Page 61 of My Horrible Arranged Marriage (Bancroft Billionaire Brothers #20)

MINA

B y the fifth time we watched the video, I didn’t feel any closer to clarity. If anything, I felt more confused. The screen was paused on Isaac’s face. The poor guy looked haggard. Even with his rough looks, he was still gorgeous. Beautiful in a way no man should ever be.

The rawness in his expression made it hard to look away. His vulnerability wasn’t polished or performative. It was messy and real. Part of me was glad he was suffering. I wanted him to feel as bad as I did. Maybe worse.

Tori leaned back against the couch, exhaling like she’d been holding her breath for an hour. “Well,” she said, glancing from the screen to me and back again. “That was unexpected.”

“Was it?”

“You thought he would blast your business all over social media?”

I smiled. “No. The grand gesture. That’s his style. And he doesn’t give a shit what people think about him.”

She was quiet for a few seconds as if she was digesting the information. “Does this change anything?”

I didn’t know how to answer. My heart said one thing. My pride another. And my fear? That was the loudest of them all. Once bitten, twice shy. I’d been twice bitten. What did that make me?

“I don’t know,” I said quietly. “I feel like I want to go to him.”

“Yeah?” Tori’s brows lifted in encouragement. “And what else?”

“I also want to kick him in the balls.”

Tori let out a laugh that ended in a sigh. “Fair. I kind of want to do the same.”

I stared at the screen again, the still image of Isaac blurry from the tears I wouldn’t let fall.

I knew him. In my heart, I knew he was being brutally honest. Looking into those bloodshot eyes with dark circles and the weight of the world staring back at me, I knew he was telling the truth. He was hurting. He loved me.

Isaac had gone live, on a platform he barely used, to apologize.

He didn’t just apologize to me, but to everyone.

It wasn’t just the words that hit. It was the way he said them, like each one scraped through glass in his throat.

I couldn’t help but think back to our many conversations. He’d opened up to me and I to him.

“I’m a fool,” he’d said, dragging a hand down his face like he was trying to erase the regret that had settled there. “But not foolish enough to think I deserve her forgiveness. I’m just really fucking sorry.”

That wasn’t the part that undid me.

It was when he looked straight into my soul. “If you’re out there watching this, Mina, I hope you’re okay. I miss you. I love you. I’ll love you forever, whether I deserve to or not.”

Tori nudged my arm with hers, softer now. “You know what gets me?”

“What?”

“This is what Sampson should’ve done,” she said, eyes still on the screen. “When things fell apart between you two? He should’ve fought for you. Owned his mess. Said it publicly. Loudly. He should have owned his responsibility in the situation.”

I bit the inside of my cheek. Sampson hadn’t even sent a text when the truth came out about his cheating. He didn’t try and defend me when I had been destroyed in the press.

“Isaac messed up,” Tori continued. She nodded as if she was confirming the accusation. “But at least he’s doing the right thing now that he’s on the other side of it. That takes balls. He just put himself out there knowing damn well the vultures are going to pluck him right down to his bones.”

“I don’t know if I’d be an idiot to hear him out,” I admitted, staring down at my hands. “Or if I’d be an idiot not to.”

“Do you still love him?”

I didn’t hesitate. “Yes. Absolutely. And that’s what sucks.”

She looked at me like she’d known it all along.

“I just… I don’t know if I can trust him again,” I added. “What if everyone thinks I’m na?ve for even considering it?”

Tori rolled her eyes and turned to face me more fully.

“Screw everyone. You think everyone is going to make you happy? ‘Everyone’ won’t be there at two in the morning when the baby’s screaming and you need help.

‘Everyone’ isn’t waking up next to you or loving you or apologizing when they get it wrong.

You have never lived for anyone except yourself. Don’t stop doing that.”

I swallowed hard. There was a baseball-sized lump in my throat.

“And for what it’s worth, most of those people judging you probably haven’t had to decide whether to forgive someone they love. They don’t get to tell you what strength looks like. They don’t know you.”

I nodded slowly. Her words settled over me. After a long beat, I pulled out my phone. My fingers hovered for a second before I tapped into my blocked contacts list.

Isaac Bancroft.

With a flick of my thumb, I unblocked him. My pulse kicked up as I opened a new message and started typing.

Want to meet for coffee? Somewhere no one will recognize us.

He responded before I even had the chance to put the phone down. Name the place. I’ll be there.

I looked out the window of our rented penthouse. I spotted a coffee truck parked along the edge of Central Park. It wasn’t fancy, and that was exactly the point.

Coffee truck at Eighty-Third and Park. One hour.

I smiled when he replied. On my way.

Tori helped me get ready. I wasn’t trying to impress him. I was what I was. I had a feeling he was going to lack the energy to do anything with his appearance as well. It was just another layer of our disguises.

I made my way to the coffee truck and sat at one of the little tables.

