Then Terrence Madison came along with his Hamptons family and Manhattan connections, and he seemed to be nuts about me. I fell hard for the guy, only to soon realize that most of his fortune was built upon his association with his stepfather and stepbrothers, not from his own hard work.
“It’s the truth,” Terrence says with a shrug. The more he speaks, the more I wonder what I found attractive about him to begin with. “We might as well face it, Willow. This isn’t going to work, and we both know it.”
“You proposed to me, remember?” I flash him my ring, as if to remind him.
“It was a lapse in judgment,” he replies and nods at the blonde on his arm. “Katrina is a much more suitable choice for me.”
“A more suitable choice? What the hell does that mean?”
“It means you’re too fat for him,” Katrina cuts in. “It might sting a bit, but we might as well be honest about this.”
“I’m too fat!” I gasp, staring at her in sheer disbelief before I look at Terrence again. “Are you fuckingkidding me?”
“It is what it is,” he says and shrugs again.
I notice heads turning, eyes widening, brows furrowing, as the unexpected drama unfolds. I’m being humiliated in public, and every instinct I have screams at me to just punch this bastard’s lights out and call it a day.
“Terrence is a Morgan,” Sheila adds. “He’s New York royalty by my marriage to his stepfather. He needs a woman who can represent him in public, not some downtown girl who has absolutely nothing to her name.”
“I run my own business, which I built from the ground up,” I snap. “Forgive me if I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth like the rest of you. Ironically enough, it’s what Terrence said he liked most about me.”
“For a hot minute, yeah.” He chuckles dryly. “Then I snapped back to reality. It just wasn’t meant to be, Willow. You should just move on.”
“I would’ve gladly avoided this entire nonsense, if you’d been man enough to break it off with me, instead of proposing.” I raise my voice.
“You’re making a scene,” Sheila comes closer.
I take a step back, my heart racing with rage, shame, indignation, and pure, red-hot fury. It feels like a nightmare I cannot wake up from.
“I’m making a scene?” I repeat, my voice barely audible. “You have got to be kidding me.”
“Take the loss, Willow. You’re a smart, capable, independent woman. You said so yourself,” she replies. “You’ll find someone eventually. But my son is not your man, darling. Hedeserves so much better, and Katrina… why, she’s exactly whom he was born to be with.”
“Sheila, you’re too kind,” Katrina says with a giggle.
They’re besties already, while I spent an entire six months with an engagement ring on my finger, trying to win my future mother-in-law’s approval. Jamie was right. I never should’ve said yes.
“You’re not the kind of woman I can build a legacy with,” Terrence sneers.
“Then she’ll build one with us,” Cole’s growl cuts through the air like a sharp, stainless-steel blade.
Cole Morgan has entered the chat, flanked by his older brothers, Asher and Toby. All three stand tall and ridiculously handsome in their sleek, black tuxes, with their salt-and-pepper hair and blue and green eyes. Their frames are so large, they take up half my field of vision.
“Cole?” I manage, as if coming out of a haze.
I’ve only met them a few times during my relationship with Terrence, but I’ve never had a chance to get to know them, as my interactions with them were few and far between.
“What are you doing, Terrence?” Cole steps closer, his arm quick to snake around my waist. I’m surprised by the move, but I don’t move away.
I can’t.
The man has the kind of magnetic pull that keeps me firmly grounded, my curves soft against his hard body. There’s a palpable shift in the atmosphere, and my only choice is to go along with it. The Morgan brothers might actually save my honortonight.
“It’s none of your business,” Terrence replies, holding his precious girlfriend closer, as well. One look at her, and I can tell she’s starting to wonder if she picked the wrong guy to get with.
“It is, if you’re so gleefully eager to besmirch my family honor,” Cole says. “It’s my understanding that you are still engaged to Willow. You’re not anymore?”
“No, and you’ve already met Katrina,” Terrence replies, raising his chin in defiance.
