Page 22 of Final Proposal

I clear the emotion clogging my throat. “I’ve never asked you guys for anything like this. I’m asking now.”

Ledger rises from his seat and heads to the door but stops before heading out. He waits for a beat before looking over his shoulder and meeting my eyes. It’s a simple nod. It’s all he gives. But it’s enough to know I’ve been heard and while he might not understand the why, he definitely understands that it’s important to me.

Ellery

“Elle . . . I don’t understand.”

“Of course, you don’t.” My smile is tight, and my need to keep this uneventful even more so. “You and my brothers, or my dad, and whoever decided it was a good idea for you and me to get married. It was simply a merger of sorts to tie our families together personally and professionally.”

“That’s not—”

“It is.” I reach out and grab Chandler’s hand, the diamond ring on my left finger sparkling. A symbol of love that we don’t really feel.

Or at least I don’t.

“It was easy to get caught up in everything. You. Me. The promises that were made behind my back to bring you into my family business and cement the future of our families simultaneously.”

“How did you . . .”

I didn’t know. I assumed. But his response just confirmed my hunch. That makes my need to do this even more urgent. Our chance meeting that wasn’t by chance. My brothers’ encouragement to go out with the man they deemed to be a great guy. Good stock. All the right boxes ticked. The whirlwind romance and the over-the-top proposal.

Everything you’d think a girl could want. Textbook romance but with a clinical feel to it.

It was all manufactured for a desired result. A successful business merger disguised as a picture-perfect relationship.

And I went along with it. Until I didn’t want to.

The question is, what made me have a change of heart?

Maybe waking up one day after a storm to realize that I wanted more than a contract to decide my happiness.

“Elle. Sure, it—us meeting, us dating, how beneficial us being together would be for both of our families—was an idea floated by your brothers, but then we actually fell for each other.”

“You realize how that sounds, right?” My nervous chuckle fills the room.

“I’m aware. Just as I’m sure you’re well aware of how the things you’ve said in the past sound.”

“As in?” I cross my arms over my chest and prepare for Chandler of the Hurt Ego to begin his degradation of me.

“As in the fact that you don’t even believe in love. That romance is a ridiculous notion. That a relationship needs to be mutually beneficial for everyone involved.”

“You’re right. I did say that. I do believe that,” I reply, hoping those same words will be what lets him off easy. “But don’t you want more than that? Just because I don’t believe in it, doesn’t mean you don’t deserve better.”

Kill him with kindness. Make it all about him. Flatter his ego.

“Elle . . . look at you. You’re intelligent and successful and beautiful. What man wouldn’t want you at his side?”

“One who deserves love? Who wants a family? Who . . . I don’t know.”

“But our sex life is good, is it not?”

A tight smile paints my lips. “Of course, it is.”

But good sex isn’t enough.

Isn’t that what this is all about? It has to be. Because for a woman who’s only ever been left by the ones she truly loved—first my father when I was nine and then my mother when I was eighteen—I don’t exactly subscribe to the notion of love.

It only leads you into a false sense of security before it devastates you and leaves you to fend for yourself.