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“Come with me,” I say, knowing it’s a huge risk. “Permanently. We can be together in New Orleans. But you have to be all in.”
Emotions flicker through his eyes.
“It’s not fair of you to ask me that,” he says, his voice tight.
“It’s a real solution,” I say.
“It’s not. And you know it. And you’re going to make me be the bad guy.”
“You could at least think about?—”
“Stop it.”
He looks legitimately upset.
I let that sink in. He won’t leave Cian. I can’t stay in Ohio. So…
“Then we need to just be friends,” I tell him firmly.
He stares at me for a long, long moment. I feel like I’m holding my breath.
Finally, he shakes his head. “I can’t do that.”
I deflate. He’s going to make this difficult. He’s going to keep trying to persuade me. And I don’t know if I have the strength to resist.
I need to get my ass to New Orleans ASAP.
“Henry, I?—”
“I’ll just ignore you, like you said. Pretend you don’t exist. Live my life as if we never met.”
My heart drops into my stomach. So he’snotgoing to try to persuade me. That’s…good. Very good. We’ll ignore each other. Treat each other like strangers.
That sounds awful.
But probably for the best.
“Okay.”
“And you’ll do the same,” he says.
It’s not a question.
I nod. “Yes. I’ll do the same. We’ll only spend time together when it’s required by our relationships with Scarlett and Cian and Mariah, and then we will talk only as much as is needed, and we won’t ask about one another, or contact each other, or…”
“Think about one another,” he says as I trail off.
Suddenly, I want to cry. I swallow hard against the lump in my throat and make myself nod. “Right.”
He looks at me for another long second. Then he says, “Right.” He goes to the door, opens it, then pauses. He doesn’t look back when he says, “If you need help finding a place to live in New Orleans, assistance moving, anything like that, let me know.”
“That’s very nice of you.”
“The sooner you’re away from Emerald, the better.”
Ouch.
I swallow hard. He’s right, though. And I’m sure he’ll hire people to help get me out of Emerald. He won’t do it himself.