AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My heart slammed in my chest, and I inhaled a shaky breath trying to lock down the crippling emotions raging inside me.
“The day Blake came to live with my wife, Miranda, and I, we gained the son we never had. Well, tonight, I can announce that I am to also gain a daughter.”
Mr. Weston raised his glass in the direction of table six, but I forced myself not to look.
If I looked, the thread I was hanging by would surely snap.
“I can think of no better match for Blake than Brittany. The Arnold and Weston families share a history that goes back decades, and now, they also have a future.” He said her name as if she was royalty, like everyone in the room would automatically know who she was. “Please raise a glass in toasting their engagement and wishing them a future filled with happiness and success.
“To Blake and Brittany.”
The thread snapped, pain splintering inside me.
I excused myself quietly and rushed into the kitchen, unable to catch my breath. Heads whipped in my direction, but I ignored their confused glances as I made a beeline for the staff restrooms at the back of the building.
My body crashed through the door, and I fell into the first stall slamming the door behind me. I crumpled down onto the seat and pinched my eyes shut, trying to stop the tears from falling.
Fiancée.
He had a freaking fiancée.
And she wasn’t a good person, the kind of person Blake deserved. She was mean and arrogant and everything that was wrong with the world.
I sobbed into my hands as my world crashed down around me.
All summer, I’d slowly allowed Blake in. Smile by smile. Stolen glance by stolen glance. And although I noticed the change in him, I thought it was just a natural progression of the boy I once knew becoming the man he was today.
I was too blinded by his presence to realize the boy I’d once loved was gone.
The imposter sitting at table six looked like my Blake, smiled like him… but it wasn’t him.
He wasn’t my lost, messy-haired kid with the crooked smile who showed me the stars and dreamed of a future where we made our own rules.
The man out there in the designer tux drinking the expensive champagne from a crystal flute worth more than everything I owned, didn’t have to worry about making his next rent check or working shitty jobs to make ends meet. He didn’t know what it was like to be so haunted by the past that you didn’t live. You only existed.
With each thought, each painful memory, my fragile heart shattered all over again.
I’d known Blake had someone—he had told me as much—but I was too lost in our memories. One look at him across the fire, and my soul remembered even when I wanted to forget.
And when it came down to it, I couldn’t ignore the way our hearts called to one another. I’d spent the whole summer letting Blake back in, letting him mend the broken pieces of me.
Only to find out it was all a lie.
The door to the restrooms opened, and Tara called, “Penny, are you in here?”
I reached around, flushed the toilet, and then dried my eyes on some paper. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
Drawing a deep breath, I exited the stall catching my reflection in the mirrored wall opposite.
I looked like shit.
“Are you okay? You don’t look so well.” Concern flashed in her eyes, but it was quickly replaced with annoyance.
“I think I have the stomach flu,” I lied, clutching my stomach for added effect.
“Shit,” she cursed. “Mary will freak. Get out of here, and I’ll cover for you. You had a family emergency, right?”
“Thank you.”
