I sighed. I thought Tristan was . . . mine. I thought he was loyal to me. I got that we didn’t know each other very much at the beginning, but we’d grown close. Feelings had developed. At least on my side. Our emotions might not be everything a married couple had between them, but real had replaced fake in many ways. Why hadn’t he told me my father knew? There had been plenty of times when he had the opportunity. Our honeymoon—when we’d first slept together. Or straight afterward. He should have said something.
“So you gave him your blessing?” Earlier today, I’d worried my father would feel betrayed when he learned the truth. I didn’t expect that I’d be the one to feel like I’d been lied to.
“I told him that if he married you—even if it was for the sole reason of getting your hands on your trust—it would fulfil the terms. And I thought it better him than someone I didn’t trust.”
“There is really no escaping your power, is there?”
“Don’t be naïve. You’re going to come into a great deal of money in a few days. And that money is going to make a huge difference to the people who benefit from it through Sunrise. You only have the ability to make that difference because you’re my daughter—because of the money I’ve put in the trust. You’re always looking at the downside, but there’s a tremendous upside.”
“I get it. And I’m grateful that you’ve given me that trust . . . It’s just . . .” I loved my dad. I was proud of what he’d accomplished. Only sometimes, I wished I felt in control of my own life.
“I know I can be interfering,” he said. “And I can’t say that I didn’t invite Tristan to come to the charity gala because I wanted you two to hit it off—”
“You were playing matchmaker?”
He shrugged. “Turns out I didn’t have to try. Remember, he bid on you before he knew you were my daughter. You can’t say that for any of the others who raised their paddles that night.”
I sighed. “That’s true.”
“And you know Tristan well enough by now to realize he’s not a man who gets serious about women at the drop of a hat. Fake marriage or not, I can tell by the look in his eyes he’s serious about you.”
“It doesn’t matter how he feels. If he can’t be honest with me, if he doesn’t respect me enough to tell me the truth, then nothing between us is real.”
I stood. I couldn’t just sit here and chat. I wanted to go home. But I wasn’t sure where that was. Tristan had made me promise not to go back to my flat. To a hotel? I needed to go back to Tristan’s to collect some stuff. I supposed that would at least force me to confront him. I wanted to know why on earth he would keep something like that from me, especially when it seemed like we had been sharing so much—for real.
I headed out to my car. I needed time to process what my dad had said. I could do with a night away from Tristan before we had this conversation. I felt so hurt and betrayed by him—he and I were supposed to have secrets from the world. I was supposed to be his inner circle.
I pulled out my phone to call Sutton and saw I had an email notification. I swiped up to open my inbox and my stomach dropped through the seat of the car. It was an email from Mike, my ex. The man who’d only been with me because he thought I was rich. The man who made me look at every other man differently. Why on earth would he be emailing me? There was nothing he had to say that I wanted to hear. Was there? Only one way to find out. I opened the email.
Dearest Parker,
I wanted to vomit. I used to love when he addressed his notes to me that way.
A long time has passed since I last saw you and I have always regretted how abruptly we parted ways.
Regretted?
I think often about our times together. You were a kind, wonderful person and I was lucky that you loved me.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He had been lucky to have me. But I’d been a fool to love him.
His email continued in the same way, repeating how he regretted he’d left, he’d never met anyone like me, he’d changed in the last few years. He’d grown up and realized how selfish he was.
Mike had always been good at saying the right thing at the right time. No doubt nothing had changed on that score. When at the end of the email, he said he was currently in London and would like to meet up to clear the air between us, I actually laughed out loud, tossed the phone on the passenger seat, and started the car. As if I wanted to waste a single minute on that guy. I pulled out of my parents’ driveway and headed back to Tristan’s place. As I drove, my thoughts hopped between Tristan and Mike. They were so different in so many ways, but wasn’t I heading to Tristan’s place to confront him about keeping things from me? Shouldn’t I do the same with Mike if I had the opportunity? Maybe clearing the air with him would help me rebuild trust with someone who obviously hadn’t acted maliciously. If I changed my mind, I could just not show up. It would serve Mike right.