When Juliet’s eyes found Nicolas, they offered a welcoming smile. “Congratulations on your marriage. I apologize on my husband’s behalf. Please understand that this is the first time we’re hearing about this.”
“No, it’s our fault for not informing you earlier.”
She nodded. “I hope there’ll be a chance to have a more enjoyable meal. Take care of Emily, will you?”
Juliet gave her daughter one last encouraging look before leaving.
Nicolas’s eyes weighed Emily’s face. It’d gone pale. Hisleast favorite look on her. He’d said he didn’t regret what he’d done, but with each passing minute, he second-guessed himself.
He made a flimsy attempt at a joke. “Why, by all means, doesn’t he have a regal bearing?”
He hoped the old royalty joke from when they were younger would land, but it didn’t.
Emily didn’t laugh. His comment simply sank in the weight of the atmosphere.
Realizing that this was affecting her more than he’d expected, he turned to face her. “Emily?—”
“Do you think this is funny?”
Nicolas sealed his lips. Something told him that if he said anything else, things would become worse than they already were.
“When I met you, I felt like my world was falling apart. You agreed to a crazy request of mine and I thought that maybe—justmaybe, you’d been as desperate as I was. I mean, which newly appointed CEO would give up their position because of something like marriage? Living under the same roof with you made me…grateful. I started to think this thing could actually work out. Sharing meals, finding a rhythm in our days....it’s given me a sense of peace I haven’t had in a really long time.”
He felt his heart stir at her honesty.
Her words were a breath of fresh air, though they sounded as if they’d takenherlast breath to speak them.
“But how can you make fun of something like this?”
This was what he’d always feared. Him pushing her to the edge.
With that dumb joke, Nicolas thought he was winding a music box to coax out a smile, but instead, he’d yanked the pin from a grenade.
Her eyes were fixed on him, but they were nothing like he’d grown to admire. They no longer twinkled; the light in them was absent.
It made him feel nauseous.
There was growing disenchantment as she went on. “You clearly saw that I didn’t want to tell them about our marriage sosuddenly.Yet, you did so anyway. Can you imagine how hurt they must’ve been to find out that I got married? I haven’t spoken to them inyears—except for my Mother today—and this is what they receive? A slap in the face that their daughter got married without them know?—”
“But you did,” Nicolas interrupted sharply.
She flinched.
He hated it.
“You did get married without them knowing. And from what I’ve heard, you would’ve done the same with Mallion. You were pretty confident this would be fine when we first met so don’t try to pin the blame on me.”
“What did you just say? You think I’m pinning the blame on you? You really think that’s all this is?”
“You had roughly three months to tell them if it bothered you so much. Even if your decision about our marriage was influenced by revenge because of what that bastard did to you, you still had plenty of time to inform them of it.” His eyes narrowed at her skeptically. “Or is it because you never planned on doing so?”
Her eyes widened, a flicker of panic flashing before she looked away, shoulders curling inward.
So my suspicions have been right all along.
“Emily…” Nicolas chuckled darkly. “Did you truly plan on breaking the contract early so that you wouldn’t have to tell them about the marriage at all?”
He suspected that had to have been a consideration ofhers. She had enough money to make it happen. Divorcing him after she’d dealt with Mallion. After she’d thrown the fact in his face that she’d gotten married. Married but not to him.