I felt him before I saw him. He looked tired.

The kind of tired that didn’t come from lack of sleep, but from carrying something too heavy for too long.

His hair was messier than usual, his black hoodie zipped halfway over a plain white tee, sleeves pushed up.

He looked devastatingly handsome in the rawest way.

And he was mine. At least he had been. He could be again, depending on how this cup of coffee went.

He walked directly to my table and sat down. “How are you feeling?”

I folded my hands over my stomach instinctively. “We’re fine.”

His shoulders relaxed the slightest bit. “Good,” he said, voice rough. “I’ve been trying not to panic. I wanted to give you space, too.”

“I know.”

“I didn’t think you’d ever talk to me again.”

“I wasn’t sure I would either.”

He nodded, like he didn’t blame me. Because he didn’t. Isaac was many things, but not a coward.

The silence stretched again. Not tense, exactly, but full of tension. We were both trying not to rock the boat.

Isaac leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. “I’m just gonna say this once, and if it’s too much, I’ll shut up.”

I blinked. “Okay.”

“I adore you, Mina. I’m in love with you.

I’m so fucking crazy about you I can’t find the words.

You’re mine. You’ve been mine since the day at the restaurant.

You walked out on me and I knew then you were my other half.

I knew you were on this planet for me and me alone.

No other woman will ever make me feel the way you do.

I will never love another. I can’t. You have my heart. All of it.”

I flushed, but he didn’t stop.

“This started off messed up. I get that. I hate how we got here. But that doesn’t change what I feel. You, me, and this baby? We belong together. And I’ll spend the rest of my life proving it to you if that’s what it takes. You. Are. Mine.”

My stomach flipped. God, it was hot when he talked like that. All alpha and gravel and certainty.

But sweet words didn’t erase the past.

“I don’t know if I can trust you again,” I whispered. “That’s the part you don’t seem to get.”

His jaw clenched. He nodded. “I do get it.”

“Love and trust aren’t the same thing, Isaac. You can love someone and still feel unsafe with them.”

“I know.”

“I need both,” I said, voice breaking a little.

“I’ll earn it,” he said. “Every damn ounce of it. However long it takes.”

I shook my head slowly. “I can’t just give you another chance because you say the right things.”

“I’m not asking for that,” he said. “I’m asking for a chance. One more. I swear to you, there is nothing you don’t know about me. That one stupid secret was it. You know me, Mina. All of me. You know me better than anyone else.”

“Your heart doesn’t choose who you deserve,” I said softly. “I’ve been thinking about that a lot.”

Isaac stilled. I saw the sadness and fear flash in his eyes.

“The more I look at it, the more I think we were meant to fall in love,” I said, putting the man out of his misery. “I just don’t know if we were meant to work out.”

He exhaled like I’d knocked the air from his lungs. “I know exactly what you mean.”

We didn’t speak for a while. The world moved around us but no one saw us. It was just the two of us.

“I don’t think you do,” I said.

“I do. We are meant to work out. We are meant to be together. Mina, I wasn’t joking when I said you were mine. It’s the cold, hard truth.”

He reached across the table, hand palm up, waiting. The ball was in my court. I knew what it meant if I touched his hand. My heartbeat slowed as my options weighed heavily on my chest. It was a fork in the road.

I stared at his hand. I took a second to imagine my future. With Isaac. And without.

And then, slowly, I placed my palm in his.

He exhaled like we had just cut the wire on a bomb and it didn’t explode. I felt the same way.

“I’m sorry,” he said again, his voice broken. “I’m so sorry, Mina. If I could go back, I’d tell you everything the second I knew I was falling for you. I was scared. I didn’t think I deserved someone like you. But you’re all I want.”

I squeezed his hand once before pulling mine back. “I know you’re sorry. I believe you.”

“But?”

“I’m confused. I’m exhausted. I haven’t even wrapped my head around the fact that I’m going to be a mother, and all this other stuff just? It’s too much.”

He nodded again. “So what now?”

“I think I need some space.”

That hurt him. I could see it. But he didn’t protest.

“Okay.”

“I’m not saying no. I’m saying… not yet.”

He gave me a crooked, bittersweet smile. “Then I’ll wait. I’ll wait until I’m a hundred… assuming I live that long.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“For what?”

“For telling the truth. For taking responsibility. For doing what Sampson never did.”

He nodded. “I’ll be around,” he said. “Whenever you’re ready.”

I got up and walked away before I could do something I would regret.

I knew I wasn’t done with him. But I did need time.

If I went back to him right now all hurt and damaged, I was worried we wouldn’t truly work through the problem.

It would be easy to fall into his arms and let him kiss away the pain.

But it wouldn’t really be gone. We had to go right through the middle of hell.

There was no going around it or glossing over the pain that had been caused. We’d get through it, heal, and move on.

Or we wouldn’t. Only time would tell.