Page 100 of Rebellious Hearts

“Go,” I said to her, my voice hard.

She looked at me, her eyes so fucking vulnerable I wanted to punch myself for being the one to hurt her. But she’d hurt me too.

She finally stood.

“Fine,” she said and turned. “Oh.”

Richard stood at the door, staring at us.

Fuck. How much had he heard?

“Excuse me,” she said politely and hurried away, leaving me to sort out this mess.

Nice.

Well, it wouldn’t be the first time someone left me to fend for myself.

“Richard,” I said, plastering a broad smile on my face and I buttoned my blazer as I stood. “You’re earlier than expected. I’m so glad to hear that you’re okay.”

Richard’s expression was hard as stone. “Yes, well, I guess I won’t be joining my wife just yet.”

I swallowed hard.

“Please, sit down. I have everything ready for you so we can take care of business in a snap and not take the whole afternoon—”

“I’m not signing that,” Richard said, cutting me off.

I swallowed hard, trying to keep my smile in place, but it was faltering.

“The project really needs you,” I tried.

“Why?”

“So we can make a difference. So we can help the people, do the right thing…”

“What do you know about doing the right thing?” Richard asked.

I stared at him, trying to find the right words to get me out of this mess, but I was in deep, and there was no way to salvage this now. He’d overheard everything, he knew it had all been a sham, and he was pissed.

As he should be.

“I thought it was real,” he said, folding his arms across his chest. “Love is so sacred, so pure. It’s hard to find the right person, and watching you and Sofia… I really thought you were one of the few who understood that, that you’d found each other despite the difficulties of this world. And it was all a show?”

I opened my mouth to answer and still couldn’t find the words.

“You kids are getting good. You really had me fooled. In my day, no one would have been able to get away with something like that—it’s just too hard to fake the kind of love that spans the ages. But these days, everything is different, isn’t it? Nothing is as it seems anymore.No oneis as they seem. Right?”

I nodded slowly. I knew he meant me, but he wasn’t wrong.

Richard shook his head, but his anger had morphed into sadness.

“I’m so glad she’s not here,” he said softly. “If she saw something like this, it would break her. My wife was the kind of woman who believed in magic, in purity, that the world wasn’t as ugly as everyone tries to make it. But itisthat ugly, isn’t it, Ben?”

“There is goodness in it, too.”

Richard laughed, but it was without emotion. “Where?”

Again, I couldn’t answer him, and Richard straightened, becoming upright, shutting himself off so that all the emotion, the sadness, the anger, drained away again. I guess we were all the same—pushing our emotions away until only the mask remained.