Everything inside me went cold.
“What the hell?” The words tumbled out in a panic, an anger so fierce I didn’t know where it came from. “No. No, that can’t—”
I pulled back, searching his face, desperate for him to say something, anything, to make this make sense. But his eyes, red and swollen, told me everything I needed to know.
My heart shattered in a way I didn’t think was possible. He was already drowning, and now… now he was being dragged under by the weight of it all.
I kissed him then, desperately, my hands tangling in his hair as I tried to put every ounce of love, every promise I had, into that single kiss. But he didn’t kiss me back.
He let go, and I held him as he cried, as his broken sobs shattered the silence around us.
Chapter Thirty-four
NINA
Present Day
NEW YORK CITY
Inever knew Ronan Emanuel Romano to be a liar.
If anything, he was always painfully honest.
So when we spoke months ago at Dillon’s gala or when he showed up at my office weeks later, I knew he meant every word he said. That truth was what made everything harder.
Still, the guilt crept in. The relentless question of whether it had been my fault he left. I replayed our memories, dissecting every look and every conversation, searching for something I might have missed. I had loved him with everything I had, but doubt lingered.Could I have been more patient? Moreunderstanding?
But then I remembered everything I did and the magnitude of all I had given up. I thought about how often I had swallowed my own needs to keep the peace, just to keep him. Back then, when he was distant and hiding behind silence, it had been easier to hurt from afar.
Now he was here.
With all I knew. With everything I still felt. With him simply being Ronan.
I had no idea what to do with that.
Through everything I had expected from him, this level of extravagance had never been one of them.
My living room and boutique were overflowing with peonies, love letters stuffed into shoe boxes, and enough gifts for a hundred special occasions. Not to mention the random visits to say hi, even though I knew he was busy running an empire and a hospital. Somehow, that made it all feel even more intimate.
On my flight to New York, I sat beside Inaya, replaying Dillon’s gala livestream for what felt like the hundredth time while she searched for a necklace she had spotted. When Ronan’s name was called by the reporters, I leaned closer to the screen.
There he was.
Charcoal suit with midnight blue accents. Shiny black shoes catching the light. Hair perfectly styled. He looked exactly like the man I remembered, commanding without even trying.
The paparazzi asked about his date. Part of me expected him to mention an assistant or some convenient plus-one, but his answer hit harder than I was ready for.
“You’ll notice the most gorgeous Afro-Italian woman in the room.”
Inaya’s eyes flicked to mine, and I looked away because we were both thinking the same thing.
Ronan had already taken up too much space in my head, andnow he was making it worse, threading himself through every anxious thought about my expansion. Between endless phone calls and Google searches for the perfect location, nothing was sticking. Every promising lead slipped through my fingers.
With only two weeks left to finalize the Eminence contract, secure a boutique space, and get the project off the ground, I was still at square one in a city that felt far too saturated to give me what I needed.
“Inaya,” I called out as she buckled her seatbelt, her optimism starkly contrasting my growing pessimism, “I hope your faith works wonders because we need a miracle to find a boutique in the next two weeks.”
“Pessimist,” she teased, flashing a reassuring smile.
