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“I never told you to stay away, Paige.”
Maybe not those words specifically, but his acti
ons had made it clear that he wanted me to stay away from Amy, and for Amy to stay away from me. I may be drowning in my own life, but I understood what the word distance meant and Roman had used it.
“You didn’t have to.”
I hung up and ran down the hall toward my gate, those stupid tears rising and falling again. I was running from a broken heart and headed to nowhere. My world in shambles all around with no hope for escape.
The flight was long, but did little to help with the pain. I walked out of the airport ready to hail a cab when Roman got out of a parked town car and met me.
“What are you doing here?” I said.
“We found the money, Paige. The Times is running the story. You’re cleared. Everything is fine.”
“Everything isn’t fine.”
“I was going to ask you to come back and work for me.”
I shook my head. That didn’t fix all the things broken inside of me. “This isn’t how it works, Roman. You can’t just snap your fingers and make things go back to normal.”
He frowned. “I thought we had an understanding. Once the funds were located and proper steps taken to clear your name, things would—”
“Would what? Magically be better?” No, because like I told Leo once, I was far from magical. And nothing in my life had ever worked out the way I’d hoped. “It doesn’t change what happened. Doesn’t change the fact that I haven’t seen my best friend in months because of this. That I’ve missed out on you two setting a date for your wedding and . . .” I placed the back of my hand over my mouth to catch the small tremor that escaped. But I couldn’t break down. Not now. Not again.
“Paige, I’m sorry. I did what I thought was best for everyone.”
“I know.” And I did. But it still hurt. Badly. “I also know you couldn’t make the right choice in handling this issue, and my distance from the scandal was best. But what hurts the most was you stood in your office, and you didn’t believe me.”
“I made a mistake.”
I shrugged. “Doesn’t matter.”
I turned to walk away and Roman called after me. “Leo is looking for you. He’s called me several times.”
I glanced over my shoulder and thought of what Leo had said to me the night at the gala. I was a woman that wanted to be chased, but not caught. Right then, I didn’t feel like much of either. I felt empty. Lost. With no hope of ever being found.
“Why don’t you come back to the house, Paige? Amy is waiting for you. We can call Leo and tell him where you are.”
I shook my head. “You can tell Leo he was right.” I forced the tremble in my voice down and saved the little pride I had left. “I don’t want to be caught.”
With that, I reached out and hailed a cab.
“Just come stay with me,” Amy said, coming to sit on the mattress next to me.
“Yeah, Paige, this place is . . .” Hazel looked around and winced. “Drafty.”
Sure, the Albany Bluepark Hotel wasn’t five stars, but I wasn’t about to waste the little bit of money I’d saved over the past few months. I needed it for a deposit on a place.
“I’m going to look at a studio tomorrow.”
“Paige, I’m so sorry. You are my friend and I love you. I never meant to keep you at a distance,” Amy said, and her big blue eyes went wide with tears. I knew she felt bad. I also knew she did what she and Roman thought best. They had both been calling me like crazy earlier and I wasn’t about to ignore them. I did, however, have an overwhelming urge to be alone and disappear beneath the covers and not come out until the hole in my chest healed.
But I was getting less confident it would ever heal completely.
“It’s okay,” I said, leaning back against the headboard and looking at the ceiling.
“No, it’s not,” Amy said, but now the tears were in her throat. Hazel sat down and with the three of us on the bed, we took turns hugging.
