YOU CAN’T FIGHT DESTINY
SEBASTIAN
“What do you mean she didn’t come home with you?” Beck asks in a deceptively calm voice. Considering I may have blown up both of our companies, I’m taking it as a win that he hasn’t attempted to pummel me yet.
“Exactly what I said,” I bark. The boys are in bed, but Seren is still floating around the house somewhere, so we’re sitting on my deck because I don’t need her hearing this conversation. Not yet anyway. “We met with my ex-wife, I got up to take your fucking call.” I point at Beck as if it’s his fault she left. “And when I got back, Rowan was gone.”
“Did you text her? Call her? Anything?” Alexei asks. He’s pacing the length of the deck. I don’t know if it’s the prospect of losing everything or if he’s concerned for Rowan, but the man is as fierce as a caged lion.
“No, I just came home. What do you think, Alex? Of course I tried to call her.”
“What did she say?” Leo asks.
Leo, Beck, and I are all leaning forward with our elbows resting on our knees. I appreciate that they appear as upset by this as I am.
“She said to trust her.”
Beck’s phone buzzes, and he lifts it from the table. “Shit.”
“What?” we ask in unison.
“What the hell is she doing going to Coleman’s?” Beck curses again and tosses me his phone.
I click on the link, and Rowan’s face fills the screen. First with images from the gala, and then of her standing beside Jacob Coleman in the background as his father is hauled away in handcuffs.
What the fuck?
Betrayal stabs at my eyeballs. This can’t be what I’m seeing.
“Don’t let your mind run away with you,” Leo warns. “You don’t know what this means.”
“She was engaged to him,” I say through clenched teeth.
“And she said to trust her,” he reminds me.
I hold the phone high in the air for everyone to see. “Trust her? Trust this? This is…”
“A betrayal she’d never commit,” Alexei says, staring straight at me. “You know her, Seb. She’d never do that.”
“Fuck. You’re right. But what the hell is she doing there?” My vision blurs as I stare at the picture. Alexei takes the phone from my hands and tosses it back to Beck.
“You have to go get her,” Leo says, pain lacing his tone. “Don’t wait, Seb. It’ll only make it worse.”
“Leo, this isn’t the same,” Beck says gently.
“But,” Leo says, pulling at the back of his neck, “Rowan’s probably feeling overwhelmed and hurt. Pasts have a way of wrecking your future if you don’t handle them correctly.”
“She needs time,” I argue.
“I don’t agree,” Leo says, slamming his water bottle on the table. “What if your ex said something to her, something truly horrible, and it has her spiraling to a place your relationship can’t recover from? Time only makes that shit worse.”
“She runs, Leo. This is what she does when she’s overwhelmed,” I say gently.
“Because she’s never had someone choose her before, Seb. Don’t you see?”
I shake my head, but apparently Leo is just getting started.
“I married Tabby’s sister. Did you know that?” My head snaps up as confusion settles in. “It tore Tabby to fucking bits. It doesn’t matter that it was an accident, what matters is that I didn’t take accountability and step up to make it right for far too long.”
