Page 176 of Charming Like Us

“You’re drawing this out and making this ten-times worse than it probably is.” My heart is stuck in my throat like a boulder.

He cracks a pained smile. “I should’ve told you so much sooner. I had so many opportunities—and again, I missed them. Let them slip by, and now it feels like an actual conscious secret.Fuck, it is conscious.”

Blood has drained from my face.

I think I’m near tears.

Motherfuck.

“What is it?” I ask again.

He cheated on me.

He doesn’t actually love me.

He doesn’t want to be with me long-term.

He’s married to a woman.

He has a baby.

“I’m rich,” he says.

It knocks me back for no other reason than it beingtame.I just rode a fucking merry-go-round at a hundred miles per hour and jumped off. I’m gonna puke.

Legitimately.

“Oscar?”

“Oh my God, Highland.” I lean forward again. “Don’t ever do that to me again.”

His lips falter. “You don’t understand, Os.”

I groan out the rest of my heightened pulse in the palms of my hand. Feeling better, I look over at my boyfriend. “I understand that you’re rich.”

“No, likereallyrich, Oscar.”

I pause for a beat. “How rich are we talking about?”

“You know Charlie’s apartment in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood?” he breathes. “I could buy one of those.”

Holy.

Shit.

Shock is a lump in my esophagus. I’d love to tell him that I don’t care, but I really wish he felt like he could trust me with this sooner.

Jack rubs his jaw, set in a wince at my silence.

Little things are making more sense. Like why he got so upset when I paid for temp security to protect him when he has a lot of money.

I wipe up a melted puddle of Rocky Road. “So while you’re taking all of my clothes, you could probably just buy the department store?” My eyes meet his. “That’s what you’re saying?”

He nods slowly. “It’s inherited money. I have a trust fund. My parents are real estate developers.”

“Millionaires?” I ask.

“Billionaires.”