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“That’s why I’m drunk,” he says, and his face wrinkles as if he’s disappointed in that fact.

“Is it?”

His hand swings up and then flops onto the bed. “Yep. This called for it.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s all fake. Fake, fake, fake.”

“All of it?”

“Yes. Every single bit of it and I don’t … I don’t… I don’t want …”

He leaves his sentence unfinished.

Okay, I changed my mind. This conversation is not fun.

My chest pinches. He’s just drunk, and he doesn’t know what he’s saying.

“We should get to bed,” I say, and he nods. I help lift him so his head is fully on the pillow, but again, he swats my hand.

I pull the covers over his body and then step back.

I’m in love with this man, and for the first time since we crossed that line, I’m starting to wonder if it was ever real for him.

Tears hit me again, and I drop my head back on a choked noise.

“What am I thinking? He wouldn’t fake all of it, would he?” I ask no one.

I move to my side of the bed, and right when I lay my head down and close my eyes, my phone dings with an alert for a new article posted on the lodge.

I meant to turn this off a long time ago but clearly forgot once only positive articles started coming in.

I click to open it, and my heart sinks instantly. Then the tears return, and I cry right there in my bed while Preston sleeps next to me, completely unaware.

The wedding date is confirmed, and Preston King is announced as the new CEO of King Enterprises.

Oh my god. That’s why he did it? That’s why he gave them a date. It was the final piece he needed to get everything he wanted.

I thought the whole plan would give us both what we wanted and leave us thriving, but all it’s left me with is a broken heart.

Chapter

Twenty-Nine

PRESTON

My head fucking hurts.

That’s the first thing I notice when I wake up in the morning. The second thing I notice is, Grace isn’t here.

I blink and rub my eyes as I sit up. There are two aspirin and a glass of water next to my side of the bed. I take them and chug the water.

That’s a good sign, isn’t it? She cared enough to set these out for me.

Bits and pieces of last night come back to me. I wasn’t that drunk, but I was drunk, and even I can admit that we all say and do shit we will regret at any level of drunkenness.

I need to find out what mine was.