Page 48 of Fierce Love (Tucker Billionaires)

I should probably move away, but I’ve gotten used to having him close. On set or in the office, we’re pulled in different directions, so it’s easier to pretend we’re merely colleagues. Tonight, even though I shouldn’t, I feel like his date.

Gage introduces himself to Kinsley, and then the two of them get sucked into a conversation about dogs. He’s been thinking about getting one for his daughter when they return from California.

Between nerves and the large glass of iced tea, I need the bathroom. I excuse myself from the group and head for a hallway that seems the most likely source of toilets.

“Hollyn Davis?” a female voice calls behind me.

My step falters, and I turn back to face whoever it is. She’s blond, thin, and extremely pretty—the sort of delicate pretty that reminds you of a doll. There’s a vague familiarity to her, but I can’t place it.

“Do we know each other?” I ask with a hesitant smile. “I’ve been off the island for years, and I’m terrible with remembering anyone I met in passing as a kid.”

“No, I…” She takes in a deep breath and releases it. “We’ve never formally met. I, um…” She tucks strands of her hair behind her ears. “I was one of the girls in the hallway at the prom party. Maybe you don’t rem—”

“I remember,” I say, bracing myself for another callous comment.

“I’ve thought about that night a lot—the things I said and the things I let other people say.” She swallows. “I’ve actually spent a lot of time talking to my therapist about how ashamed I was of myself that night. Especially once I got older and I looked back on it.”

“You think I’m here tonight literally raising money for my relatives?

” I cross my arms. That comment has been burned into my brain for years, and I remember how hot the shame burned.

At the time, these charity events did benefit me and my family members.

A Band-Aid that never stemmed the financial bleed.

“We were cruel, and while we didn’t know you were standing there, it doesn’t excuse how we behaved. No one should have said that to you or about you.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say.” In New York, I faced my fair share of people, particularly women, who enjoyed talking about others when they weren’t around. It wasn’t a behavior I ever participated in, since I fully understood what it meant to be on the other end.

“All these years, I was waiting to hear you were back on the island or even that Nate had finally left the island to reunite with you.”

I swallow, and now I really don’t know what to say.

“I just wanted the opportunity to apologize. The expression on your face that night—it’s weighed heavy on me, and I hope what we said, what we implied, didn’t have anything to do with why you and Nate broke up.”

“It didn’t.” At least that I can say with certainty, even if women like her are why I’m not sure I could ever be comfortable in Nate’s inner circle.

“A lot of us have grown up since then.” She gives a self-conscious laugh. “Of course we have, right? But we’re trying to raise our kids better.”

“Kinsley’s felt quite accepted here,” I admit.

Even with the wealth gaps, she hasn’t felt excluded from anything or singled out.

But I’ve never been quite sure if that’s because Kinsley’s on the fringes of the glow from the Tuckers and Summersets.

Would people on this island dare to make enemies with someone tied so closely to such big families? I doubt it.

“I was glad to hear you and your sister were back,” she says. “Nate was never quite the same after you left. Some of the spark dimmed, but I can see it again in him tonight. He even looks lighter, as though he’s not carrying some invisible weight anymore.”

Every word is a paper cut across my consciousness, and I struggle not to visibly flinch at each one. The damage I did to Nate when I left causes a sharp ache across my chest. Celia must have seen the impact on Nate. She couldn’t have been blind to his suffering.

“If you decide to stay on the island, I’d love to see whether we’d mesh as friends. If you’re willing. I think there are ways into society that maybe weren’t there before. If your sister has found that to be true, then I hope it really is.”

“Sorry,” I say, only half listening, still processing. “What’s your name again?”

“Sienna.” She visibly swallows. “I’ve known Nate a long time.”

The girl who was crying at prom, the one everyone was consoling by talking shit about me. “Are you still friends with the girls from prom?”

“Some of them,” she says. “But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become better at figuring out what’s good for me and what and who should be left in the past.”

That is a lesson I’m still trying to navigate. “And you were able to do that?”

“Leaving the toxic behind is hard,” she says with a sigh. “Toxic clings, doesn’t it? Makes you feel like you’re the problem.” She lets out a little laugh. “But I’ve been much happier since I let those influences go.”

“We can get lunch,” I say on impulse. Maybe Sienna and I have more in common than I ever might have thought.

High school was a long time ago, and maybe it’s time I moved beyond everything that happened back then.

Maybe I need to let some of my preconceived notions and past feelings about those in Nate’s circle go too.

This conversation just solidifies the truth I’ve been putting off seeing. I can’t leave the island again. Knowing what I did to Nate, what I can’t do again, means I have to take some risks. He can’t be the only one putting himself in emotional danger. It’s not fair.

Despite the consequences, I need to find some way to tell Nate what happened all those years ago, find the strength to betray the help Celia gave and still gives to me. Maybe Nate won’t understand. Maybe he won’t forgive me for trying my best during an impossible situation.

My only hope is that, once he knows it all, he still loves me too much to let me go, and I realize that depending on that is its own kind of cruelty.