“No one I recognized.But there was this one guy at Heathrow and again in LA.”She wiped her wet cheeks with the sheet Dan had put around her shoulders.“Xav always said that he’d protect me, so at first, I thought this guy was someone he’d sent to help.You know, like a CPO.”
Close Protection Officer.
Dan choked in disbelief.Needing a bodyguard?Hunter lived in a different world!Had Isabella really thought she’d be happy in it too?“So, this guy at Heathrow wasn’t a loving gift from Hunter, then?”
Wincing, Isabella shook her head.“He was just some loser.I made out that I was someone else—I mean, god, I bloody looked it!—but then there he was, sitting next to me in the bar, saying he could help me but that I needed to lay off the booze.Like, who the actual hell was he?So I… I told him to fuck off.”
“Oh, no.”Dan pinched his nose.“No, Issy.You didn’t.”
“It served him right.”But Isabella’s wince deepened as she tugged at her hair.“He’s probably bashing me on social media too now, isn’t he?”
“Well…”
“Oh, god.”More tears, more sobs.Isabella hugged herself tighter.
“Come on, Issy… If he was just some loser, forget about him.Take a breath.”Dan kneeled beside her.How could he calm her down?“You want to try some meditation?Listen to music?”Although he had nothing to play it on.“How about singing a song?That always makes you happy.”
“No.”Swiping at more tears, she dragged in another shaky breath.“I don’t think I’ll ever sing again.”
“After my accident, I didn’t think I’d be doing a lot of things, but you know, shit happens.We’ve just got to shift our perception and deal with things the best we can.”
Isabella blinked her matted eyelashes at him like he’d sprouted two heads.
Dan smiled at her.A living sample of someone who’d come out the other end.“See?”
“I could tell you were a lot happier when I saw your videos,” she said.
“I’ve still got stuff to process, but yeah, I’ve had a lot of help from Libby.”
Isabella wiped her nose on the back of her hand.“She did a great job with your socials.That was all her idea, then?I know you hate doing stuff like that.”
Mascara smeared across her cheeks and under her bloodshot eyes.When he’d last seen her—the day she’d broken off their engagement—she’d been so in love, so excited, and so convinced that her new life with Hunter would be worth other people’s pain.
“You hate me still, don’t you?”she said quietly.
Her words made him blink.He hadn’t meant to stare at her like that.“No, I don’t hate you.”
“Thank you.”Her lips wobbled again as she gulped in more air.“It’s too bad everyone else does.”She hiccuped, and Dan braced for another flood.“My record company is meeting after New Year’s to discuss dropping me.When I called my PR team, they said they were closed for the holidays and couldn’t help—they’re never bloody closed.”Isabella shivered again.“My…my friends.My family.They all said congratulations on Christmas Day when I made it to the top of the charts, but none of them had invited me to spend Christmas with them.I spent it alone.Everyone thought I had plans, but no one bothered to check.Not even my…my…my mum.”
She burst into tears again.
“Oh, Issy…” Dan hugged her, remembering that on Christmas Day, when she’d messaged him, she’d asked if they could talk.And he hadn’t replied.“I’m so sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about, Dan.You were the only person who had a reason not to speak to me.I should’ve told you months before I met Hunter that I wasn’t in love with you.I shouldn’t have pretended everything was fine.But honestly, I thought things would get better.And then you nearly got killed, and…and…” She sobbed harder.Like everyone else who’d seen him under that horse, she’d thought he was dead.“Even your accident was my fault,” she added.“I shouldn’t have put you in that position.”
“It was no one’s fault, Isabella.”
She sucked in a shaky breath.“I was going to wait to tell you until you were better,” she continued.“Then I met Xav…and he…he…” she hiccupped and sobbed.“He was nice to me.He told me he wasn’t in love with Alicia either.That they had an agreement to stay friends for the sake of their kids and their work, but he was lonely, like I was, and then things just happened.But it was all a lie,” she sobbed again.“I hurt you for a lie.I’m so sorry.You should hate me.”
“No.”Dan put his arm around her again.“I don’t hate you.”But how many more times did he have to say it for her to believe it?She’d been tricked, scammed, and then discarded.He felt sorry for her, but his pity wouldn’t make her feel any better.
“I know I don’t deserve anything from you, Dan, but will you help me, please?”She pulled herself away from him and raised her wet eyes to his, her nose bright red, her bottom lip trembling.“Will you marry me?”
Itwaslateafternoon.From the hut’s doorway, Libby looked across the backyard as Karim played at her feet.
Isabella was getting married.
That was the buzz on social media right now, fired up by Nadine Charming and Ashley Brooks, some reality TV stars in the UK that Isabella hung out with.
