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It didn’t matter now whether she could fit herself into his world. She couldn’t be with him if she couldn’t trust him. He’d broken her heart years ago, with no warning or explanation, and despite his promises to regain her trust, he’d just done it again.
Wiping her eyes and trying to catch her breath, Caitlyn called for the driver.
***
Emrys arrived at his hotel room a bit irritated. He’d expected to see Caitlyn this morning but had been disappointed. She’d texted him for lunch plans, but when he’d texted her back, she had never responded. After they had lost the light for the day, the director decided to call it quits; these scenes needed a particular time of day, and they weren’t ready yet for another set of inside scenes.
Thus, Emrys entered the elevator still dressed in the tattered jeans and band T-shirt his character preferred. His shoulders were tight with annoyance and stress, but his heart was hopeful for the moment he would see Caitlyn again. It was a testament to how deeply imbedded she was in his heart that he couldn’t be away from her for a few weeks without feeling as though a part of him had gone missing.
But when he opened the door to his suite, there was no Caitlyn. No suitcase. Nothing to show that she had ever been here, aside from a stray tube of lip gloss on the dresser and something lying on the bed. Emrys drew nearer to investigate, but then drew back again when he saw himself there on the cover of a tabloid with Nina. It had been the moment earlier that week when they had been talking about their characters. Had Caitlyn seen this? Was this why she had come and gone?
Underneath the magazine lay a letter stuffed into an unsealed envelope. Emrys opened it and read.
Emrys,
I have loved you since I was 19 years old. I have loved you with all my heart and to the best of my ability. Now that you’ve seen the magazine, you know that I know. I know that you’ve been with this woman, and I know that you’ve been working with her without telling me. I also happen to know that you sent me back to be “trained” by your mother and sister, deliberately and without telling me. I don’t know what you think would have happened if you had just let me in on the plan, since I obviously could have played the part you wanted me to better if you had simply told me. But like our engagement, you saw fit to keep me in the dark, trapping me into either following along or hurting you. Which I would never do, if I could help it.
I love you, but you are a liar. You manipulate me instead of letting me in, and whatever happened between you and that woman, things have come up that make it completely unacceptable for me to keep letting you do this to me. I might be able to play along in this love game of yours, for which the prize is a truly obscene amount of money, and maybe also the satisfaction of defying your father. If it were just me, maybe I would continue to let you hijack my life and trick me into your schemes, but it isn’t, and I can’t let this keep happening.
I hope you have a long and scandal-filled career. Fame and success suit you. I’m taking my life in a different direction.
Love,
Cait
Chapter Twelve
The letter fell from Emrys’s hands, and he cast a glance around the room, trying to think of some way to find Caitlyn before she disappeared. Where would she even go? Home, maybe? New York?
Emrys called the driver and quickly ascertained that she had gone to the airport, so he had the man bring the car around to take him. He had to find her.
Despite his orders to drive ever faster, it still took nearly thirty minutes to arrive at the airport. Not knowing where she intended to go, Emrys could only search the departing flights and wonder which she might be taking. Some had left since the time the driver had said he’d dropped her off. Emrys had yelled at him for not alerting him, but he had left no instructions for the man to alert Emrys for any reason, so Emrys could only blame himself.
Which airline would she have taken? How could he get to her?
Obviously, he was going to have to buy a ticket. After politely flashing a picture of Caitlyn on his phone to any person in a uniform who would look, the girl at the Starbucks counter told him that she had sold Caitlyn some peppermint tea, a sandwich, and a couple of cookies. While of course she didn’t know where Caitlyn was going, she pointed him to the right airline.
It cos
t him a few hundred to bribe his way through the ticketing line. One older woman asked him what his hurry was, and he told her that he was about to lose his fiancée, so she gave him his twenty back and shooed him on his way.
Finally, after a security line that he couldn’t bribe his way through—this was why he took the jet everywhere—Emrys went about searching every gate being used by Caitlyn’s airline. Every damn one. Seven gates later, and he spotted her hair. Caitlyn had woven it into a spunky pair of short braids on either side of her head. It was long enough for that now, since Emrys had insisted during her time at the palace that she not cut it.
He hesitated to approach her now. After everything he’d done to get here, he could still lose it all. He couldn’t force her to forgive him or to understand why he did things so backwardly and underhandedly. Could he make himself be the open, honest lover that she needed? He hoped so, but after his past failures, he couldn’t expect her to just trust that he would. And now there was no way for him to get her to come to him.
Emrys raked a hand through his hair, realizing that it still had the stiff hairspray and temporary dye that made it look grayer for his character. He could’ve cleaned up on the set but had been in a rush to get back to the hotel. He was at a disadvantage here. He could approach her now or track her down later and find a more opportune moment to win back her affections.
Caitlyn would be right to leave him, if he did that. He would be manipulating her, and she would only leave again the next time she noticed. Emrys brushed his hands over his scruffy outfit and went over to her.
When Caitlyn spotted him, her eyes widened, her brow furrowed, and then her eyes began to well up with tears. Just as she began to rise to get away from him, he dropped to his knees in front of her.
“Emrys, stop it,” she hissed.
“I have to explain. Please let me explain.”
“What is wrong with your hair? Is that co—”
“I haven’t changed from the set.” Emrys gestured to his hair, his clothes. “I rushed to get to you only to find you gone. The fault is mine, Cait, but please…”
