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"And that was a few weeks ago?"
I nod.
"And you haven’t seen him since? Or spoken to him, or messaged him?"
“Not until I saw him at Abby and Cade’s wedding earlier today.” I reach for the miniature bottle of tequila I’d snatched from the minibar and twist open the cap. “Turns out, he’s engaged to her.”
“What?” Penny jackknives up into sitting position. “He’s engaged to her?”
“Yep. He told me she's his fiancée and he never had feelings for me, so—” I take a sip of the tequila and promptly cough.Ugh! I’ve just been dumped, the least I can do is drink alcohol properly. Isn’t that supposed to be a rite of passage or something?
Mira lowers her chin. “That doesn’t sound like Declan. He might be an egotistical asshole—”
“Alphahole,” I say bitterly.
“Alphahole,” she corrects herself. “But he doesn’t strike me as a someone who’d do that to you.”
I scoff, “He’s a good actor. He had us all fooled.” Certainly had me taken in completely. I looked at him and thought he was the one. I can imagine how he’d be laughing right now to see me and know how easily he fooled me.
“That bastard.” Penny glowers. “Did he tell you who she is?”
“Nope, we never got around to that. I slapped him—again—and the stupid paps intruded with their stupid drones hovering outside the stupid bathroom window where they probably got another shot of us.”
“They did.” Penny reaches for her phone and resumes her scrolling. “There are pictures of you slapping him all over the internet.”
I flex my fingers. It should have made me feel good to get that second slap in, but strangely, the tortured expression on his face too closely resembled what I was feeling.
“Speculation is that one or both of you is having an affair.” She peers up at me, a worried look in her eyes.
"I guess they're right. For a change," I grumble.
“Every time I saw the two of you together, you both seemed so much in love.” Mira shakes her head. "I’m finding it very difficult to understand why he’d do this.”
“He did it because he wanted revenge.” I slump back into the pillows. Maybe I can pull the cover over my head and never surface. Maybe I can pretend Declan and I never had that conversation. Maybe I can get on the next flight back to Naples and— I blow out a breath. Nope, I'm not going to do that. There's no way I'm going back. I have to move past this. Somehow.
“Revenge?” Penny blinks.
“Revenge?” Mira scowls at the same time. “What do you mean, revenge? For what?”
I look between my friends. “I first met Declan when I was fourteen.”
“Fourteen?” Penny and Mira chorus, twin expressions of surprise on their faces.
I nod. “He was on a shoot in my hometown and saved me from some thugs on a beach. I fainted; he took me to his home. When I woke up, I saw him and thought he was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen. Of course I fell for him.”
“Oh my.” Mira blinks rapidly. I think she has tiny heart-shaped symbols in her eyes.
“Yeah, I know. So romantic, eh?” I say in a self-deprecating voice.
“And how old was he?” Penny tilts her head.
“He was twenty-two. He assumed I was eighteen. Of course, he was horrified when he found out how young I was. He hustled me home, and I thought I’d never see him again—”
“—but you did.” Penny walks over to sit on the bed.
“He sneaked into my room to say goodbye. I seduced him into kissing me—"
“He kissed you when you were fourteen?” Mira yelps.
