Page 27

CHAPTER 26

AMELIA

I don’t wanna talk to him. There’s not even one part of me that wants to speak with him. I move further into the darkness, hoping to get away from him.

“Amelia! Stop running away from me! What’s happening?”

I hold my dress up, running as fast as I dare, but I’m screwed as I come to a dead end. There’s no other place for me to go.

Right now I feel more trapped than I ever have. Which is saying something, since I was promised to him at a young age. Even then I didn’t feel trapped, but right now? I do.

“I don’t wanna talk to you.” I hold my hand out, hoping to stop him.

“It doesn’t matter, I wanna talk to you. What the hell happened?”

“How could you?” I wrap my arms around myself now. “How could you with her? ”

“With who?”

He’s acting like he has no idea what he did, but he has to know. “How could you let her touch you? You were in love with Anastasia. She was the one woman you would have married besides me.”

I can see the recognition in his eyes. “Lia, she’s nothing to me.” He reaches out, prying my fingers off my arms and holding them. “Yes, she and I had a relationship once, but that doesn’t mean anything now. Nothing has mattered since you came into my life.”

“But she does matter to me,” I argue. “I saw it, an article of the two of you, about how you were going to marry her. At the time, I knew I was your betrothed, I felt second best.”

“I’m sorry.” He lets go of my hand and runs his hands through his hair. “What did you expect me to do? I had no idea what was going through your head. I had no idea what was going through mine.”

“And maybe you didn’t.” I do my best to keep my lip from trembling. “But I went and threw myself at Callum, because I didn’t want to feel like second best,” I whisper.

“Lia,” he sighs, reaching out, grabbing me by the neck. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am about this.”

“You’re right though.” I wipe at my eyes. “Back then, neither one of us knew what would be happening now. If we did, I’m sure we both would have decided to do things differently.”

I do my best to contain my emotions, sniffing. “I’m sorry I ran from you.”

“I’m sorry I hurt you.” He reaches out, and I fall into his arms.

With the hope of a young girl, I choose to trust him, and I hope this is the last time we have to speak of this.

“Bad news,” Shannon tells me the next morning, throwing a newspaper on my desk. “The press picked up the argument you and Tristan had last night.”

There, in full color, is a picture of me running from the party, wiping tears from under my eyes. Along with that is a series of pictures featuring me and Tristan. You can clearly see we’re having some sort of argument, but then we can be seen embracing one another.

“How did they even get these pictures?”

“Parker is trying to figure it out.” She shakes her head. “He’s furious.”

I glance at the clock. “How do you know he’s furious? It’s early in the morning to know Parker’s furious.”

Her face goes a bright red, and I have all the answer I need. “Well I hope you had a great birthday.”

“It was.” She giggles. “A wonderful birthday. I feel bad being so happy when you and Tristan have these articles floating around about you.”

After last night, I feel more secure than I ever have. “This will happen,” I throw it over to the side. “People will make their own assumptions, and we all know what assumptions are.”

If anyone does, I do, and I promise myself I’ll never make one again.