Page 109 of Valentine’s Billionaire Auction

But I couldn’t stay in the mansion. I had to get away. I needed to talk to someone.

I didn’t know who else to call. I had no one else. My fingers moved on autopilot, dialing my parents. It had been weeks since I’d spoken to them. That was just another thing to feel guilty about. I was a horrible daughter, friend, and girlfriend. I was batting a thousand.

But they were my parents and I knew they would love me regardless of my spotty contact. Since moving in with Roman, I had only reached out a couple of times via texts here and there. They weren’t the type to keep up with the media, so I knew they had no idea about what had been going on. I could only imagine what their reaction would be.

My mom picked up on the second ring. “Kaira?”

“Mom.” I couldn’t say anything else. The lump of emotion was lodged in my throat.

“Sweetheart, is everything okay?”

The sound of her voice cracked something open inside me. The whole story came tumbling out. The contract, the fake engagement, the budding romance with Roman, tonight’s fight—everything. My words were rushed and messy, interrupted by sniffles and hiccups, but I couldn’t stop. I knew I was probably making no sense. My thoughts were all over the place.

When I finally finished, there was a long silence on the other end of the line. I had to check my screen to make sure she was still there.

“You did what?”

“I know it sounds bad,” I said quickly, my face burning with shame. “But it wasn’t supposed to get this complicated.”

“You think?” my dad’s voice came through the receiver, sharp with disbelief. “Why didn’t you tell us any of this, Kaira?”

“Because I knew you’d try to talk me out of it,” I admitted. “And at the time, I thought I could handle it.”

“Kaira,” my mom said, her voice softer now but still firm.

I took a deep breath and braced myself. Their reaction was about what I expected. “I know,” I said with a sigh.

“This is serious, Kaira,” Mom said. “You’re playing with fire here, emotionally and legally. How could you get involved in something like this?”

“I don’t know.”

“If you needed money, you should have called us,” Dad said.

“It wasn’t really about the money,” I said. “Well, only partially about the money.”

“Was this some infatuation?” Mom asked. “Who is this guy? I’ve never known you to be so reckless. This is not like you at all.”

I hesitated, wiping at my eyes. “I thought I was helping him,” I said quietly. “And then it just… it became more. I didn’t expect to feel this way.”

My mom sighed. “Sweetheart, you need to get out of this arrangement. It’s not healthy, and it’s clearly causing you pain.”

“The first thing you need to do is void that contract,” Dad said. “Get out of that house. Get away from that man. You are not a…”

He didn’t finish his sentence. He didn’t have to. All three of us knew exactly what he was going to say.

The idea hit me like a punch to the gut. Voiding the contract would mean ending this… whatever this was with Roman. Could I do that? Could I really just walk away?

“I don’t know if I can,” I whispered. “I… I think I love him.”

There was a stunned silence on the other end of the line. “Then you need to tell him that. But Kaira, if this is how things are now, you need to think about whether this relationship is good for you. I don’t think it’s healthy. I don’t understand how or why someone would lose their temper over what you describe as a painting studio.”

“It’s hard to explain,” I said.

“It sounded pretty clear to me,” Dad said in a gruff voice.

“I hurt him, Mom. I crossed a line I shouldn’t have, and I don’t know how to fix it. It wasn’t just a room. It was something very important to him. It’s taken me weeks to get him to laugh freely and I ruined everything by walking through that door.”

“Sounds like the guy is a real peach,” Dad said. “Why would you want to be with someone like that?”