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I look down at her. “You are the strongest person I know, Isabelle Alessi. Your father loved you. He was so proud of you. Anytime we talked he would tell me about everything you were up to, how many new clients you had brought over to the agency. How many multi-million dollar deals you secured, that you didn’t take shit from any of the guys at work. ”

“He told you all that?” she asks, sounding surprised.

I nod. “He did. And I liked hearing it too. I always knew you were destined for big things. Just always thought I would be by your side when you achieved them.” She frowns.

“Listening to him talking about all the great things you’ve done in your life made me feel like I was still a part of it.

” We stare at each other for a long moment, as my hand comes out and cups her face, my thumb slides across her cheek.

“If I never messed up all those years ago, I’d be by your side right now.

I wish I could go back in time and change things,” I confess as I continue stroking her face.

“Don’t,” she whispers.

“It’s the truth.”

“Please, Pierre, don’t.” More tears fall.

“I know it’s not the right time. For years I’ve been trying to tell you how sorry I am for hurting you. I fucked up, Issy.”

“No,” she whimpers.

“You are the biggest regret of my life.” Issy gasps as we stare at each other, the unspoken truth now out there.

Next thing I know, I’m leaning forward and kissing her. And even more shocking is that she lets me. The first sweep of my tongue forces her mouth to open, and I feel her tongue against mine. I’m done for. As if muscle memory has taken over, her fingers dig into my suit as she kisses me back.

“Fuck, I’ve missed you, Issy.” I groan as I press myself against her and deepen our kiss until she bites me. “Ouch,” I say, jumping back, a metallic taste in my mouth.

“Fuck you,” she shouts. I’m so surprised by her biting me that I stumble back a couple of steps. “You fucking asshole. You’re engaged,” she screams at me.

Shit.

What the hell did I think I was doing?

“Why the hell did you kiss me?” she asks, looking angry.

“I don’t know,” I yell back at her. Shit. This isn’t good.

“I see the leopard never changes his spots.” Her eyes narrow on me as she folds her arms in front of her.

“I’m not a cheater.” She scoffs. “Issy, come on. That’s not fair. What I did to you was years ago, I was a kid. It still haunts me.”

“You’re not a kid now.”

“I know, but that was different.”

“You broke my heart into a million pieces that night. I will not be an accomplice to inflicting that pain on another woman.” She points at me angrily.

I have no recourse. She’s right. I’m engaged.

What was I thinking? You weren’t thinking .

I shouldn’t have touched her, but having her back in my arms after all this time, in her childhood bedroom, it felt as if all those years of us being apart vanished.

For the first time, the tension in my shoulders released, the thing in my chest started beating as if she had awoken it from a slumber.

Having Issy breaking down in my arms broke me, and all I wanted to do was make it all better.

By kissing her. Not the brightest of plans, but she kissed me back.

Then attacked me for cheating on my fiancée.

True. But she doesn’t know how bad things are between Kitty and me.

Everyone says it’s the stress of the wedding, that it’s natural to have cold feet, but I’m not so sure.

Something is going on with Kitty. She’s disappearing more on work trips when I’m on the road, she’s attending a lot more red-carpet events instead of spending time with me when I am back home, and we hardly have sex.

Still, not reason enough for you to cheat on her.

I know, okay. I don’t feel good about what I’ve done but also …

fuck … I feel alive for the first time in a long time.

I run my hand through my hair. “You broke me, too, when you fled to London,” I throw back at her. Issy gasps. Yes, I messed up that night, but then she disappeared, totally ghosted me, and I never saw her again.

“Where is she?” I scream at Harper.

“A long, long way from you,” she spits back at me.

I heard she left for Europe for Spring Break.

I had to create an anonymous profile so I could follow her.

It killed me watching her and Harper have fun with all those men.

Seeing their hands all over her made me see red.

Imagine what it was like for her seeing you with Missy Jenkins.

Fucking torture. I hated it. I thought I would see her again, that she would come back after Spring Break, and we could talk.

Sort it out. Maybe start again. I will never touch another woman ever again.

I know how much I fucked up. A week had passed, and she hadn’t returned, then I heard around the school that she had transferred to somewhere in Europe.

I didn’t believe it. There’s no way she would have left her family.

“I need to talk to her.”

“What are you going to say, sorry you found my dick down Missy Jenkins throat? Sorry for fucking all her friends,” Harper throws back at me.

She’s not wrong. I fucked up. I wasn’t faithful to Issy, and the stupid thing is, I don’t understand why I did it.

“What happened to you?” Harper asks, looking at me with disgust.

“I don’t know,” I say, running my hands through my hair.

“Really?” Harper says, crossing her arms over her chest, glaring at me.

I throw my hands up in the air. “I let my fucking ego take over. Are you happy?” I shout my confession at her.

“None of this makes me happy. You broke my friend. She is devastated. I will never forgive you for what you did to her.”

“I don’t need your forgiveness, Harper. I need Issy’s.”

Harper scoffs. “There is no way in hell she is ever going to forgive you. I hope she finds a hot English man who’s happy to heal her broken heart.”

“English man, she’s in England?”

“Shit,” Harper curses, knowing she’s let slip Issy’s secret. “There’s no way you’re ever going to find her, England is a big place.”

“Watch me. I love her. I messed up and I need her to know I will do anything and everything to make it up to her. She’s the only person that I love,” I declare.

“Issy is stubborn, you know once you’ve hurt her, that’s it. There are no second chances,” Harper warns me.

