It took moments. Mere minutes. She sat there slumped in the chair inside the quiet cabin bedroom when her freshly charged regular phone began buzzing nonstop as messages and calls rolled in one after another after another.
Ana, her father, her mother, news stations the world over, people in her contacts and unknown numbers from every area code and country.
Her eyes burned with frustrated tears, and anger left her shaking. So much for privacy. Though if she was honest, she’d expected little.
Her voice mailbox was full from the day of the wedding, and finally she could handle no more. She pressed the button to turn off the phone, tossing it aside in annoyance and wishing she could take a hammer to it and crush it.
Instead, she picked up the burner phone Elias had purchased for her and used it, typing out a message to Rhys.
I AM sorry. Please forgive me.
He didn’t respond for several minutes, and she could picture him in his office, at his desk, long legs stretched out in front of him, handsome face scowling.
Why are you still with him?
She sagged deeper in the seat. Axel had obviously reported in and relayed that she’d turned down the offers to drive her elsewhere.
Why had she stayed? It was late by the time her bags had arrived. That was true. But accommodations could’ve been made regardless of the time or the weather or her money situation. Rhys’s money and power made that possible, but she hated the thought of being indebted to him anymore than she already was.
He’s just a friend. I promise.
She’d always had a tendency to isolate when things went bad. After fights, breakups, job issues, she’d enter her apartment on a Friday after work and not emerge until it was time to go back on Monday. Ana called her a hermit when it happened.
Was that what she was doing? But it wasn’t isolation when there was another person with her, and if she was going to stay cooped up with someone, shouldn’t that someone be Ana?
You didn’t address him in the video. What about that rumor?
She inhaled and groaned softly.
There is NOTHING to address. Don’t blame Elias for what happened. I jumped into the limo because I saw him leaving. That’s why. That’s ALL. Blame me. Hate me. Just…forgive me. Please.
What else was there to say? She’d denied the truth for months whenever Ana asked her about the moods Quinley hadn’t been able to hide, but now that she knew them for what they really were? For that insidious growing awareness that she was locked into an engagement everyone wanted except for her?
She had no doubts now. No questions or lingering feelings other thandeepregret due to not handling things better. Of not ending things months ago when she’d shoved down the uneasy niggles of malcontent and put a smile on her face because sheshouldhave been happy. Everyone told her so. Howhappyshe must be to be living a fairy tale.
So she’d told herself shewashappy because Rhys had given her everything a woman could want or need or desire except??—
She’d done the right thing. Sheknewit.
But where she went from here?
That she didn’t know.
Except—she did. At least partially.
She picked up the phone again.
I found a place to rent. Could you please arrange for my things to be brought there once I’m back in town?
Maybe that was a bold ask, but for Rhys, it meant a passing comment to his PA and the matter handled. If she had to guess, her bags had already been packed and were waiting for her. And if they weren’t, it wasn’t like Rhys would actually gather up her belongings himself. Not that she had much.
When she’d moved in with him, she’d sold all of her furniture and downsized to a large number of suitcases for her massive walk-in closet, boxes of favorite books, and a few personal items.
His housekeeper could pack the lot of it within an hour or so at most. And while she could go to the hotel penthouse and do it herself, she felt awkward at the thought of being in Rhys’s private space now that she’d blown their lives apart. This would not only be easier; it would be better.
Send the address and the date you want it delivered.
And…apparently Rhys felt the same way.
