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“Furthermore, I’d also like tonight to stand for forgiveness and community as we welcome home one of our own.”
Murmurs erupt around us at his declaration.
I search for Ruby and Mason, who only shrug when I find them standing to the side a few feet away.
My dad raises his champagne glass. “We’re glad you’re back, Son. Welcome home.”
Someone in the back raises their glass as well, and I get my first glimpse of the man. My stomach roils so violently I grab on to my brother’s arm to keep myself upright.
Phoenix Montgomery.
My dad continues to talk, but everything sounds like I’m underwater.
The crowd parts for Phoenix. He casually makes his way over to us with a smile plastered on his stupidly handsome face—the same sharp jawline, straight nose, and well-defined outline of his mouth with the small scar on his upper lip that always added to his male beauty.
Meanwhile, my heart is trying to pull the plug on itself.
This is impossible.
This can’t be happening.
Yet, he’s almost reached us like this is just another ordinary day.
And he definitely fits right in too, clad in a pristine black suit.
Have his shoulders always been this wide though?
I don’t notice much else about his body, or our surroundings. I’m transfixed. Unable to avert my gaze from his face.
The dark depths of his eyes are holding me hostage, and he stares at me with nothing but warmth in them.
There will be a surprise waiting for you.
The words from Freddy’s text message filter back into my head.
I knew it couldn’t be anything good, but I didn’t expect it to be this fucked up.
Phoenix Montgomery is my surprise.
My dead sister’s fiancé.
The man who was in prison for the last three years.
And he has no idea I’m the one who put him there.
Chapter 2
Phoenix
I’ve waited for this moment for so long, and now that it’s finally happening, I can’t take my eyes off Evangeline.
The blood roaring in my ears is so loud, everything around me changes to background noise. The whispers and subtle stares of judgment when I walk past the people I once wanted to impress so badly don’t bother me anymore.
Some of them only see the criminal in me. Someone who was put in prison for doing something illegal.
Others see past that—mostly for their own agenda, or pockets—and focus on the billionaire heir of Montgomery Enterprises, the largest merger and acquisitions firm in the world. The same person they shun one second and try to kiss his ass the next.
Senator Walsh is in the crowd, his hand a bit too firm on his young assistant’s lower back, something I file away for later.