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“So you broke off your engagement to Dorian . . . to be with Burke?” I ask, wanting to ensure I’m getting this right.
“Regretfully.”
“And then you broke it off with Burke when you found the dating app on his phone?”
Her mouth bunches at one side. “What dating app?”
Nicola’s mention of the Rothwell men’s tendency of rewriting their own histories plays in my mind.
“He told me you found a dating app on his phone, and that’s why you called it off,” I say. “Is that not what happened?”
“Wow. Yeah, no. That’s not what happened at all.” She narrows her gaze for half a second. “I ended it with Burke because I was still in love with Dorian. He told you it was because of a dating app?”
“Yeah.” I swallow. “He did.”
If Dorian and Audrina reconnect because of the situation I’ve orchestrated, the irony of that will haunt me for the rest of my life.
“For the record, Burke lied to you,” she says, chin tipped high, arms crossed. “Which is honestly another reason I ended it with him. He was always lying about little, inconsequential things. Like what he had for breakfast or how many miles he ran or whether or not he’d read a certain book or seen a certain play. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life wondering what else he was lying about . . . or waiting for him to lie about bigger things.”
Audrina gasps, placing her hand on my forearm.
“Oh god. I’m sorry.” She bites her bottom lip, her pretty face wincing. “I know you’re engaged. I don’t mean to speak badly about Burke. I know you love him . . . he’s just not for me.”
“I don’t understand,” I say. “When I spoke to you on the phone earlier, you were calling because of the message I sent you about Burke still being in love with you.”
“Right.”
“If you didn’t want to be with him anymore, why did you contact me at all?”
Folding her hands, she slides them between her knees, letting her shoulders fall. “Well, to be honest, someone told me he was engaged again, and I guess I was curious . . . but when you mentioned Redmond being in the hospital, I threw my curiosity out the window. All I could think about was getting here as fast as I could.”
“You asked about Dorian before we hung up.”
“Yeah,” she says. “I figured he’d be here, too, but I needed to prepare myself. I’ve reached out to him several times over the past six months. He finally called me back a month ago, but only to tell me to stop contacting him because he’s in love with someone else.”
My heart stops cold.
He could have had the gorgeous, well-traveled, and adored-by-millions woman who shattered his heart into a thousand pieces—but he turned her down . . . for me.
“He hates me now.” She waves a manicured hand as she rolls her eyes, though her voice breaks with the pain of a woman in the throes of regret. “And he should. He has every right to after what I did. And I had a lot of nerve asking for a second chance. I know that. I guess part of me was hoping if he saw me again . . . maybe he’d reconsider. But the look on his face when I walked into the room . . .”
Her voice trails off, though her words are better left unsaid.
I’ve seen that look.
I’ve felt that look.
It’s enough to make the world tilt on its axis before screeching to a halt—in the worst way.
“It’s so strange, isn’t it?” Her ethereal eyes search mine. “Life, I mean.”
She can say that again.
“You love Burke. Burke loves me. I love Dorian. Dorian hates me,” Audrina says. “Meanwhile, the patriarch of the Rothwell family is dying. It’s like our own little messed-up real-life soap opera.”
None of this is entertaining to me, but I don’t disagree.
It’s messed up from every angle.
“Dorian wanted to show me the world,” she says, “but Burke wanted to give me the world. Those are two very different things, two very different futures. I know now that I chose the wrong one, and I’ve spent every day hating myself for that.”
“You couldn’t have known.” It’s strange, offering sympathy to a woman who would swipe Dorian out from under me if she had the chance. Not that he’s mine to begin with. Not anymore anyway. But if she could, she would. She’s still in love with him.
And when you love someone—truly love them—you do whatever you can to be with them.
“I should probably get going.” Audrina rises and adjusts the strap of her oversize bag over her lithe shoulder. “Thank you for reaching out to me, though. I’m grateful for the opportunity to see Redmond one more time. And I got the answer I was looking for with Dorian.” Her lips arch into a soft smile. “Congrats on your engagement.”
