I’ve abused you. That you ran to escape mybrutality.”
People were idiots.Shewas an idiot. “I’msorry. I’ll make a statement and set the record straight. I swear I will. I’ll make sure everyone knows that’s not true.”
“You think a statement is going to undo the damage?”
“Yes! It will. I’ll fix this somehow. I’ll tell them it was me and cold feet and—Rhys.” She wiped at her eyes with her fist, her throat clogged with emotion. “Obviously I wasn’t thinking clearly, but the guards were at my door, and Iknewthey wouldn’t let me leave. I had no other way out. I had to do it.”
“You didn’t.”
“I did! Rhys, theychasedme when I left the hotel. If I’d walked out the door and said I was leaving, they would’ve stopped me. Youknowthey would have.”
“Fine, maybe they would have but only long enough so that we could have talked, not kept you prisoner. Quinley, we could have postponed the wedding. It didn’t have to be a circus.”
“Do you really think the pressure from my parents and yours and the guests andyouwouldn’t have forced me to go through with it even when I knew it wasn’t right? I’m not that strong. And your men chasing me— That wasn’t about security doing their jobs; it was about me havingmy choicetaken from me. Just like you placing those guards on me months ago after Ispecificallysaid I didn’t want them.”
“People like us need security. How were your guards to know whether you left on your own or not? That you weren’t being coerced?”
At that she had no comeback. She supposed realistically coercion or blackmail would have been a possibility but— “I left a note with Ana. I made it clear it wasmy choiceto leave.”
“Quinley, the guards didn’t know that at the time. That note wasn’t found until Ana’s return.No oneknew why you left, if you were in danger. If jumping over that balcony meant someone was in your room chasing you out and you feared for your life. How were they supposed to know?”
He was right.He was right. She’d really, royally screwed up. From start to finish, she’d done everything wrong in her panic. “I guess… I guess that’s proof that I’m not ‘people like you,’” she said softly. “Or I would have thought of that. I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t fix any of this but Iam. I never meant to hurt you. I was trying to protect you from…fromme. From what would happen if I went through with it when it wasn’t going to work.”
