An Unlikely Deal (Lucas & Ava)

There’s a link attached at the bottom of the email. The URL makes it clear it’s some kind of celeb gossip website, and my stomach churns with apprehension. This cannot be good.

The site loads. The headline reads: Greedy Billionaires Want More.

A knot tight in my throat, I skim the article. The more I read, the more nauseated I become. This is so much worse than I thought. All the stuff Lucas fed me, the sweet words about how he couldn’t live without me, that I took something from him—warmth and all that is good and great about his life—was all lies. He didn’t mean any of it.

What he wanted was a portrait worth several million dollars that his grandfather created before dying. Lucas has to marry soon—and for a year—in order to inherit. And it’s the same for his siblings as well.

I just happened to be a gullible, easy-to-impress target.

I clench my teeth as nausea roils through me. I’d rather slit my wrists than throw up and show him how he’s gutted me.

A silly little fool, that’s what you are.

He must be inwardly laughing his ass off about the Lexus. I chided him for overindulging me with a car when all this time I’ve been helping him get something that’s worth millions.

Suddenly I’m grateful I didn’t tell him about Mia. It would’ve been a disaster to have her in the middle of this mess. I don’t doubt for a moment that he’d use her as leverage to force me to do what he wants.

The skin around my eyes feels hot with tears. “You son of a bitch.”

“Ava,” Lucas whispers. He clutches his own phone in one white-knuckled hand, his face bloodless.

I raise my phone, screen facing him. “It’s all true, isn’t it?”

He doesn’t answer. He reaches for my mobile, but I step back quickly. I’m not letting him touch me or blind me to the truth.

“Isn’t it?” I yell. I need to hear him say yes. I deserve that much.

“It’s not like that. Nobody is expecting me to get married.”

I shove a fist against my mouth to stifle a sob. He doesn’t have to say more. I’m smart enough to piece things together.

Slowly and carefully as though he’s reaching for a wounded wild animal, he extends a hand. I stumble back, not wanting him to touch me. If he does, I might crumble and humiliate myself. “You’re despicable,” I choke out.

“Ava, please. Listen to me—”

“I’m not interested.” I gesture wildly at Faye, who’s watching with an unreadable look on her face. “Why didn’t you ask her to marry you? After all, she was your first choice when you needed to go out in public!”

He’s shaking his head. His expression beseeches me, but that too is a lie. “Ava, don’t. That’s not—”

“We’re done.” The past ten days…all lies.

I steel myself against him. I slash the space between us as though with that simple action I can sever everything. “Don’t follow me. I know my way home.”

Then I turn around and run as fast as my legs can carry me.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Lucas

Ava disappears rapidly down the road. Soon she makes a turn, and I can’t see her anymore.

That, more than anything else, jolts me out of my paralysis. I can’t let her go like this. I can’t repeat the last two years again, this time with no end. The weekend showed me what Ava and I can have. I’m not giving that up without a fight.

I start to move forward.

“Lucas, we have to talk.”

I shrug Faye off, not bothering to look at her. “Not right now.”