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I am curious, though, if she’s told her parents about me and how they plan to handle it when they finally see me again. Are they just going to lie through their teeth and pretend they never met me?
“Think about it.” Adam stands up and yawns. “If you don’t start making an effort, Bianca will think you hate her.”
“Hate her?” I smother a bitter laugh. “How could I? I don’t even fucking know her.”
The dinner performance goes on for a couple of hours before everyone moves to the backyard for drinks around the fire. I stay in the cottage, fucking around on my guitar, trying to rework the lyrics I’ve been stuck on for weeks. And when the coast is clear, I sneak down to the kitchen and eat a plate of leftovers while I watch them through the window.
Bianca’s mom beams like the sun shines out of Adam’s ass. It’s a world of difference from the disapproval stamped on her face when she met me. I don’t have the slightest clue what the fuck they’re talking about, but they all laugh at whatever Adam says, including Bianca. Something is different about her tonight, and I can’t tell if this is a show or if it’s who she really is in her normal world. When Adam slips his arm around her, she doesn’t pull away. She doesn’t do anything but smile at him. And something about that fucking breaks me because I know I’ll never have that with her.
I’ll never sit there with her parents, laughing and telling jokes and not having to do a goddamn thing to earn their approval other than be myself. I’ll never have her secret smiles or her peach-flavored kisses unless they’re stolen in dark corners.
People write songs about wanting the person they love to be happy, even if it’s not with them. But that’s fucking bullshit. I don’t want that. I don’t want to sit here and watch this. I can’t just act like I don’t care when she signs her life away. I can’t watch her marry Adam and have his children while we pretend that we never existed.
“You’re doing the right thing, you know.”
I jolt at the sound of her father’s voice, and when I glance over my shoulder, he’s standing by the fridge, watching me. I can tell he’s not surprised to see me, which means Bianca told him about this little hitch in their plans.
“Did you come in here to make sure I won’t ruin this evening’s show?” I ask dryly.
He sighs, and admittedly, he reminds me of Bianca when he does that. I don’t want to like him. There’s no way I ever could. But right now, I can see what Bianca meant about her parents being under so much stress to make this business deal happen. It’s written all over her father’s face. The deal might be done, but things can still get in the way. Namely, me.
“There’s something you should know about Bianca,” he says after some hesitation. “She’s lived a comfortable life. We’ve given her everything we could. The best schooling. The finest clothes. Dance lessons, singing lessons, and vacations some people could only ever dream of. She’s used to that lifestyle and doesn’t understand the harsh realities of the world. We want her to have the life she deserves, and that’s why we’ve worked so hard to provide for her. To take care of her—”
“To marry her off to the most eligible bachelor,” I interject.
Her father frowns. “I don’t know what Bianca told you, but she’s happy with Adam. Surely, you can see that for yourself. He makes her laugh. He makes her smile. He gives her stability and he understands her. I want all those things for my daughter, and she wants that too. I’m not marrying her off. This is her choice.”
“Is that why she was at the ranch?” I reply. “Because everything was so perfect?”
He glances out the window and shakes his head.
“Did Bianca tell you why she was there?”
“She told me everything,” I grit out. “I know about the money problems. Your cancer. That you need these contracts with TCA to pay for treatment. And I’m sorry for what you’re going through. It sucks. But you can’t possibly think the best solution is signing your daughter’s life away.”
Bianca’s father swallows hard as sorrow overtakes his features. The unexpected display of emotion catches me off guard, but not as much as what he has to say next.
“The crazy thing is, Madden, I wish I could tell you those things were based in reality. Maybe they would be easier to deal with than the truth.”
“What does that mean?” A sinking feeling settles in my gut when he meets my gaze.
“You have to understand I love my daughter more than anything,” he says. “She’s beautiful, intelligent, creative. But for all of her good qualities, there is one part of her that overshadows everything else. There are things you don’t know about Bianca. Things you couldn’t have known. She’s been in therapy for years. This wasn’t her first time in a residential program. She’s been to many. And unfortunately, you are far from the first person she’s spun these fabrications to.”
