“What are you doing here? What is he doing here?” I look from Vincent to my mother and frown. This feels wrong. It feels all wrong. Alarm bells are going off in my mind and I try to make sense of what I’m seeing.
This is the man that didn’t even say goodbye to me. This is the man who sent his personal assistant to help his ex-fiancée move out of his mansion.
Vincent gets up and takes a step toward me. I take a step back and put up my hand.
“Mara,” he croons. “Come on, babe.”
“Don’t call me babe. I’m not your babe.”
His face softens as a hint of hesitation pierces my heart. Memories pass through my mind like a flash – all the times we had candlelit dinners and romantic walks. All the vacations and presents he got me.
I look at him again and frown.
It was all fake. I’ve felt more affection in a few weeks with Dominic than I did in three years with him. He was just buying me, like he buys everyone and everything around him.
“What are you doing here?”
“Mara, darling,” my mother interjects. “Vincent reached out to me. He realizes what a mistake he’s made and wanted to come back. He wanted to make it up to you in person.”
I swing my eyes over to my mother and frown. “Excuse me?”
“I miss you,” Vincent says. I look back at him and take a step back as he takes another step toward me. My heart is beating furiously and my head is screaming run. My feet stay rooted in place and all I can do is look at the man who played me for a fool.
“Why are you here?” I croak.
“I needed to see you,” he says gently. My breath is shallow and my heart is thumping. This feels wrong. It all feels wrong.
Dominic is gone. My mother is furious. Vincent is here.
This is all wrong.
This isn’t how this was supposed to happen. I don’t understand what’s happening. Does he care about me? Was I wrong about being used?
My father clears his throat behind me and I jump. I turn to him, eyes wide as I stare at the three of them.
“Mara,” he says, putting his hand on my arm. I jump. “Mara, Vincent reached out to your mother and we invited him to come here.”
I shake my head back and forth as the words catch in my throat. I don’t know what to say. The betrayal I felt when I came back here is bubbling up inside me. I don’t know where to turn. I don’t know where to go.
Dominic doesn’t want to see me, and my parents only think of themselves. The man who used me to advance his business is standing right in front of me, turning on his charm like a faucet.
I’m alone.
Vincent takes a step toward me and this time I don’t back up. He motions to the door and the side of his mouth curls into a gentle smile.
“Walk and talk with me?”
I’m almost suffocating in this room, and I can’t think. I just nod and let him guide me back in the direction I came in from, and then out the hotel’s front door. The sunlight outside is almost blinding. I’m walking in a daze, vaguely uncomfortable with Vincent’s presence beside me. My heart is racing, my vision is blurry, and all I can do is put one foot in front of the other.
We turn down Main Street and take a few steps in silence. Finally, I stop and turn toward him.
“What are you doing here, Vincent? Why are you here?”
He frowns and tries to reach toward me. I shrug him off and shake my head.
“Answer my question.”
He takes a deep breath. “I wanted to see you, babe.”
“Stop calling me that.”
“You’re mad, I get it,” he says slowly. I can feel the anger bubbling up inside me as he tiptoes around my questions. All I want to know is the truth. I just want him to be straight with me, for once. I just want someone to tell me exactly what is going on.
“Vincent. You broke our engagement off after the hotel deal went south. Now, we’re applying to be an official accommodation for the Park, and suddenly you’re back?”
His eyebrows shoot up and his hand flies to his chest. I resist the urge to roll my eyes.
“Mara! Is that what you think of me?”
“It’s what it feels like,” I spit. “What am I supposed to think? Why are you here?”
“I’m here because I want you!” he exclaims. He puts a hand on my waist and my whole body tenses. “I made a mistake, letting you go. I got caught up with work and I didn’t appreciate what was right in front of me. I should never have let you leave.”
“Let me leave?” I repeat, raising my eyebrow. “You pretty much kicked me out, Vince.”
“I did not,” he says. “You know how it was between us. We were falling apart.” I make a noise to protest, shrugging his arm away, and he reaches over to take my hand in his. “That was mostly my fault, I’ll admit that. I know it was. But I’m here now,” he says.
I hate the way he’s looking at me. I hate the way he can change his face from cold and heartless to charming in an instant. I hate the way that I’m not in control of my own emotions whenever he’s around.
There’s something different inside me now, though. I’ve found a new strength within me in the past few weeks. It feels like a shroud has been lifted from my eyes, and I can see everything just a little bit more clearly. I can see him for who he is, and his smooth words and charm-on-tap isn’t having the same effect it had three years ago.
He takes a step toward me, still holding my hand. His face starts dipping toward mine and my heart starts hammering against my chest. Is he doing what I think he’s doing…?
As he moves his head closer to mine, I put my hand on his chest and push him off.
“Vince! Get away from me!”
He takes a step back and a cloud passes over his face. The mask of charm falls away for an instant and I see the anger in his eyes. It’s replaced in an instant with a placid look as he takes a step toward me.
“Don’t be like this, babe. I need you!”
“Stop. Just stop,” I say, shaking my head and backing away from him. “I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want to see you!”
He catches my wrist in his and grabs me, pinching my skin. I yelp as he grips me tightly. I try to pull away but he keeps his hand on me, and that same flash of anger passes over his face. It disappears, and he lets go of my hand. I stumble backward and practically run back toward my parents’ hotel.
By the time I make it to my room, I can’t see straight. My heart is beating in my chest and I lock the doors before collapsing into bed. I rub my wrist where he’s left red marks and feel the hot tears streaming down my face.
My chest feels hollow and pain pierces through my heart.
I’ve lost Dominic, and I can’t trust my own family. I’ve never felt so alone.