Page 10 of The Elusive Billionaire

“Just how much shit do you have in that big bag of yours, Clover?”

She laughs. It’s a dainty, jingling kind of sound that suits her. “Every bag I own doubles as a go bag. You know, just in case a murderer chases me out of here, I’ll be ready for anything.”

Clover writes thriller novels for a living, and sometimes I worry she doesn’t always see the line between fiction and reality.

“Come on. Let’s get back before we miss Madi and Braxton’s big entrance.”

I quickly rinse my mouth with the mouthwash, toss the tiny bottle in the trash, then plaster on a fake smile that fools everyone. Well, almost everyone. But something tells me Grey no longer cares what’s behind my mask.

“Let’s do this,” I say, then guide my curious friend back to the wedding.

I feel his presence the second we step into the park where the reception is being held under big, beautiful tents. He’s somewhere to my left. If I had to guess, he also clocked me the moment I walked in, and he’ll do everything in his power to avoid me.

But I can be relentless.

And tonight, I need to be because I owe him an explanation and the biggest apology I can muster.

“Oh, there’s Elle and little Keela. Let’s go say hi.” Clover releases my arm and drifts away.

“I’ll meet you over there in a second,” I say to the back of her head. Ever since our friend Elle had Keela, everyone in this town has gone baby crazy.

Especially Grey, who announced the very first time he saw her that he was “getting himself one of those.”

It’s not my fault that he chose Ray of Hope.

It’s not my fault that he got stuck on my profile.

It’s not my fault that I never had any intention of being a surrogate if I could help it.

But it is my fault for continuing to text with him after I realized ChasingColors was him.

So that’s what I’ll apologize for.

Squaring my shoulders, I prepare to face him, except when I turn to where I’d felt him, he’s gone. And a quick scan ofthe crowd doesn’t show him. There’s no way he’s left already. Braxton would kill him.

“Can I have this dance?”

I tilt my head up to find Grey’s nephew, Sage, smiling down at me. The kid is eighteen, but he has the soul of an eighty-year-old.

“I’d love to, but I need to talk to your uncle Grey first. I actually have to…apologize.” My face scrunches as I say it, no matter how hard I try to keep my expression neutral.

Sage’s face falls, and my chest bursts with pain. “I don’t think that’s a good idea tonight, Sav. I don’t know what happened between the two of you, but he needs some space. I—I don’t think I’ve ever seen him like this.”

“You’ve betrayed me in a way I didn’t even know I was vulnerable. There’s no coming back from that.”

Grey’s words taunt my mind like a fucked-up fairy tale where everyone dies in the end.

I’d seen the pain in his eyes as he told me to stay away from him.

I hurt him, and I despise myself for it.

“Let’s dance,” Sage says again, this time drawing me onto the dance floor.

“I have to apologize to him, Sage.”

“I have a feeling there will be a lot of apologies made in the coming months, but tonight, you have to let him go.”

“But…” I look away. Sage looks so much like his uncle in this moment, I swear my soul is tearing in two. “He’s going to leave. I have to speak to him before he does.”