AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I heard a small rustle of clothing as Xavier sat next to me. He’d let me process silently, which I was grateful for, but I couldn’t stay catatonic forever.
“Thank you.” I turned my head to face him. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” He lounged in his seat, the position reassuringly familiar against the impersonal hospital walls. “I merely told the truth like I always do.”
“Right. What did you tell the front desk to get them to let you up?”
“Nothing.” Xavier’s grin twinkled with mischief. “I let Benjamin do the talking. Five Benjamins, to be exact. I may have also told them I was your fiancé.”
“That has to be illegal, and youhaveto stop walking around with so much cash. It’s unsafe.”
“Unsafe?” He shifted, his knee grazing mine. “Don’t tell me you’re starting to care, Luna.”
“Starting, no.” I’d passedstartingweeks ago; I just hadn’t known it at the time.
A rush of anxiety shot through me. Admitting I cared was akin to getting my teeth pulled out with pliers, but he’d been honest with me about his feelings. I should be honest with him (to an extent).
Xavier’s grin dimmed as the implication of my reply hit. Surprise flashed through his eyes, followed by a slow, molten warmth.
“Then we’re on the same page,” he said softly. Some of my anxiety abated. “I guess we are.”
We sat in silence for a while, watching nurses rush past and strangers come and go. Hospitals bled tears, but it was comforting, in a way. It reminded us that we weren’t alone in our grief and that the universe wasn’t targeting us. Shitty things happened to everyone.
It was a strange comfort, but it was a comfort nonetheless. “Is Pen really okay?” Xavier asked.
“Yes. I got to see her for a bit before she crashed and I ran into my family.” I picked a piece of lint off my pants. “My father and stepmother were here. They left before you came.”
“I saw them on my way up.” His voice gentled. “How was that?”
“It was how I expected it to be. The Kensingtons remain divided.” My mouth twisted into a sardonic smile. “What’d you think of my sister and her husband? Charming, aren’t they?”
“That’s not the firstcword that came to mind.”
A small laugh sliced through my turmoil. I didn’t know how he did it, but Xavier had a talent for making horrible situations tolerable.
“There seemed to be some tension between you and Bentley,” he said. “Beyond your antagonism with your sister.”
If he ever gave up the nightclub gig, he should join the FBI. Xavier was terrifyingly observant.
“There would be,” I said. “Considering he was my fiancé before he married my sister.”
His shocked eyes snapped up to meet mine, and my smile grew more bitter.
“Not a lot of people knew about us,” I said. “At least not in New York.”
I’d never told anyone the full story, not even my friends. They knew bits and pieces, but rehashing the memories was too painful. I’d rather lock them in a box and pretend they didn’t exist.
However, seeing Bentley again had ripped the lock right off, and I needed to share them with someone before I drowned in them.
“We met when we were both studying abroad in London,” I said. “I was a junior; he was a senior. He stayed there for a job after graduation, and we dated long-distance for a bit. He worked in investment banking at the time, and because he was always so busy, I often visited him instead of the other way around. Then they transferred him to the New York office, and he proposed a month before I started Kensington PR.”
My father had been thrilled when we started dating. Bentley had a good job, knew all the right things to say, and came from a rich, “acceptable” family. He was George Kensington’s dream son-in-law. Honestly, my father was probably happier now that the perfect son-in-law was paired with the perfect daughter instead of with me.
“My plans for starting the company had already been underway, so it wasn’t like I could push them back to plan my wedding. Even if I could, I wouldn’t have wanted to. But those first months after the opening were…stressful, and our relationship became strained. He accused me of prioritizing work over him; I accused him of wanting me to fail. We were both so busy we barely saw each other, and when wedidsee each other, we fought. But I loved him, and I thought the bumps would pass after I got the firm off the ground and we were married.”
There was no one except Xavier within earshot, but that didn’t stop red, itchy embarrassment from crawling over my skin. I’d been such an idiot. I should’ve known, if Bentley had been that unsupportive at the beginning of my career, that his resentment would only grow the more success I achieved.
“A few months after he proposed, I flew to London for work. Of course, we fought about it since it was over the holidays, but it was a crisis surrounding my biggest client at the time. I resolved it faster than expected and came home early. When I walked into our apartment, I found him having sex in the living room with my sister. On New Year’s Eve.”
