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All three of us turned towards the bar to look at Eli and Matteo. Eli was trying to stop his brother from finishing the drink in his hand.
“Uh-oh,” Ingrid muttered. She gestured across the room where Marco Blanchi was looking at his sons with anger in his eyes. “They’ve been spotted.”
Fiona sighed. “I’m up,” she muttered. “Someone try and keep those two away from the drinks, so my sacrifice isn’t for nothing.”
Ingrid and I watched as Fiona sauntered towards her uncle. There was a bright smile on her face, and when she greeted him, his face immediately softened.
“She’s good,” I muttered as I watched her charm her uncle effortlessly.
This made Ingrid laugh. “You’ll figure out that the entire Blanchi family is ridiculously manipulative.”
“Really?” Considering how close Ingrid was to the family, I was surprised to hear her speak in such a manner.
There was a small smile on her lips, but the usual sparkle in her eyes was more muted. “I love Luca, but I’m not as naïve as I might appear. He knows how to get what he wants.”
“And Eli?” The question slipped out before I could stop it, and I wanted to take it back the second I saw the words process in Ingrid’s mind.
A self-satisfied smile overtook her face. “I knew that there was something going on between the two of you. Eli would never have taken you to Harvard if the two of you were just friends.”
“Really?” Boston was a whole freaking city, Eli didn’t own it, and he knew that I wanted to see more of the coast. It was a weird thing to latch on to.
But Ingrid looked sure that that was some larger indication. “Eli is very private. We took a lot of the same classes in school, and he wouldn’t even tell me about the research he’s been doing.”
I tried to ignore the way that knowledge made me feel warm inside. Eli was supposed to be a distraction, so why did it matter so much that he shared something with me that he kept private.
“Please don’t say anything,” I begged slightly. “If his parents find out…”
Ingrid reached out and wrapped her hand around my wrist. She gave me a short squeeze. “It’s alright,” she assured me. “You don’t have to worry about me saying anything. What you and Eli do together is your business.”
Some of the tension in my chest lessened. For better or worse, I did believe that Ingrid wouldn’t say anything. “Eli is a good guy. He deserves to have a little bit of happiness.”
I felt my cheeks start to warm a little bit at the way she looked at me. It was like she could see something that I couldn’t when it came to me and Eli.
“When Luca told me that Eli was being forced to protect you if he wanted to go away to college, I worried that his father was going to make him bitter.” Ingrid rolled her eyes, not realizing that my mouth had dropped open slightly. “I mean who the hell dangles their kid’s dream over their head as a control. But it looks like it worked out.”
The blood was rushing to my ears, and I felt like I was going to pass out. I was the reason that Eli was not being allowed to go to Harvard. My presence in New York was keeping him from his dream.
“Oh no.” Ingrid looked at me with wide eyes as she realized that she’d told me something that I had not known anything about. “I assumed that you knew. Luca told me that it was the reason that Eli hated you when you first got here. Luca didn’t see the point in digging into your family, but Eli was determined to find something that would make his father send you back home.”
Ingrid just kept saying more and more, and each sentence seemed to be worse. My stomach rolled, and I worried that I was going to vomit all over Ingrid’s expensive, sparkly shoes.
“But everything worked out,” she said, trying to make things better. “You and him and very cute together.”
My tongue snaked out and licked my suddenly dry lips. “Excuse me.” I didn’t wait to see what Ingrid said next. Honestly, I couldn’t deal with any more revelations at the moment.
As I rushed out of the party, unsure of where I was going, I could not fathom what the hell Ingrid just told me.
It was one thing to learn that my presence was keeping Eli from realizing his dream. That sucked, but I could handle that. A call to my father could fix that. Marco Blanchi didn’t strike me as completely unreasonable. I’d not caused any trouble for him, and I was sure I could convince him to pull back on the protective detail.
But learning that Eli had dug into my past, that hurt. A lot.
I’d told him about one of my darkest secrets, not knowing that he was fully aware. Tears prickled my eyes as I walked out into the cool summer air.
Humiliation flared through me as I grabbed my phone, dialing a number that I had not called in months. “Hey,” I said, trying to keep my voice from quivering. “Can we meet?”
CHAPTERTHIRTY
Matteo was apparently desperate to piss our father off, and if it wasn’t for Fiona’s interference, he probably would have. “What the hell is wrong with you?” I reached out and grabbed the drink from his hand.
