Chapter 105 Chapter One-hundred and four
ARA
It had been four days since Thayne’s surprise arrival in Paris, and we were finally making plans to return to New York, but only after he was sure my father and his father were locked behind bars for good.
We sat at the small breakfast table by the floor to ceiling windows, the morning light spilling across the croissants and coffee neither of us had touched much.
The Eiffel Tower stood in the distance, quiet and golden, like it had nothing to do with the storm we’d just survived. The view was breathtaking, but I had the feeling I wouldn't enjoy it much.
Thayne’s phone started vibrating against the glass tabletop. He glanced at the screen, his jaw tightening, then flipped it face-down and ignored it.
I wiped my mouth with the napkin, trying to keep my voice light.
“You don’t want to pick that up?”
He shrugged, reaching for his coffee. “I’m not in the mood.”
Was this the same Thayne I knew back in New York?! It was rare for him to let any call go unanswered. Thayne lived on information, every message and every update mattered as long as he was concerned.
But I let it go. A minute later, the phone buzzed again.
I looked at him, unable to hold back my worry.
“Thayne, this might be important. What if—”
“I told you, Ara.” His tone was sharper than usual. “I’m not in the mood.”
I stared at him, stunned by this new attitude.
The phone kept vibrating. I managed to keep my face neutral, but inside me something twisted. This wasn’t the Thayne who had held me through the worst nights, who had promised we’d face everything together.
This Thayne here behaved like I was suddenly a disturbance.
The buzzing stopped. Then started again.
Thirty minutes after breakfast, I heard him cursing loudly from the bathroom.
He was standing in the shower cubicle, fully clothed and drenched from head to toe. Water poured over him in sheets, plastering his shirt to his skin, but he didn’t seem to notice. His phone was pressed to his ear, his knuckles white from the grip.
“I’m warning you, Celia,” he growled, his voice cutting through the rush of water. “If you don’t lay off, I’ll have you arrested.”
He paused, listening.
“You were just a tool,” he said, colder now. “And you’re a shameless liar. I wasn’t drunk, because I didn’t drink any wine. I wanted my father to believe we were together, I needed them to take their attention off my wife, that was all. Don’t make up stories that never happened.”
My stomach dropped.
He pounded his fist against the glass wall.
“You drugged me?”
There was another pause.
“If we had sex while I was drugged, which I’m sure I wasn’t, I would have felt it. So cut the bullshit.”
I staggered backward, one hand flying to my mouth.
The water kept running. He didn’t see me. But I saw and heard everything.
Thayne had secrets after all. I pressed my back to the wall, sliding down until I sat on the cold tile.
The shower kept running. His voice kept rising and falling as he argued with Celia.
And I sat there, my hand on my belly, trying to wrap my head around the things I'd just heard Thayne say. I sat there, wondering how many more lies were still waiting to break me.
Thayne finally shut off the water, and silence fell in the bathroom. He stepped out, dripping, his phone still in his hand.
It was a good thing his phone was water-resistant, because he'd been in the shower for a really long time.
Our eyes collided, and he froze. I looked at him, hating myself for thinking he looked wet, bruised, and beautiful. Something inside me cracked, because I loved this man, even despite the things I'd just heard.
“Who is Celia, Thayne?” My voice cracked on her name. “She’s the one who kept calling, isn’t she? You didn’t want to pick up while I was sitting right there. If you weren’t feeling guilty, you would have answered without hesitation. Tell me the truth, did you cheat on me?”
Tears burned behind my eyes. I prayed he would say no. If he said yes, something inside me would shatter, and I didn’t know if I could ever put it back together.
Thayne’s face went pale. He looked at me like I’d just stabbed him.
“No,” he said, the word rough and immediate. “I didn’t cheat on you.”
I searched his eyes, looking for any flicker of a lie. I wanted to believe him so badly it hurt.
“Then why were you talking about sex with her like she was your summer girlfriend?” My voice rose, trembling. “You said ‘if we had sex,’ like it was possible. Like you had to think about it.”
He exhaled hard, running a hand through his hair and leaving it messy.
“She was a distraction, Ara.” He stepped closer, but I didn’t move. “I convinced your father and mine that we were having a fling. I let them see us together, at dinners, on late nights, in photos that looked intimate. I made them believe I was distracted, that I was moving on from you. So they would stop hunting you. So they would focus on me instead.”
I stared at him, the words sinking in slowly. “You what?”
“I did it for you,” he repeated. “Every time I was with her, it was to pull their attention away from you and the babies. I needed them to think I didn’t care anymore. That you weren’t worth the fight.”
My chest tightened.
“No.” I shook my head, the tears spilling over now. “You didn’t do it for me. You kissed her, didn’t you? Of course you kissed her. You were playing make-believe in New York with Celia while I was here, bawling my eyes out every night, thinking you were dead, thinking I’d lost you forever.”
Thayne’s expression crumpled. “I kissed her once,” he admitted. “On the cheek. For the cameras. That’s it. Nothing more. I never touched her the way I touch you. I never wanted her. I never thought about her when I wasn’t using her as a shield.”
He reached for me. I stepped back.
“Don’t,” I whispered. “Don’t touch me right now.
He froze, his hands dropping to his sides.
“I should have told you,” he said quietly. “I know that. I thought keeping it from you would protect you. I thought if you didn’t know, you wouldn’t worry. I was wrong.”
I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to hold everything together.
“You let me believe you were dead, you let me grieve you. And all that time, you were… what? Posing for photos? Playing house with another woman to fool our fathers?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Then what was it like?” I shouted, the sound echoing off the high ceilings. “Because from where I’m standing, it looks like you used her the same way you used me—except she got to be in the same city as you. She got to see you alive.”
Thayne looked like I’d hit him.
“I never used you, everything I did was to keep you breathing. To keep our babies safe. I would have burned the world down before I let anyone hurt you.”
“You already did,” I whispered. “You burned me.”
He took a step forward but I held up a hand.
“Stay there.”
He stopped.
The silence stretched between us, thick, painful, and full of everything we hadn’t said.
I wiped my face with the back of my hand.
“I need time,” I said finally. “I need to think.”
Thayne nodded once, defeated.
“I’ll give you whatever you need.” He said, turning toward the door.
I called out his name. “Thayne.”
He paused. I swallowed hard.
“I love you,” I said in a small voice. “But right now… I don’t know if I trust you.”
He didn’t answer. He just… Walked out.
And for the first time since we met, I watched him leave without trying to stop him.