“Your wife.” Ezra cackles. “Please, I said before this is all a setup. Some fucked-up plan to get on Cole West’s good side. But you aren’t fooling me.”
“This isn’t a fucked-up plan,” Leo roars.
“Isn’t it? You’re telling me you two are well-matched?” He guffaws. “Ria, you’re so uptight and tense, and this guy…”—he flicks his eyes to Leo—“he is so fucking scared of commitment that he fucks anything with a pulse.”
“You did not just say that to me.” Leo grips me tighter as I stare wide-eyed at the man who used to give me butterflies. “I think you need to leave before I do something I massively regret and cause a scene at my best friend's wedding. You do not disrespect my wife.”
“You wouldn’t dare lay a finger on me.” Ezra reaches into his pocket and presents his phone. “You see, I have this.”
“Well done, St. Claire. We all have one of those. You aren’t special.” Leo rolls his eyes.
“True, but yours doesn’t have this.” He taps a few times on his screen and turns it back around, showing a still of me and Leo outside of Bright, both huddled close together.
“Still don’t get what your point is?” I frown, trying to make sense of what he’s saying.
“Oh, silly me, I haven’t hit play.”
“So I’ll bring my things over to your place tonight?” Leo’s voice comes out of the phone, and I spot the date on the top of the phone. It’s the date he moved into my townhouse after our meeting with Cole.
“Yes, I’ll clear out the spare room for you.”
“Great. This will be okay, Ri Ri.” Leo loops his arm around me in the video. “This plan will work. He will have no idea we haven’t been living together for ages. I know you, you know me,and this will work. You'll have that portfolio and then we can go back to normal.”
“You’re that confident?”
“Completely. You’ll be done with me soon, we can go back to how things were, and you’ll have West Wing hotels under management.”
The video stops and Ezra places his phone back in his pocket. “So I think I’ll be the one winning, especially when I show this to Cole, unless you back down and tell him that Bright can’t work to his schedule. You aren’t capable of handling a portfolio of this size but I am.” My stomach rolls and I actually think I might be sick.
“How did you get that? Have you been following us?” I say in horror.
“Call it luck that I was in the right place at the right time.” He shrugs.
“Ezra, you can’t do this to them. It’s blackmail,” Trixie pleads, looking at Ezra like she doesn’t know who he is.
“It’s business, Trixie.” He sighs, boredom in his tone. “Now come on, let's leave. I think they have lots to think about.” Trixie follows as he brushes past us. “You need to back out of the negotiations. Otherwise I will send the video to Cole.” My body freezes as he lowers his lips to my ear. “Looks like I’m winning after all.”
Chapter 46
Ria
Frozen to the spot, I vaguely register movement and faint mutterings as I stare at Ezra and Trixie’s retreating forms.
It’s happened. He’s beaten me.
I’ve been so wrapped up in making this relationship with Leo look plausible that I let it cloud my judgment, and what I should have been focusing on was bringing Ezra down. How am I going to get out of this and not look like I’ve tried to break Cole’s trust?
My legs are heavy as I slowly slip out of the warmth of Leo’s touch. He tries to pull me back, but I push his hands away. The terror, fear, and utter humiliation claw at my chest, gripping my heart in a vise, and I push through the crowd to reach the escape of the wide-open space of the expansive gardens. This afternoon, I was free as I floated through the grounds as we had multiplephotos taken, laughing and joking with our family and friends. Leo had held me close and kissed me whenever he could, no longer acting. It was so natural to be with him, and I’ve never been so happy and full of hope. I need to grasp on to that feeling again, but as I suck in a deep breath of the cool evening air, it doesn’t fill my lungs and release the impossible feeling of failure. It triggers the backs of my eyes to tingle, tears threatening to fall with every intake.
“I’ve got you, baby.” I don’t realize I’ve sunk to the ground until Leo pulls me into his lap, cradling my body against his, my head resting on his chest and his heart thumping against me. “I’m so sorry,” he mumbles into my hair as he kisses my crown. “This is all my fault.”
His words crack my heart in two.
“It’s not your fault,” I say in between sobs. “I said we should stay married.”
“But I went along with it knowing full well I have wanted this for so long.”
“You can’t say things like that to me.” I shake my head, the fabric of his shirt brushing my cheek.
