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Emilia and I walk in silence, both of us lost in thought. It isn’t until we reach the treehouse that I snap out of it. I look up at it in surprise. I’ve paid top dollar to make sure that it’s been maintained properly, but I haven’t had the heart to enter in years. Emilia stares up at it with such a hurt expression that I regret leading her here, however subconscious it might have been.
“Is it okay if I go in?” she asks me, her expression filled with uncertainty. That she’s even asking me surprises me. She’s always done whatever the hell she wanted, and she’s never once asked me for permission for anything. I still remember how she’d put a sign over the one Dad made for us, so it read Kate and Emilia’s Treehouse, rather than Kate and Carter’s. Replacing each other’s signs was one of the fun parts of our little feud. When she realized I wouldn’t give up, she vandalized my sign, turning the C in my name into an F. Didn’t take me long to take it down after that, and she ended up winning that fight.
“Of course,” I say, smiling at her fondly. I wonder what she thinks of when she sees the treehouse. I wonder what her favorite memories are here.
Emilia smiles at me and carefully walks up the stairs, her heels clicking against the wood. I follow closely behind her, terrified that she might trip. I breathe a sigh of relief when she reaches the top. Emilia’s hand trembles as she opens the door, and I wish I could grab hold of her.
She stands in the entrance, a million different memories flickering through her eyes. I wonder what she’s seeing. This is where we met. It’s where we both lost our virginity, and it’s where I asked her to be my girlfriend for the very first time. This place houses some of our most precious memories.
Emilia sighs and walks in, her expression sad as she sits down by the window, right where I found her crying over her mother, long before she and I even realized we were in love with each other. I swallow hard, my heart twisting painfully.
“Thank you for letting me come up,” she whispers, a small smile on her face, and I shake my head.
“Since when do you ask for permission to enter the treehouse, Emilia? Since when do you thank me for something so irrelevant?”
I walk up to her and sit down beside her. “It’s only polite,” she tells me, and I smile humorlessly.
“Polite? I don’t want you to be polite to me. I want the girl that would challenge me over the slightest thing. The girl that loved jeans instead of these damn skirts you wear nowadays. The girl that threw fake cockroaches in my bed and that would mess with me every way she could think of. What happened to her?”
Emilia looks at me, her expression guarded. “She grew up,” she says, her voice barely above a whisper.
I look away, unable to hold her gaze. I did this to her. To us. My family and I wrecked her, and all that’s left is the ruins of us.
“I’ve wondered about you for years,” I tell her honestly. “I don’t think a day has passed that I didn’t think of you.”
Emilia looks at me, her expression pained. I smile at her, but my heart is aching.
“Part of me wondered if we’d ever find our way back to each other. If you’d ever come back home. If you’d ever be able to forgive my family, and if you’d ever give me another chance.”
I run a hand through my hair and sigh. Emilia stares over my shoulder, lost in thought. When her eyes find mine again, she looks angry, and I regret saying anything at all.
“I won’t,” she says. “I won’t ever forgive them, and you and I… that will never happen. I’m not staying here. I’m really only here for my dad, and if it’s up to me, I won’t see your family at all.”
I nod and try my best to keep from showing how badly her words hurt. For so long I’ve held onto hope that maybe someday, Emilia and I could be together again. With just a few words she took that all away.
Emilia smiles one of her polite smiles, her expression guarded.
“What’s in the past is in the past. It’s done, and I honestly don’t even want to think about it. I would like to sincerely thank you for looking out for my father the way you have been,” she says. “I had no idea you two were even on speaking terms. I had no idea you did so much for him while I was away. It should’ve been me, but I… I wasn’t there for him, and that’s on me.”
My heart fucking shatters. She and I both know why she wasn’t there. I’m the reason she’s stayed away from home for as long as she did. “Emilia, I… please don’t thank me for that. It’s the least I could do. It isn’t enough.”
She shakes her head, her eyes filled with heartbreak. “Of course I should thank you. But I’d also like to repay you. I’m going through my father’s insurance contracts to see whether I can reimburse you at least partly in that way, and I’ll repay whatever is left myself. In addition, I’d be happy to work for you while I’m here. I know it won’t offset my debt to you by much, but every little bit helps, right? I think it’ll help alleviate Dad’s guilt too.”
I nod at her. I might not know her that well anymore, but deep down she’s still my Emilia. Once she has her mind set on something, I won’t be able to sway her. If this is what she needs for now, then that’s how it’ll be.
Chapter 14
Carter
I’m annoyed when my assistant announces that Layla is right outside my office. She knows full well that I hate it when she drops by unannounced. Layla walks in and smiles at me. I sigh and run a hand through my hair. I’m already tired of this conversation and she hasn’t spoken a word yet.
“What are you doing here?”
Layla smiles at me, but her smile wavers. She walks up to me and rises to her tiptoes, obviously attempting to kiss me. I grab her shoulders and hold her in place, not allowing her to move any closer to me. Her eyes flash with indignation and hurt, and I sigh.
“Carter,” she murmurs. “I missed you.”
I let go of her and sit back down. Layla leans back against my desk and looks at me, her expression unreadable.
