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“Ah, there it is. The thing that you actually care about.”
“Maddox, I care about you.”
And then he started laughing. “Oh, that’s … that’s good, Josie. Did you rehearse that?”
“What? No! Maddox, I’m serious. I was going to break up with him. I’m still going to find a way to end this.”
“I should have known,” he said, losing his mirth. “I should have known that all of this would end in flames. You said exactly what I needed to hear to fall for you all over again. And I fell for it.”
“That is not what happened,” I argued, my own anger boiling to the surface. “I would never do that to you, Maddox. Everything I said, I meant.”
“And somehow, you’re engaged to another man.”
I opened my mouth to argue with him again, but Martin’s voice rang through the penthouse. “Josephine, darling, where have you gone, my love?”
I cringed at those words. “Just one minute,” I called out.
“Ah, it sounds like your fiancé is wondering where you’ve run off to. You should probably go back to him.”
“Maddox, please …”
“Good-bye, Josie. I hope you’re both very happy.”
And then he hung up on me.
I stared down at the phone in shock. Tears threatened to come to my eyes, but I held them back. I couldn’t cry right now. I needed to figure out what the hell to do. Maddox wouldn’t forgive this. He thought I’d lied all those times I told him I wanted us back together. He thought I’d played him. That I’d been waiting for Martin to get back from filming in Croatia and that I’d dabbled with him until that point. It was so obvious … and so obviously untrue.
My heart ached as I stared down at the phone. I tried dialing him one more time, but it went instantly to voicemail.
He was gone.
He was really gone.
“My love,” Martin slurred, slamming his shoulder into the doorway of the bedroom. He was well past drunk. Everyone at the party had been feeding him alcohol as if he were hooked up to an IV. “What are you doing alone here in the dark? I missed your beautiful presence. I couldn’t wait another minute without you.”
“Martin, why did you propose to me?” I asked softly. At least I would get the truth from him. He always said exactly what he meant in his inebriated state.
“Whatever do you mean?”
“Was it a publicity stunt? Did your publicist put you up to this?”
His beautiful face scrunched in disbelief. “Of course not. No one suggested it. I want to spend my life with you.”
“You do?” I whispered.
He strode across the room and drew me up to him. His arms were so strong and secure around me. His face open and honest. “How could you think otherwise? I love you, Josie. I’ve loved you for far too long. I was honestly too shy to act on it. You were so intimidating in your strength and endless beauty.”
“You were not shy,” I said with a strangled laugh.
“I was. I waited too long to make a move on you. I thought you were too good for me.”
“Be serious.” My face flushed at the words.
“I am,” he said, cupping my cheek. “I love you. I want to marry you. I want a life together.”
“But the publicity stunts …”
“Only started after we were together for months. I hadn’t planned any of it. I wanted you to be all mine. But when it all came out, I went along with it since it seemed like that was what you wanted.”
I blinked in surprise. “Truly?”
I felt wary of him and broken from what had just happened with Maddox. Martin was here. Solid and perfect and saying all the things I’d always wanted to hear from him.
“Forget the publicity. We don’t need it.” He brushed a kiss on my fingers. “We’ll elope. We can do it on Christmas. No one else has to even know.”
And I should have said no. I should have walked away and figured out how to be alone if I couldn’t have what I really wanted. But I didn’t do any of those things. I loved being loved. And I didn’t know how to be alone.
So, I said yes.
And by Christmas, Martin Harper was my husband.
21
ATLANTA
PRESENT
I slammed my mother’s journal shut with a strangled gasp.
Maddox would be here any moment to pick me up and drive me to Atlanta for my audition. I’d left the set early, unable to look at Martin Harper’s stupid face for an extra second. He’d asked if I wanted to go out with the rest of the cast. Nearly three years of marriage had taught me everything I needed to know about the look on his face when he had asked me out tonight. No way was I going there again. He’d ruined my relationship with Maddox once. I wasn’t letting that happen again.
