Page 101 of Rebellious Hearts

He tugged at his blazer and ran his fingers over his salt-and-pepper beard.

“I think I’ll be on my way now,” he said.

I wanted to call him back, racking my brain for a way to get him to still invest, but it was a lost cause. I wasn’t stupid—I knew when I’d fucked up so badly there was no going back.

I would have to crawl back to Newport with my tail between my legs, after all, tell Alex that I’d failed, that the project wouldn’t go through. He’d be pissed, disappointed. Or maybe he’d say that he’d thought it would work this way all along.

It’s not official until you have a signature.

Well, wasn’t that the truth.

I rode the elevator to my room, and as I rose higher and higher, I felt smaller and smaller. I’d lost the project, I’d lost someone’s trust in me, and I’d lost the woman I loved.

And all that was left was a shell, the mask, the man I always showed the rest of the world.

It felt like the real Benjamin Blackwood was gone.

32

SOFIA

The trip back to Newport was pure torture. Ben and I drove to the airfield in strained silence, the betrayal between us like a third person in the car.

In the private plane, the extra space did nothing to relieve the suffocating tension. The atmosphere was thick, loaded with all the words I couldn’t say.

Ben’s face was a stone mask, the business face that he always wore.

When I glanced at him, his eyes were turned away, but whenever I looked out of the window or closed my eyes, I felt the weight of his gaze on me.

When I looked up, he was quick to avert his eyes.

My heart ached. With every moment we didn’t talk, didn’t even look at each other, the cracks in my heart spread like spider veins until it was a brittle piece of throbbing pain that would shatter at any moment.

As if the tension between us wasn’t enough, nausea churned in my stomach. Every slight turbulence twisted my insides andI had to run to the bathroom twice, emptying my already-empty stomach.

It was nothing but dry heaves.

With each retch, it felt like I expelled my heart, my emotions, my betrayal.

When we arrived in Newport, Ben let me get off the plane first.

Ever the gentleman.

He would never treat me badly, no matter how furious he was with me.

I stepped out, and he disembarked after me, marching to the car that waited for him.

A car was ready to take me home, too. But it wasn’t the same car. This was where we parted ways.

When I glanced in his direction, Ben didn’t look at me. He ducked into the car, closed the door, and was lost behind the tinted windows.

I got into my car and gave the driver my address.

Elena was at my apartment when I got home.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I wanted to welcome you home!” she said and threw her arms around my shoulders.