HE NEVER SHOWED.
The party wrapped up early because of an impending thunderstorm that drove people home before they got caught in the flash flood, but I didn’t mind. The grand opening was already a smashing success, and I’d exhausted my social battery for the night.
Plus, it was hard to smile and pretend nothing was wrong when my heart was breaking before it fully healed.
“Maybe he got in an accident,” Isabella said. “He could be in the hospital right now, trying to tear off his IV so he can run out and see you. I’m sure he didn’t forget.”
“Isa.” Vivian glared at her. “Don’t joke about something like that.”
“What? Stranger things have happened.” Isabella drew her bottom lip between her teeth. “I don’t buy that Dominic forgot or chose not to come. Not after everything he did to win Alessandra back.”
“You two.” Sloane pointed at Dante and Kai, who froze in unison. No one wanted to be the target of her ire. “Where’s your friend?”
“He hasn’t answered our calls.” Kai recovered first and gave me a reassuring smile. “I’m sure he’s on his way. He probably got held up.”
“Or mugged,” Dante said. He shrugged when Vivian redirected her death stare at him. “I’m sorry, mia cara, but it’s a possibility.”
“Guys, it’s okay.” Exhaustion drained my vocabulary to the bare necessities. “It’s not your problem. Go home. I’ll clean up.”
“I’ll help.” Sloane grabbed a trash bag.
“No,” I said firmly. “You’ve done enough.” “But— ”
“You can’t— ”
Despite their protests, I forced my friends out the door minutes later. I appreciated their concern, but I wanted to be alone.
I went through the motions of throwing out trash and storing leftovers in the fridge. It was like watching someone cosplay me; she looked like me and moved like me, but she didn’t feel like me. She was a stranger cosplaying my dream life.
I paused in front of the collage I’d spent weeks painstakingly creating. It took up the entire right wall. Bright, vibrant petals gradually faded to muted browns that dominated the center of the piece before a hint of color crept back into the canvas.
Life, death, rebirth. It wasn’t subtle, but I didn’t want it to be. I wanted it as a reminder of what I’d left and what I never wanted to fall back into again.
“Ále.”
My spine stiffened at the voice behind me. I should’ve locked the door, but I’d been too distracted by Dominic’s presence. My self-preservation instincts went right out the window the instant he entered the picture.
“You’re late.” I didn’t turn, afraid that if I did, I would start crying and never stop.
“Sweetheart— ”
“No, wait. That’s wrong.” Disillusionment splintered the rhythm of my words. “You’re not late; you never showed. The party is over, Dominic. You don’t need to be here.”
“Yes, I do.” His presence brushed my back, heavy with regret, and I closed my eyes against a fall of tears as his hand gently touched my arm. “Because you’re here.”
“Then where were you before? Were you at work?”
Silence.
“Yes or no, Dominic.”
Another, deeper silence chipped at the pieces of my heart. Then, so quietly I almost didn’t hear him, “Yes.”
A tear dripped off my chin, and the browns in the centerpiece blurred into one amorphous monster that colored every shade of my world.
When would I learn?
“But it’s not what you think.”
His hands grasped my shoulders, and he turned me around, meeting my anguished eyes with his own. Desperation sculpted his face. “I wanted to be here, amor. I swear. I was on my way when… God, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try me.” I shouldn’t indulge him. I’d heard every excuse imaginable over the years—it was an emergency, five hundred million was at stake, the prime minister invited me to dinner and I couldn’t say no—and I didn’t need another one. But I did need closure, and if I didn’t ask, I would always wonder.
“It was Roman.”
Surprise rippled through me. That, I hadn’t expected.
“I admit, I stayed later than I should’ve working on the contract,” Dominic said. “I was rushing to get to your party on time when I…ran into my brother.”
I listened, caught between perilous hope and skeptical disbelief, as he explained what happened from the elevator to the gun to his brother’s ultimatum.
“I know it sounds completely unbelievable, but it’s what happened,” he said when he finished. “I swear.”
I didn’t know what to think. On one hand, what he said was so ridiculous I was almost insulted he thought I would fall for it. On the other, that was exactly why it was believable. Dominic wasn’t prone to hyperbole. His excuses had always been grounded in reality, not in stories that could be the plot of a Nate Reynolds film.
“If you don’t believe me, look online. I put out a press statement about the deal that should’ve been published…” He glanced at the clock. “Ten minutes ago. Roman wouldn’t let me go unless I confirmed with the press.”
Palpable waves of tension rolled off him as I pulled out my phone, my heart in my throat.
I didn’t dare hope, but when I saw the headline, something inside me caved.
In a shocking late-night statement, Davenport Capital has announced it is no longer acquiring DBG Bank. The embattled bank has been under immense pressure since Thursday…
“Obviously, I didn’t tell them about Roman, but it proves what I said about scrapping the deal is true,” Dominic said. His throat bobbed, his expression carved with nerves. “I wouldn’t do that unless I was forced. You know I…fuck.” Nerves gave way to alarm as a tiny sob escaped my throat. “Please don’t cry, amor. I can’t stand it.” He rubbed a tear away with his thumb, his voice cracking ever so slightly.
I tried to stop them, but my tears poured out faster than I could manage. They welled from somewhere deep inside me, a secret pool where a monster forged from my darkest fears and insecurities lurked. It kept Dominic at arm’s length in case he backslid into old habits, and it hurtled me toward the worst-case scenario at the first sign of trouble. But the more I cried, the more the pool drained until said monster was a weakened shadow of itself.
I buried my face in Dominic’s chest, my shoulders heaving with sobs.
“I thought you forgot.” I hiccupped, mortified by my cries but too overcome to care.
“I know.” He tucked me closer to his body and pressed his mouth to the top of my head. “I’m so sorry for not putting you first before. For treating you in a way that made you think I’d forget you. It was inexcusable, but I’ll never do it again.” Sincerity softened painful regret. “I promise.”
The last dam holding me together collapsed.
Thunder boomed as he held me, unflinching beneath the force of my sobs. The storm had broken, and the ferocious lash of rain against the windows served as an oddly soothing soundtrack while nature and I both released our emotions in torrential downpours.
Dominic had left work in the middle of a historic, multibillion-dollar deal. He’d had less than seventy-two hours to close the deal and he took time off for me. For some, it was the bare minimum, but for him—for us— it was everything. It didn’t matter that the deal hadn’t gone through or that he’d missed the actual party; what mattered was the effort and care.
I didn’t know how long we stayed there, my face against his chest and his arms around my waist, but by the time my tears subsided, the rain had slowed to a faint drizzle.
I lifted my head and wiped my face. “For the record,” I said. “Your only acceptable excuse for missing important events going forward is if you’re held at gunpoint.”
Dominic’s shoulders loosened, and relief poured through his raspy chuckle. “Noted,” he said, giving me a tender kiss. “Though I’m hoping to keep such incidents to a minimum.”
“Me too.” I kissed him back, warmth spreading from my chest in cautious, winding tendrils.
I doubted we’d seen the last of his brother and whoever hired him to kill the DBG buyout, but we’d deal with that later. For now, I chose to soak in our triumph over the first real, concrete obstacle of our new relationship.
Whatever was coming, we’d handle it. Together.
