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“That’s not fair,” he told her his desperation being replaced by anger. “I told you I never planned to marry. Don’t act like I tricked you into something.”
“I’m not accusing you of anything,” Bre said. “I’m simply stating my truth.”
“Your stating bullshit,” Henry fired back. “Do not lie to me Breanne, and do not lie to yourself. You can say you are leaving because I can’t commit, but you're leaving because you are scared.”
“Your right,” Bre whispered, her soft voice breaking through Henry’s white-hot anger. “I’m scared of falling further in love with you than I already am, and I’m scared of letting myself get more invested in this farce than I’ve already become. Christ Henry! Matthew’s giving away my job, and your mother is taking my charity. We aren’t even really engaged, and I’ve nearly given up my whole life away.” Her words struck Henry’s heart. He didn’t know what to say.
“Do you love me, Henry?” Bre asked her voice desperate to his ears. “Tell me you love me, and I’ll come back,” she told him.
Henry’s heart hammered against his chest as he considered her question, “Don’t present me with ultimatums Bre,” he told her.
“It’s an easy question, Henry, do you love me?” she asked once more.
Henry contemplated his options. This morning he wanted nothing more than to run to her, and now he wanted nothing more than for her to return to Rochester, but he also didn’t know if a desire to be in someone’s presence meant he loved them.
Before he could say anything, Bre made the decision for him, “My plane is boarding,” she told him.
“Breanne, if you get on that plane, don’t think about coming back. You think I asked you to give everything up before, now, I’ll be sure to take everything from you,” he threatened. He knew he loved her life in Rochester and considered that threatening to take it away from her might make her reconsider her choices.
“You can’t take anything else from me,” she told him somberly. “I’m not coming back. Goodbye, Henry,” she said before the phone went dead.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Amonth passed since Bre returned home to the States. Bre cried the whole plane ride home. Her seat mate probably thought she was crazy as she sobbed uncontrollably for hours. After her conversation with Henry, Bre felt more raw and emotional than when she looked at the pictures splashed across social media. When she asked Henry if he loved her, she wasn’t sure what answer she wanted. Even at the moment, she knew Henry would not respond well to the ultimatum she presented, but a small part of her, the piece that became completely irrevocably his, hoped to be surprised by his response. She wasn’t. Henry made it clear from their very first night together that what they had was a fun way to pass the time and rehabilitate his situation without giving in to his mother. Bre was a means to an end.
But Bre refused to wallow past those seven hours it took her to get home. After she got off the plane, she wiped her face in the airport bathroom and replaced her makeup. She took a deep breath before meeting her parents at the gate. The look on her mom’s face made her want to cry all over again.
“Oh, honey,” she said. “We missed you so much.” Her mom gripped her in a tight hug, as Bre’s dad grabbed her luggage.
“Is this all you brought with you?” he asked. Bre’s dad was never one for physical displays of affection, but the very fact that he spent several thousand dollars to fly her home meant a lot to Bre.
“That’s all,” Bre told him. Bre fled Rochester in a hurry, and Emily promised to send the remainder of her things when she decided if she wished to stay home. The longer she stayed in her mother’s arms, the more she thought about it, the more staying home in Pennsylvania felt like a good idea.
“Are you hungry?” her mother asked, releasing her from her tight grip.
“No, I ate on the plane,” Bre told her not mentioning that she ate two bites of the horrendous plane pasta before discarding it. Her stomach rejecting the food in her grief.
“I made soup at home,” her mom told her ignoring her previous statements. Bre looked at his father, who rolled his eyes. The scene warmed Bre’s heart, and despite all the differences between her parents and herself, she knew they would always be there when she needed them. They might not understand her, but they still supported her.
“Let’s go home,” she said. “I think you are right mom, I’ll probably feel better with some soup.”
* * *
Bre spent two months at home working at the family business before she got a full-time job in Philadelphia. Just in time. In those two months, her parents heaped attention at every turn, and the town gossiped as if she were the next big celebrity. Everyone wanted to know more about the girl who nearly became Duchess of Rochester. Her small town assumed she lost out on being the next Kate Middleton. If she had a dime for every dollar for every time she explained she never met the Queen, she’d be able to Buckingham Palace.
Bre assumed moving back to the States would help her to move on, but everywhere she turned Henry haunted her. Six months passed before she quit her temp job in Philadelphia, worked out a repayment plan to pay her parents back for the last-minute plane ticket, and high-tailed it back to London.
At first, her mother tried to talk her out of it, but Bre refused to allow Sienna and Henry’s affair to drive her out of a place she loved. She’d fled across an ocean, wallowed, and now she felt prepared to resume her life back in her adopted country. Besides, Henry was still considered one of the world’s most eligible bachelors, so trying to escape him by fleeing to another country did not help.
Now, with six months passed, she felt ready for the next chapter in her life, which is why she’d asked her old boss to meet her for a coffee.
“I’m elated you are back, but…”
“But you already filled my job,” she said to Matthew, her former boss. Upon her return to Rochester, she’d quietly gathered her things from her old flat and moved to a crappy shared room in London before reaching out to her former boss.
“It’s fine, Matthew,” she told him. “I knew when I left, you’d need to backfill my position. That’s not why I called. I have an interview with a small marketing firm doing some graphic design work, and I was hoping you could serve as a reference for me.”
Bre spent the last month barely making it. Every interview she went on asked her different questions about her personal life and her relationship with the Duke of Rochester. Bre managed to avoid being on the press’ radar, and therefore Henry’s radar, but her high moral grounds were costing her the ability to eat. Since she left Rochester, she’d managed to keep her heartbreak at bay by working herself to the bone, and the more time spent unemployed, the more time she spent wondering about Henry.
