Page 34 of Ungodly Rich

“You were angry,” Julia repeated. “So you and your brother fought, and then you slept with his wife to get back at him?”

“No, of course not!” Harry ran a hand over his face, then looked back up at her. “My relationship with Hector is complicated. We have never been especially close.”

“That doesn’t excuse your behavior!”

“I know it doesn’t. Sleeping with Valentine was a mistake, one that nearly cost me my family. Some of them still haven’t forgiven me, as you probably noticed this weekend,” Harry added heavily. “They’re right to blame me.”

Julia heard the rumble of the PA system as the pilot made an announcement, probably informing everyone that their flight was delayed. The plane was only a few yards away, yet it felt very far off, as if she and Harry were in a temporary bubble on the jet bridge.

She let out a breath. “You’ve kept so much from me. The fact that you’re an Ellene, this huge secret from your past…”

“I’m sorry,” Harry said again. “I didn’t tell you my real name because I needed a fresh start, away from all of this. I was so lost when I came to New Zealand, Julia. And then I met you, and I started to feel like a new, different person. As for this thing with Valentine…” He held out his hands, palm-up, in a gesture of helplessness. “I didn’t even know how tobeginto tell you. How was I supposed to bring up something like that? I worried that you would judge me for it and leave meforever. Just like you’re trying to do now,” he added, eyes darting toward the plane.

A plane that he was forcibly keeping from taking off. Manipulating the world through his network of privilege, just like Preston had done.

Julia knew she should stop thinking of Preston. But looking at Harry, she felt the same sensation of whiplash, of bewildered hurt—the same realization that the man she loved wasn’t who she’d thought he was. That he thought the ordinary rules of right and wrong didn’t apply to him.

“Julia, I hate thinking about the person I was back then,” Harry insisted, a new urgency to his voice. “I’ve changed.Youhelped change me. You make me a better version of myself. It’s one of the many reasons I love you.”

I love you, too,Julia thought, but couldn’t bring herself to say the words. She was still too raw, too wounded.

She did love Harry, so much. And she knew how it felt to have parts of your past that you didn’t want to share, that were simply too painful to think about.

But the things she’d kept from Harry were so much smaller than what he’d concealed from her. She’d never lied about heridentity.She’d never put Harry in a position where he would feel betrayed.

“I don’t see how we move forward from this,” she said mournfully, before boarding the plane.

Harry followed her into the central aisle. “Then we don’t move forward. We move back. Let’s go home to Queenstown, forget this week ever happened.”

A few of the other passengers shot them curious looks, but most were busy on their phones or already dozing off.

“Queenstown isn’t really home to me,” Julia pointed out.

“Then we’ll move wherever you want to go. As long as I’m with you, I’m home.” Harry tugged on her hand, forcing her to turn around in the narrow aisle.

Julia’s breath left her chest as he fell to one knee.

“I love you,” he said again. “I love your brilliance, your sense of adventure, your inner fire, your unwavering moral compass. I love thelife we’ve built together—thereallife, not the past few days with my family, but just us. I love the person I am when I’m with you. Please, Julia, marry me. I don’t have a ring, but—” He hesitated. “I promise to get you one, as soon as I can.”

The silence stretched out for a long beat, then an old woman a few rows back crowed, “If you don’t marry him, sweetheart, I will!”

Her comment tore a laugh from Julia’s chest, a laugh that she realized was mingled with tears.

Oddly, she remembered something her mother used to say:I love you so much it hurts.What else was love if not letting someone under your guard, drawing them close enough that it was wonderful and joyful and, yes, occasionally painful?

Harry had done an awful thing, but he said he’d been a different person back then, and Julia needed to believe him. She needed to trust that the past two years mattered more than the upheaval and secrets of the past week.

He was asking her to marry him—to spend the rest of their lives together, to build a future, and a family, together. Didn’t this commitment matter so much more than whatever he’d done in his past?

“Yes,” she heard herself say.

“Yes?” Harry repeated.

“I love you. Yes. Yes!”

Amid scattered applause and whoops of approval, Harry rose to his feet and embraced her. Dimly, Julia realized that a few of the other passengers were filming the whole thing. She didn’t care, just held him close as he pulled her into a kiss.

When they finally broke apart, Harry’s head was tipped downward toward hers. “Are we still going to Frankfurt? Or should I book us a flight somewhere else?” he asked. “London, to see Abby? Paris? The Maldives?”