“I will spend eternity making it up to her.”

“Eternity isn’t long enough,” Harper states.

“Issy isn’t as cold-hearted as you are.”

Harper’s eyes narrow on me. “Because she’s never had her heart broken until you. You are the reason she will be forever changed, all for a couple of quick meaningless fucks to fuel your ego.”

She’s right, but I’m not about to give her the satisfaction of knowing that she is. “I will get her back. This isn’t the end of us.”

“You’re delusional, Pierre.”

“Maybe, but this isn’t the end of our story.”

“I came after you,” I tell Issy. “I saved up as much as I could to buy a return ticket to London. I spent part of the summer searching for you.” Issy stills as if my revelation is the first time she's hearing this. “No one would help me. I even asked your father.”

She gasps at that.

As another memory flashes before me.

I stare at his office door. Suck it up. You messed up, if you want to fix it, you are going to have to ask him for help. Reluctantly, I knock on his door.

“Come in,” he bellows. My heart beats wildly in my chest as I turn the knob and open the door. “Pierre, this is a surprise.” His eyes narrow on me.

Shit, does he know?

“Do you have a moment?” I ask him timidly.

“I have one,” he answers curtly.

I’m dead, I think as I solemnly walk into his office and take a seat. “Sir, I really need to speak to Issy, and I was wondering if you could tell me where she is.”

He stills as he leans back in his chair and rubs his chin. “Send her a message, I know she has her phone.”

“She’s not responding to me.”

“And why would that be?” he asks, his eyes narrowing on me.

He knows. Now is the time to be a man, Pierre. “Because I broke her heart.”

Alberto stills.

Oh shit. He didn’t know.

He stands up abruptly and slams his hand on his desk.

A pile of papers on the left rattle and a couple flutter to the floor.

His cup of coffee wobbles, and the contents slosh over the lip and drip down the ceramic mug.

“It was you who cheated on my girl. You!” His voice rumbles like a volcano.

“I trusted you. I brought you into my home. Treated you like my son, and this is how you repay me, by breaking my little girl’s heart. ”

“It was the stupidest thing I have ever done. I love your daughter, sir. I, just …”

“You fucked up,” he yells at me as he slams his hand on the desk again. “You fucked up so badly that my girl fled to the other side of the world to get away from you.”

“I wish I could turn back time and not make those stupid decisions.”

“You’ve disrespected me in my own home.”

“I never meant any disrespect.”

“But you did disrespect me,” he says, pointing his finger into his chest, “you made my little girl fall in love with you behind my back.” Tears well in my eyes. I hate the way he looks at me like I am dirt. I deserve it, but it still hurts.

“How could I not fall in love with your daughter? She is the most extraordinary girl I know.”

“And yet you cheated on her.” I nod as a tear falls down my cheek. I feel like the worst person in the world. “Why?” he questions.

Swallowing hard, I confess to him, “I got swept up in the fame.”

He shakes his head, disappointment lacing his face. “I thought you would be different, Pierre. This is going to be a hard lesson to learn. The fact that you hurt my baby girl to learn it kills me.”

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Alessi. Please, I need to make it right with her,” I plead with him.

He shakes his head. “I’m sorry, son, I won’t tell you where she is. The best thing I think is for the two of you to be apart.”

“I have to tell her how sorry I am,” I exclaim.

“Now isn’t the time. She needs space.”

“I don’t want space. I love her.”

“Too little, too late, boy. I will not let you hurt her again.” My stomach sinks. No. I won’t give up. “I think it might be best if you go back to Quebec for the summer.”

“You’re kicking me out?”

“Out of my house, yes. Out of school and training, no. I am still your manager,” he states.

“You asked my father. He knew about us?” Issy asks.

“Yes, I asked him where you were. I was desperate to find you. He refused to tell me and then he kicked me out.”

“He kicked you out of New York?”

Did she not know? “Yes, I spent that summer in Quebec after coming back from London. I returned to school in the fall, but was never welcomed back for family dinners for a long time. He continued to manage me, but I was no longer like a son.”

Issy shakes her head. “He knew all this time, he never once said anything to me.”

“Guess that’s why he took pride in telling me about your accomplishments, he liked letting me know that I messed up. He didn’t have to remind me, the fucking ache in my chest that’s never gone away is a constant reminder.”

Issy gasps at my confession. “Until Kitty.”

“Not even Kitty can fix this. We aren’t in a good place. I’m having second thoughts about the wedding.” I don’t mean to blurt the last bit out, but I need her to understand I’m not the bad guy here, even though it looks like I am.

Issy shakes her head. “You shouldn’t be telling me this.”

“Perhaps not,” I say, my shoulders sagging. “Everything is a mess at the moment, and I don’t know what to do.”

“That has nothing to do with me,” Issy snaps.

She’s right, the problems Kitty and I have are nothing to do with her. “I’m sorry, Issy. I’m sorry for the way I treated you when we were younger, you never deserved that. I hope my immaturity and foolishness didn’t change you. I couldn’t live with that.”

Tears fall down Issy’s cheeks before she angrily swats them away. “Don’t flatter yourself. I haven’t thought about you at all.”

“Your father was a great man. I will miss him with all my heart,” I explain to her as my voice breaks with emotion. “If you ever need anything, let me know.”

“I won’t.”

Right, of course I’d be the last person she contacts. I give her a nod and walk out of her bedroom and head back downstairs.