Phoenix kisses my forehead, soft and sweet. "Come on. We need to find your shoes and get back out there before she sends a search party."
We locate my heels near the fireplace. I slip them on and Phoenix helps me fix my hair, tucking stray strands back into place with gentle fingers. He straightens his tie while I check my makeup in the reflection of a glass-fronted bookcase.
I look wrecked. There's no hiding what we've been doing. My lips are swollen, my cheeks are flushed, and there's a mark forming on my neck that no amount of hair rearranging can disguise.
"Ready?" Phoenix asks, offering me his hand.
"No."
"That's the spirit." He laces his fingers through mine and leads me toward the door.
The walk back to the party feels like a death march. Every step brings us closer to the crowded rooms where Olive is waiting, where a hundred wealthy guests are wondering where Phoenix Crawford and his mysterious girlfriend disappeared to. I keep my chin up and my expression neutral, but inside I'm screaming.
Olive is across the room when we enter, playing the perfect hostess. She's laughing at something a silver-haired man is saying, her hand resting elegantly on his arm. She doesn't look at us. Doesn't acknowledge our return at all. Somehow, that's worse than if she'd pointed and shouted.
Nicholas catches Phoenix's eye from across the room. He raises one eyebrow.
Phoenix gives a tiny shake of his head. Don't ask.
Nicholas smiles for a moment.
The rest of the evening is torture.
I stand at Phoenix's side and smile and make small talk with people whose names I immediately forget. I accept a glass of champagne that I don't drink. I laugh at jokes I don't hear. All the while, I'm acutely aware of Olive moving through the room, always on the opposite side, never coming close enough for us to have to interact.
When we do cross paths, she's coolly polite. "Are you enjoying the party?" she asks at one point, her smile perfect and empty. "I hope you've had a chance to see the gardens. They're lovely this time of year."
"Yes, they're beautiful," I manage, and she's already turning away before I finish the sentence.
The warmth she might have eventually shown me is gone. I can feel it in every interaction and glance. I am no longer Phoenix Crawford's girlfriend, a woman to be welcomed into the family. I am an intruder who violated her home.
By the time we finally leave, my face aches from smiling. My feet throb in my heels. My heart feels like it's been wrung out and hung up to dry.
Phoenix drives in silence, his hand resting on my thigh. The city lights blur past the windows as we wind down from the hills toward the coast. I stare out at the darkness and try to process what just happened.
"She hates me," I say finally, my voice flat.
"She doesn't."
"Don't." I turn to look at him, and I can see the worry in his eyes even in the dim light of the dashboard. "I saw her face. I'm the girl who fucked her son in her sacred library. That's who I am to her now. That's all I'll ever be."
"Jade."
"I was already fighting an uphill battle. Sydney Catalano's daughter, showing up out of nowhere, attaching myself to her son. And now this." I shake my head, feeling the tears threaten again. "I've ruined everything before it even started."
Phoenix reaches for my hand, and I let him take it. His fingers are warm and strong around mine.
"My mother is complicated," he says carefully. "She has high standards. She's protective of our family. But she's not unreasonable. Once she gets to know you, once she sees how much you mean to me, she'll come around."
"And if she doesn't?"
"Then she doesn't." His grip tightens on my hand. "You're more important to me than her approval. You're more important to me than anyone's approval."
I want to believe him. I want to trust that love is enough.
But I've seen the way Olive looked at me. The ice in her eyes. The dismissal in her tone.
This isn't over. It's just beginning.
