My mouth dropped open, and I put a hand to my chest, trying to prevent my heart from exploding.
As Kat would say, Oh. My. Frak.
He’d always wanted to be a knight, and he really was a knight in shining armor. I had totally misjudged him.
All this time I had been so worried he would cheat on me, that he couldn’t be faithful or committed, and it wasn’t true. It had all been an act. A way to take the focus off of his twin brother so that he could grieve in private.
And I’d accused him of being a cheater and a liar, and he’d let me believe it. He hadn’t corrected me or told me how wrong I was.
No, even when it cost him something he wanted, he’d let me go to protect Rafe.
I owed him an apology. A thousand apologies. I felt sick. He was noble and kind and I was distrusting and awful. He deserved better.
“That was the one thing you were most worried about and it isn’t even true!” Kat interrupted my self-flagellation.
I couldn’t say anything. I couldn’t collect my thoughts, and I didn’t know how to make this right.
It changed everything.
I was tempted to have them turn the car around, but I decided that I wanted to be free when I went to tell him that I was in love with him. As soon as Dante eliminated me from the show, I would fly back to Atlanta and end things with Sterling. I supposed I could have called him, but ending an engagement a few days before the wedding seemed like a face-to-face sort of thing.
I hated the idea of hurting Sterling. I hated disappointing my parents and their friends.
But I hated the idea of being apart from Dante even more.
“Are you okay?” Kat finally asked, probably surprised by my inability to speak.
“I’m just in shock, I think,” I managed. “He really hasn’t dated anyone in the last six months?”
“No. And Dante’s never been serious about anyone. We both know how hard it is to find a woman who will love you for yourself, and not because of your title or your money.” Great, now I was getting it from Nico. That’s all I needed. More guilt.
“Or someone who won’t love you just because of that unbelievably gorgeous face of yours,” Kat said to him.
“Gorgeous?” Nico raised one eyebrow and smiled. “The feeling’s mutual.” He moved in. They were seriously about to make out. I did not want to see that.
“Other people are still in the car!” I said.
I saw Nico mouth the word later, and Kat got all giggly and love-struck.
That kind of relationship was what I had always wanted for her, and I was so happy that she had it, but I was also feeling a tad bit envious of it. It’s what I thought I had with Sterling, but sitting here with the real thing, even I had to admit that I didn’t.
Sterling and I would never be like Nico and Kat.
But Dante and I just might.
We arrived at the airport, and the driver went to get my bag from the trunk. I hugged both Nico and Kat at the curb outside of the departure terminal. “Promise me you’ll be nice to Genesis. She’s my friend, and she’s so sweet and genuine. You’ll like her.”
“Why wouldn’t we be nice to her?” Kat sounded confused. I couldn’t say what I imagined she might do, because I could see her trying to sabotage Genesis in some misguided attempt to help me and Dante get together. But as far as I was concerned, Genesis wasn’t even a part of this.
It was between me and Dante.
“No reason. You do have my total permission to make Abigail’s life miserable, though.”
Her eyes lit up. “Done.”
Taylor passed along an e-mail from Kat a couple of days after I got back to California. She said she hadn’t gotten to meet Genesis, as she and Nico had been called away to meet some famous visiting celebrity. I was glad they did, because it was what I would have told them to do. We couldn’t miss out on any chance to bring more publicity to Monterra.
Then she went on to say that Abigail’s visit was an unmitigated disaster.
So, Serafina did her “let’s be best friends and watch Frozen” routine, and asked if she could wear Abigail’s shoes. Abigail told her that if she touched any of her stuff, she would smack her across the face!!! Can you even imagine??? Who would hit Serafina??? She came crying into my room, and I decided that it was open season. I mean, I was just going to ignore her and be polite if I had to talk to her, which I thought was big of me considering that she tried to kill you. She brought it on herself, because nobody threatens my soon-to-be little sister.