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“If he feels strongly enough about you to offer to call off his wedding, why is he even still going through with it?”
“His dad threatened to cut him off. Disown him completely and cut his brothers off too if they try to help him. I can’t be responsible for that. And I’m pretty sure Mr. Bishop would trash my business if he found out I was the reason Gabriel didn’t marry the girl he wanted. Or rather, whatever business deal didn’t go through.”
“He can’t do that,” she huffs, indignation clear in her voice. Thank goodness she’s already on my side again.
“I was looking online last night and found this article about a private chef he used to employ. For whatever reason, he fired her and then she couldn’t find work in the city after that. He’d blacklisted her. She tried suing him for defamation but could never definitively prove it.”
“Maybe she just wasn’t a good chef.”
“She’d have to be pretty talented for him to hire her in the first place. And I really can’t believeno onewould want to hire the person who was a private chef for a billionaire.”
“Mackenzie.” She sets me away from her gently, taking hold of my shoulders. “Maybe things aren’t as black and white as they first sounded, but it’s still not a good idea to get involved in all that.”
I will my eyes not to leak, despite crying last night more than I have in the past year. You’d think I’d have run out of tears. “So you think I made the right choice?”
“I do,” she nods somberly. “It was the responsible thing to do.”
Responsible. It almost sounds like an insult. Or perhaps that’s just the little devil on my shoulder processing it that way.
The sudden urge to fling responsibility right out the window is nearly overwhelming, but I quickly suppress it as the door to the shop chimes as someone enters.
“I’ll get that.” Diana heads out of the backroom toward the customer, the sounds of her warmly greeting and directing them to my office somewhat of a balm to my soul.
At least I can lose myself in my work. Thanks to the Bishops, I finally have the number of clients I was first hoping for when I went off on my own. People are coming to me rather than me desperately seeking them out.
I step back into the bathroom for a moment to make sure I don’t have raccoon eyes, and pinch my cheeks to put some color in them before pasting on a smile.
It’s a bit wobbly, but it’ll have to do.
Because I’m a masochist,I somehow find myself at the children’s hospital, standing at the front desk of Gabriel’s mother’s wing, the nurse on duty eyeing me skeptically.
I thought it would be a good idea to get out of my head and focus on others for a change, rather than return home to an apartment of nothingness, but apparently, this nurse didn’t get the memo.
“You’re not related to anyone here?” she asks, her tone indicating that I’m somewhere on the level of a simpleton. “How’d you get through security?”
“I-” I find myself shrinking back from her accusation, a part of me wanting to turn around and admit defeat, but I already took the subway here, and I didn’t endure being stuck on there next to a contender for the worst-smelling man I’ve ever encountered just so this lady could run me off. “I came here with a friend on my last visit. You might know him. Gabriel Bishop?”
Her expression immediately changes, taking on a deferential quality. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know.”
Holy shit. I got used to dropping Harold Bishop’s name when trying to wrangle up vendors for the wedding, but I wasn’t aware Gabriel’s held so much power too.
“Would you like to visit Kaia?” another nurse asks, approaching us. She was here at the desk last time.
“Yes, please.” My shoulders sink in relief.
The beads at the ends of her black braids clink together softly as we make our way down the hall, and she turns to me, a smile on her face. “So you’ve discovered the power of Gabriel’s name?”
“I guess so.” I resist the urge to cover my mouth as the powerful stench of antiseptic fills my nostrils as we pass by a room being cleaned. “Is it, um, okay that I’m here?”
“Oh, sure,” she beams. “We’ve had several requests for the Wedding Lady.”
My heart lifts in my chest. “Really?” They actually remembered me? Liked me? “That’s so good to hear.”
“He’s never brought a woman with him before,” she says, slowing down as we approach Kaia’s room. “Not even this supposed fiancee of his.”
I let out a weak chuckle, not sure how to respond, but she leaves me to it, her dark eyes full of kindness as she circles back to the nurse’s station.
I knock hesitantly on the door, though there’s no need as Kaia’s gaze lands on me.