Marley frowned. “Being seen together is how we got into this mess in the first place.”
He recoiled a bit. Marley sighed. This wasn’t his fault. She shouldn’t be taking it out on him.
“I was fired, Nikhil,” she said, her voice cracking as the words came out.
His eyes widened with surprise. “You lost the personal shopping role?”
Marley shook her head, then looked away. She still couldn’t believe this was happening to her. “No… they fired me from Reid’s completely. For violating the NDA. They offered me a small payout and had me escorted out of the store.”
“What? They can’t do that! You didn’t do anything wrong!”
Marley shook her head. “Didn’t I, though? I mean, I slept with a client.” She didn’t mean to sound so bitter. “My name and the store’s name were printed on that gossip site. Everyone thinks I’m a home-wrecker. I was very careless.”
Nikhil shook his head. He looked furious… rightfully so. But fury wasn’t going to help.
“Nikhil, I’ve worked my ass off for years there. I have loyal clients and was about to move to personal shopping, too.”
“Fuck. I’m going to kill Arjun.”
Marley turned sharply to him. “What does your brother have to do with this?”
Nikhil exhaled. “I think he sold your address to the paparazzi. He came home for a day while I was in LA and went through my sister’s phone. He got my phone number and your address. Nalini feels terrible—she said to tell you she’s sorry.”
Marley sighed, still looking at Nikhil. She didn’t blame Nalini. Shedidblame Arjun… but if he hadn’t found her address, she had no doubt someone else would have talked eventually. Hell, someone from the store also talked to the press. “If it hadn’t been this leak, it would have been another one,” she said. “I worked so hard, and now I have nothing.”
“And you think I haven’t been working hard? Marley, we’ve both been violated here!”
“I know!” Marley shook her head. “That’s my point! We’re a disaster! We can’t do this! It’s impossible to justplay house. To pretend to be partners. Because as soon as we act like a normal couple, someone sells us out. This life isn’t normal!”
Nikhil stood, then knelt at her feet. His eyes were so sad it was hard to look at them. “This hasn’t beenpretending, Marley. And you know it.” He took her hands in his.
Nikhil’s beautiful face had come to mean everything to her. But she couldn’t do this. Her heart was breaking into a million pieces, and she couldn’t lean on him to put her back together this time. He was right—it had never been pretending. But they’d never really been partners, either.
Marley was way too private to have a partner. She always had been. And even if she could manage to really let someone in, he was literally a public figure. He couldn’t be that someone.
“All this chaos will pass,” he said after they’d been staring at each other for several seconds. “I’ll hire some PR people. We can ride it out, then go public with our relationship. And I can help you find a better job. We’ll get through this.”
She looked down so she wouldn’t see his face as she removed her hands from his. She folded them in her lap.
He was silent for a while. Finally, he spoke softly. “Don’tpull away from me, Marley. Don’t you want to weather the storm together?”
“No.” She shook her head. She finally looked at him, feeling the tears running down her cheeks. She didn’t wipe them. “Because even if we get through this storm, another will come.” When she saw the glassiness in Nikhil’s eyes, she almost threw her arms around his neck. She didn’t want to be causing him pain. But it would only hurt more if she let this go on longer. “I can’t do it. I can’t live in your life. I can’t be in the spotlight like that.”
He blinked. “You can’t or you don’t want to.”
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “Both.”
He shook his head, eyes pleading. “Marley, you said before that what we have is rare. It’s worth fighting for. It’s worth seeing if it can last, isn’t it?”
Marley was tired of fighting. Fighting with Jacqueline to prove she deserved to be at Reid’s. Fighting people like Tova who wanted her success without the work.
Fighting this damn genetic mutation so she wouldn’t get sick. For a while when she was recovering, she felt like she didn’t have to fight anymore. She could let Nikhil support her and take some of her burden. But it was never going to last. They couldn’t be what the other needed.
He looked at her, blinking, until he finally got up off the floor. “That’s it then, I guess. There isn’t a reason for me to be here anymore. You fulfilled your end of the bargain, and I’ve done my part. Even if it all ended up a mess, we don’t need each other anymore. Give me fifteen minutes to get my stuff together, then I’ll be out of your hair.”
Marley didn’t look at him as he walked up the stairs. Or when he came back down ten minutes later with the suitcasehe had come with a few short weeks ago. She did look when he was at the door, though. He was so… gorgeous. No, more than that. He took her breath away. He was everything she’d needed for the last month.
But she couldn’t live in his world, and she couldn’t subject him to hers.
