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“You’re smart, you would’ve figured it out.”
He shrugged. “Perhaps. But dang it. You and I, we’re a great team. This isn’t fair. None of this is fair, God damn it.”
A sad chagrin nestled onto my lips. Tears built fast as my heart fractured. A million ideas ran through my head, most were nonsensical, but a couple could work. For luck, I threw them out into the world. “Maybe in a few months, once I’m on my feet, I can visit, and we can hang out? Or was that friends thing all a lie?”
As Holden’s face morphed into confusion, then reluctance, and I regretted saying anything. I should’ve kept my foolish lips sealed. It would’ve hurt less.
“God, I want this so bad. I wantyouso bad.” His Adam’s apple bobbed with his audible swallow. “But a few months from now will be too late.”
Then, like a two by foot to the head, it blindsided me, and I kicked myself for having been so stupid. The air crackled until I punctured it with my high-pitched laugh; one of those uncomfortable, heart-breaking sounds. It all made sense.
“Oh. My. God. You have a girlfriend, right? I should’ve known. That’s why you couldn’t tell your grandparents you were travelling with anyone.”
Chapter Thirteen
My eyes widened, and I smacked his shoulder with my raw and scratched up palms as a deep-seated anger ignited my instarage. “Jesus fucking Christ.” My voice rose an octave. “I’m the other woman. AGAIN.” I yelled as my hands flailed through the air.
A small crowd started forming as people stopped and stared.
Holden’s face turned white, and his expression fell to the ground.
“You cheated on her. WITH ME. After everything I told you about what happened, you fucking used me.” My blood boiled and my stomach curdled. I was going to throw up all over the parking lot.
“You don’t understand.”
“Fuck you.” Widening the distance, I took a step back and grabbed the cracked luggage handle while hot rivers of tears flooded across my cheeks. My middle finger popped out as I spun around and stormed away.
The gathered crowd shot daggers in Holden’s direction, and part of me soared as my feelings had been vindicated.
“Iris, don’t leave.” His voice circled around me as his own voice pitched in volume. “It’s not what you think. I didn’t cheat on anyone. I don’t have a girlfriend. I’m not married. But, yes, I am spoken for.”
I stopped at the main entrance to the airport and raised my face to the sky. “Are you fucking serious?”
Pebbles beneath Holden’s feet scratched on the concrete as he approached, murmurs rippled through the crowd.
His voice lowered. “Before you walk out of my life, you need to hear the truth. My grandparents are seriously old-fashioned. Like from the turn of the century old-fashioned. They were an arranged marriage, and Grandma only met Grandpa a few weeks before their wedding day.”
I swiped my sleeve under my eyes. I wanted to move on. I wanted to refuse to hear him out, but my feet were suddenly frozen to the ground, and I hated myself – that I didn’t have the strength to leave him behind. I hated how his lowered voice had a power over me I didn’t understand.
He got closer but dismissed the crowd with a wave. “My mother was the only child of that arrangement. Romance and courting were completely absent. Of my parents four or five get-to-know-you dates, they were pre-approved by Grandpa, who was also in attendance, and their marriage was practically an arranged marriage in and of itself, even though it worked out in the end.”
With his lowered voice, and the heat of the moment tampered, the small crowd broke up.
I sighed with a morsel of relief. I wasn’t an attraction, and I hated being the center of attention. As the air cooled further, I dug my nails into my sore palms and closed my eyes.
He had stepped close enough I heard his laboured breathing. “In an attempt to break the cycle, my parents moved out east, to get out from under the pressure, as my grandparents controlled everything. It failed. They failed. Miserably. When I was young, my parents enlisted in my grandparents help for our education and upbringing, under certain requirements. Like it or not, I must abide by their rules. All of them.”
I spun back on my heels and blinked him into view, squaring my shoulders with what little strength I had left. “What exactly are you saying? Although I think I can jump there on my own, I need to hear the truth from you.”
His chin tucked in, and his focus floated somewhere over my shoulder. “I’ll meet my betrothed for the first time on my twenty-third birthday. Next month.”
As in an arranged marriage? His wife-to-be was already hand-picked? What in the fresh hell was that all about?
“Holy shit, Holden. This isn’t the 1900s.” Still stunned, I was unable to keep my tongue in check. “You should be allowed to dateand marrywhoever you want.”
“It’s not that easy. You see, my sister messed everything up. When she got pregnant, she was instantly cut off. Despite her beauty and intelligence, she wasn’t pure anymore, and she was worthless. The family who she was arranged to marry into dropped her. Not to be outdone, my grandparents outcasted her as well. And it wasn’t just them…” He inhaled and let out a painful breath while he shook his head. “But sadly, my parents did too. They had no choice.”
“Your parents?” Talk about old-fashioned. “Everyone has a choice.”
