I need to be with Alex.
She typed it, but didn’t hit Send right away. It was the truth. She had to figure out how they were going to make this work, what they were going to do.
She’d stayed up half the night reading, browsing the internet and eating cookies and basically trying to figure out what had gone wrong in her world and how she was going to fix it.
She knew one thing for sure: That she had to give Alex a chance to be in his child’s life. Beyond that? She had no clue.
She finished out her conversation with Leah and tossed her phone down onto the bed.
Oh, great. And there went her line of defense. Her “No, Alex, you villain! I cannot marry you!” was going to be so much weaker now.
Although, it was nice to know that Holt was secure. That it would still go to Ajax, because even though she hadn’t wanted to marry him, she hadn’t wanted him to lose anything, either.
But Leah... Oh, she hoped Leah would be happy. That she knew what she was doing. Leah had always been fond of Ajax. They’d always gotten along, but she hadn’t gotten the idea that her sister wanted to marry him.
Maybe she was wrong. Maybe they were both better at hiding who they were than people realized. Rachel was sure her sister would never believe that she was a bad girl living inside of a good girl, and that both entities had a penchant for cookies. That she’d had a one-night stand on vacation with her fiancé’s enemy. Nope. She was sure no one would guess that.
There was a knock on the bedroom door, and this one, she guessed, was Alex. Though she was a little shocked the man knew how to observe things like knocking. It was a social nicety she wouldn’t have credited him with.
“Come in,” she said, straightening and hoping she didn’t look like she’d had an all-night cookie and internet bender, even though she had.
Alex strode into the room, as usual, his charisma filling up the small space in a way that was shocking.
“They got married,” he said.
“So I saw,” she returned, and she was sure they were talking about the same people.
“Are you okay?” he asked. It was shockingly sensitive, all things considered. A lot more sensitive than a man who was just out to use her should ever be.
“I’m...fine. Worried about Leah. I didn’t want her to...to marry someone she didn’t love for me.”
“Maybe it wasn’t for you.”
“Of course it was,” she said.
“The whole world doesn’t revolve around you, you know.”
“No, I’m well aware of that. I get used a lot. But what I want doesn’t ever seem to be that important.”
“Are you sorry you aren’t married to him?”
“Am I sorry that I’m not trapped in a loveless marriage with him?”
“You could be trapped in one with me,” he said. “It might take your mind off her.”
“Nice try, but I actually think that I might relish my newfound freedom.”
“What do you mean?”