I jerked my leg back abruptly, nearly knocking over my glass. Christian glanced at me, a silent question in hist eyes, but quickly looked away, turning back to his conversation with a Chinese investor.
The night seemed to drag on endlessly until, finally, the guests began saying their goodbyes. Christian remained the perfect host until the very last of them had left-except for Alex and Elise, who were staying in one of the guesthouses on the property.
When we finally went up to our room, the silence between us was almost deafening. I closed the door behind me, watching as Christian yanked at his tie with sharp, impatient movements.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” I asked at last.
He looked at me as though he had momentarily forgotten I was even there.
“What do you mean?”
“You know exactly what I mean.” I crossed my arms. “You spent the entire night treating me like I was invisible. What did I do?”
Christian let out a bitter laugh, tossing the tie onto a chair.
“You really want to know? You’re my fiancée, Zoey. My fiancée. And when I walk downstairs, I find you practically in your ex’s arms for everyone to see.”
“What?” I exclaimed, genuinely shocked. “Are you insane? I wasn’t in his ‘arms’! He was cornering me, and I was trying to get away!”
Christian unbuttoned his jacket, his agitated movements betraying his frustration.
“Doesn’t look that way from where I was standing. He was practically undressing you with his eyes, and you…” He shook his head. “You didn’t look that uncomfortable.”
My jaw dropped at the accusation.
“How dare you?” Anger surged through me. “I don’t control where he puts his eyes!”
“But you do control how close you let him get!” Christian shot back, his voice rising slightly. “And how you respond to his advances!”
“I didn’t respond to anything!” I closed the distance between us, jabbing a finger at his chest. “You’re being ridiculous. And completely unfair!”
“Unfair?” He grabbed my hand, pulling it away from his chest but not letting go. “You yourself admitted yesterday that you still have feelings for him!”
His words hit me off guard. It was true that I had said that. But that didn’t mean I’d act on it.
“Having feelings and acting on them are two very different things,” I answered, my voice quieter now. “I would never, ever, betray your trust, Christian.”
Something shifted in his expression, softening for a brief moment.
“Even if none of this is real?” he asked, his voice losing some of its earlier edge.
“Even then,” I said firmly. “A deal is a deal. And I keep my word.”
He slowly released my hand, running his fingers through his hair in a gesture of frustration.
“Fine.” He turned, heading toward the bathroom. “Let’s just forget it.”
“Forget it?” I followed him with my eyes. “You spent the entire night acting like a jealous idiot, and now you just want to forget it?”
He stopped, turning back to me with a look of disbelief.
“Jealous? Don’t be ridiculous, Zoey. This has nothing to do with jealousy.”
“Doesn’t it?” I challenged, a strange flicker of satisfaction stirring inside me. “Then why are you so bothered? Why do you care if I’m too close to Alex?”
“Because you’re here to play a role!” he snapped. “The role of my fiancée in love! Not a woman torn between two men!”
His words hit me like a slap. Of course. It was just the role. The farce. The deal.
“I see,” I said coldly. “Sorry if my performance isn’t convincing enough for you.”
A heavy silence fell between us. Christian seemed to realize the weight of what he’d just said, but he didn’t take it back.
“Zoey, that’s not what I-“
“It doesn’t matter,” I cut him off. “You’re right. This is just business.” I paused, gathering the courage for what I needed to say next. “Which reminds me… you still haven’t answered my question from yesterday.”
He frowned.
“What question?”
I held his gaze, refusing to back down now.
“Do you still have feelings for Francesca?”
The question hung between us, heavy and unavoidable. Christian held my gaze for a long moment, as if weighing how much truth I deserved to hear. Then, surprisingly, he smiled-not that confident smile he showed the world, but something softer, almost resigned.
“It’s not something you get over overnight.” He threw my own words back at me, and somehow, that hurt more than any other answer could have.
I looked away, suddenly fascinated by the pattern of the carpet under our feet. Christian stepped closer, though he still kept a respectful distance.
“Not in the way you’re thinking,” he clarified. “I don’t feel love for her. Not anymore. But I feel the mark she left.” He ran a hand through his hair, that telltale gesture I had come to recognize as discomfort. “Her betrayal didn’t just affect my family’s business. It affected my ability to… trust.”
The vulnerability in his voice caught me off guard. This wasn’t the confident CEO or the skilled charmer. This was just a man, scarred by love gone wrong, like me.
“I understand that more than you realize,” I murmured, the anger I’d been carrying slowly dissipating.
Christian sat down on the edge of the bed, his shoulders slightly hunched. It was a posture I had never seen on him before.
“I’m sorry for the way I acted at dinner,” he said, staring down at his hands. “It was… inappropriate.”
“It was,” I agreed, though without hostility. “But I understand why.”
He looked up at me, surprised.
You do?”
“Seeing Alex and Francesca on the same night couldn’t have been easy,” I explained, taking a seat in the armchair across from him. “And then… well, you saw us on the stairs.”
Christian nodded slowly.
“It wasn’t just that.” He hesitated, as if choosing his words carefully. “It was seeing the way he looked at you. Like he still had some claim over you.”
“He doesn’t,” I said firmly, with more conviction than I actually felt. “No matter what confusing feelings I still have, Alex lost every right to me the moment he chose Elise.”
A comfortable silence settled between us. It was strange how, in the middle of all these lies and deals, we could still find moments of almost brutal honesty with each other.
“Tomorrow will be a long day,” Christian said after a while, changing the subject. “The event with the influencers.
I rolled my eyes instinctively.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.