We both sprang apart to see what had happened.
‘Oh my God!’ Laila’s jaw dropped. ‘It’s Juliette!’
44
LAILA
What the hell?
I swallowed hard as I saw Juliette just metres away, frozen on the spot.
Her eyes weren’t just like saucers. They were the size of giant dinner plates.
Clearly she knew about me and Gabriel.
And considering he just had his tongue down my throat, if she didn’t know two minutes ago, she sure as shit knew now.
‘Laila? G-Gabriel?’ she stuttered once she’d walked over to us in a trance, like she couldn’t believe what she’d just seen. ‘Are you…? Did you…? What is going on? Why were you kissing myson?’ Juliette shouted, her nostrils flaring.
‘I’m sorry, Juliette,’ I winced, still trying to get my head around the fact that not only was she here, but that she’d caught us kissing. ‘Gabriel is… Gabriel was who I was matched with. At the hotel,’ I said, my stomach twisting as Juliette’s face contorted in a million different directions.
The silence stretched for what felt like hours, but could only really have been less than a minute.
My heart thudded against my chest as I waited for her reaction.
Hopefully she’d understand, laugh it off and say she was happy that her two favourite people were together.
That was possible, right?
Right?
Oh, God.
With every second that passed, Juliette’s face grew redder.
She was clearly shocked, but also very, very angry.
Any minute now she was going to charge at me, wrestle me to the ground and claw my eyes out.
I needed to explain better.
Let her know that her son actually meant something to me.
That although I regretted hurting her, I didn’t regret us being matched.
At first when we were set up, I thought getting involved with him would be the biggest mistake of my life. But if it was a mistake, it was one of the best I’d ever made.
‘I’m sorry you found out like this,’ I added, ‘but I’mnotsorry that I’ve fallen for Gabriel.’
‘Putain!’ Juliette spat.
My French wasn’t the best, but I was pretty sure she just called me a whore.
‘Ça suffit!’ Gabriel jumped in.
‘I cannot believe this!’ She glared at me, rage burning in her eyes. ‘After all that I have done for you! I paid for you to go on holiday and you repaid me by fucking my son! My own flesh and blood! How could you?’
The gasps from strangers around us were audible.
