Meeting the family 4

Meeting the family 4
James's POV

Anna ran. And I ran after her.

"Hey!" Jamal's hand grabbed my shoulder, spinning me around. "Where the hell are you going?"

I shrugged him off without looking back, pushing through the crowd that had gathered to watch our drama unfold like it was dinner theater.

"We need to talk—"

"Get the fuck off me."

Anna was already through the ballroom doors, disappearing into the lobby beyond.

If I lost sight of her—

Jamal stepped in front of me, blocking my path. "You need to explain what the hell just happened. Anna thinks I—"

"Move." The word came out cold. Final.

Something in my face made him step aside.

I didn't wait. Didn't explain. Didn't have time for anything except getting to Anna before she disappeared from my life completely.

I burst through the lobby doors just in time to see her standing near the entrance, phone pressed to her ear, tears streaming down her face.

Beautiful. Even now. Even broken.

Especially broken.

Because I'd done this to her.

Again.

\~~~

"Anna."

She looked up, saw me, and her face hardened into something that looked like hate but felt like heartbreak.

"Why are you here?" She wiped her eyes angrily, smearing mascara across her cheek. "Go back inside. Enjoy your married life."

"Anna, please." I moved closer. "Let me explain—"

"Explain what?" She laughed, bitter and broken. "That you married her? That you—"

"I want to destroy her." The words tumbled out desperate, rushed. "To get close to Sebastian, to gather evidence, to bring down their entire operation from the inside—"

"Oh, let me guess—protection, right?" She cut me off, voice sharp as glass. "And you expect me to believe that?"

I stopped. Because that was exactly what I'd been about to say.

"I'm just disappointed, really." Her voice went quiet. Cold. "That you didn't invite your stepdaughter to your wedding, James. Common courtesy, really. Family should be there for important milestones."

The sarcasm cut deeper than her anger would have.

"Stop this—"

"Stop what? Telling the truth?" She took a step back as I moved closer. "You chose her, James. And I had to find out by showing up at your wedding reception on the arm of her cousin."

"I didn't know about Jamal—"

"Neither did I!" Her voice cracked, and I watched her composure shatter. "I thought he was genuine. I thought maybe—maybe I could move on. I thought maybe loving someone else wouldn't hurt as much as loving you."

The confession hung between us, raw and bleeding.

"Does it?" I asked quietly, taking another step closer. "Hurt less with him?

"No." Fresh tears spilled down her cheeks, and she didn't bother wiping them away this time. "Because every time I try to fall in love your face pops up."

Another step. Close enough to touch now.

"Then come home," I said. "Come back to me."

"And what?" She shoved at my chest, but her hands stayed there, fisted in my shirt. "Be your mistress while you play husband to her? Hide in the shadows while you build a life with Elena?"

"Anna, you know this marriage isn't real—"

"Then why does loving you always end with me crying?" Her voice broke completely. "Why does it always end with you making choices for both of us without asking what I want?"

"Because I'm trying to keep you safe—"

"I don't want to hear that!" She shoved me harder, and I let her. Let her hurt me because I deserved it. "I want YOU. I want the man who fights for me, not the man who decides what's best for me without asking."

"Anna—"

"If you loved me," she whispered, looking up at me with those eyes that had always seen straight through every wall I'd ever built, "you wouldn't care who was watching. You wouldn't care about appearances or strategy or protection. You'd just choose me. You'd just—"

I kissed her.

Cut off her words with my mouth, my hands cupping her face, pulling her against me like I'd been drowning for five weeks and she was air.

For one perfect, impossible moment, she melted into me.

Her hands released my shirt only to grab my jacket instead, pulling me closer. Her lips opened beneath mine, kissing me back like she'd been starving. Her body pressed against me, fitting perfectly the way it always had, the way it was meant to.

Like coming home. Like being found.

Like everything I'd lost and would never stop fighting to get back.

Then she shoved me away.

Hard enough that I stumbled back a step.

"Don't." She was crying openly now, mascara running in black rivers down her cheeks. "Don't do this to me. Don't make me hope when you're just going to go back inside to her."

"The marriage isn't real—"

"Then what is it, James?" She spread her arms wide, gesturing at everything—the hotel, the reception happening inside, the life I had built without her. "Because from where I'm standing, it looks pretty fucking real. The vows looked real. The ring looks real. The photos of you two smiling together look real."

"Anna—"

A black Toyota Camry pulled up to the curb.

Her Uber.

"I have to go," she said, moving toward the car.

"Anna, wait—" I reached for her.

She jerked away from my touch. "No. I'm done waiting. I'm done hoping. I'm done breaking my own heart over you."

She opened the car door, and I felt panic claw up my throat.

This was it. If she left now, if she walked away—

"Anna, please—"

She turned back one last time, and the look in her eyes killed me.

Not anger. Not hate. Resignation.

"Goodbye, James."

Not 'see you later.' Not 'we'll talk.' Not 'I love you.'

Goodbye.

She got in the car. The door closed with a soft click that sounded like a gunshot.

And I stood there, watching the taillights disappear into New York traffic.

Tasting her on my lips.

Feeling my heart rip out of my chest and drive away in a Toyota Camry.

\~~~

My phone rang before her car even turned the corner.

I looked at the screen through a haze of grief and rage.

Jennifer Hayes.

I almost didn't answer. Almost threw the phone against the marble steps and let it shatter.

But Jennifer was part of the plan. Part of the mission. Part of how I would get Anna back.

"What?" I said flatly.

"That was incredibly stupid." No greeting. Straight to business.

"I don't have time—"

"You just kissed a woman who isn't your wife. At your own wedding reception. In front of two hundred guests and at least a dozen phones." Her voice was sharp enough to cut. "Please tell me you understand how this complicates our arrangement."

Our arrangement. The deal. Santos evidence in exchange for burying the Anna story.

The alliance that was supposed to protect her from exactly this kind of exposure.

"I'll handle it," I said.

"Don't test my patience."

"I said I can handle it, okay?"

She went quiet for a moment. "Last chance. Don't make me regret this alliance."

She hung up.

I stared at my phone. Jennifer didn't care about anything but the evidence. It felt like blackmail, but it was what I needed right now.

I had to move faster. Sebastian, Elena—oh Lord, this is all messed up now.

\~~~

A Range Rover sped past the hotel entrance, tires squealing slightly as it turned onto the main road.

Jamal's car.

Heading in the same direction Anna had gone.

Going after her.

My hands clenched into fists, rage and jealousy burning through my chest like acid.

He was going to find her. Track her down. Explain that he hadn't known about me and Elena, that he'd been used just like she had.

And she might believe him.

Might turn to him for comfort because he was there and I wasn't.

Might choose him because he was easier. Everything I couldn't be.

The jealousy tasted like poison, but what right did I have to feel it? I was the one who had married someone else. I was the one who had kept secrets.

I roughed my hair. James, you're losing her.

If she found comfort with Jamal, I only had myself to blame.

I turned away fr
om the street, away from the direction they'd both gone, and looked back at the hotel entrance.

At the warm light spilling from the ballroom.

At the trap I built for myself.

Time to go back to the performance.