Her eyes glistened with unshed tears, and she kept blinking to keep them in. He wanted to reach out to touch her, to comfort her, but the barrier kept him in place.
“What can I do to help?” Darius asked.
Her mouth worked but she couldn’t seem to form any words. She cleared her throat. When she spoke, her voice was rough and tight.
“Please tell me you didn’t do it.”
“Do what?” But his gut told him what she was referring to. She’d just spoken with her father, and he must have said something. Darius knew then that he should have started the search for Melanie’s private number sooner. He’d thought he had time.
“Did you leave your fiancée standing alone at the church on her wedding day?”
There was so much more to that simple statement and what had happened. He wanted to tell her, to explain. But he couldn’t. Never, in his own pain when he’d made a promise of silence had he imaginedthisday. Hadn’t it been enough that he’d taken on himself the public shame, had lived with it since then? Did all that old pain have to be why he faced losing Eve now? Because that’s what was going to happen. She would never want to be with a man who’d done that.
“Didyou?”
Because he’d given his word, he was left with only the simple truth to share.
“Yes, I did.”
Her face fell, as though the tiniest bit of hope had been holding it up, and he’d taken it away. She spun around and staggered from the room. Joe only waited a second before he came in.
“Is there anything I can do?” he asked.
“You’d have to go back eight years.”
Joe glanced at the door and then back at Darius. “Are we still going to dinner?”
“We have to. We’re expected. And Eve needs our support whether she wants it or not.” Darius clenched and unclenched his fists, trying to get them to relax. “Let’s go.”
18
Darius was grateful to have Joe beside him as he entered the parlor where everyone was supposed to gather before the meal. There were more people than he’d expected. Darius was surprised that so many would come at the last minute. The only one he recognized was the cousin, and he was talking with a couple of guests who were about his age of perhaps twenty-seven or so.
Eve must have known Darius and Joe were in the room, but she never glanced their way. No one approached them, so they stood awkwardly to the side. Darius wished he could think of something besides the horrified look on her face when he’d confirmed what he’d done. If he wasn’t able to convince Melanie to give him permission to tell Eve what had really happened, it was over between them. He’d given his word, and that wasn’t something he could go back on.
“I guess we can entertain ourselves by guessing who these people are,” Darius said under his breath, needing to think of something else.
“That’s what I do at every function.” Joe scanned the room, studying everyone, periodically checking the two entrances. “After what happened today, I wish so many people hadn’t been brought in. It confuses things. What if something else happens tonight?”
“Bill was sure mad about us staying another night.” It’d been years since Darius had been chewed out like that, but he’d been adamant. He wouldn’t leave Eve here alone.
“Especially when I told him the cousin was back.” Joe’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Graham. “Addiction can cause people to do some very strange things.”
An odd hum came from a corner of the room, and Joe spun toward it, placing himself between it and Darius. He had to look around the bodyguard to see what it was. A door had slid open in the wood paneling to reveal an elevator. Mr. Stewart leaned on a walker and slowly made his way out of it, his silver hair carefully combed.
“I would like to welcome you all to this dinner for my American granddaughter.” Mr. Stewart indicated Eve.
“Look at the cousin,” Joe said under his breath. “He’s not pleased at the declaration.”
Darius shifted his attention to the shorter man who was watching Eve, smiling but with a crease between his brows.
“I don’t like the way Graham is looking at her,” he said.
“Me either.” Joe studied the man. “I think it’s important that she doesn’t spend time alone with him.”
“Do you really think he’d have the guts to try to hurt her?”
“Someone fired those shots today,” Joe said grimly. “What if they’d hit her? Or you? That cousin reminds me of a spiteful bully, and those types tend to lash out.”
