Chapter 29 It can't be
"Are you okay?" Amelia looks at me with concern. "It's not your ankle, is it?"
She looks down at my foot that is in a beautiful pair of silver Louboutins.
"My ankle is doing great." I tell her with a tight smile.
I can't exactly tell her I have a violated asshole.
"Where is Ben?" She looks around the room of people mingling in expensive designer dresses and suits drinking expensive champagne.
"He said he'd meet me here, he was still busy at the office."
"Look, you know I don't ask questions I don't need the answers to." She talks softer so anyone else doesn't overhear our conversation. "But is everything good with Ben?"
"We're fine." I lie through my teeth. "The two months away was just a little hard on us, but I'm sure we'll figure it out. We always do."
"If you say so." She says sceptically.
Now is not the time to tell anyone that we broke up. This ball is always a big occasion for her because she didn't find her true parents until she was eighteen because she was kidnapped at birth. Tonight is not the night that I take any attention away from her.
Then I see Ben coming in with his parents and I grind on my teeth when I see Caroline judging my dress from afar. She always does this, like I'm not good enough for her precious son.
Well, soon she won't have to worry about what I wear, what I say, and what I eat.
Our two families greet each other like usual, and I can feel the tension radiating off Ben's shoulders when he approaches me.
"You look stunning, as always." He compliments me as he takes in my skin tight black dress that clings to my body like a second skin.
"You don't look so bad yourself." I step into him and kiss him lightly on the lips, and I don't miss the way he flinches when I step back.
He suddenly grips my waist and pulls me tightly into his body, his blue eyes sad and angry.
"You're making this really difficult." He whispers in my ear.
I just close my eyes tightly and smile because I can already feel enquiring eyes on us.
"Save me a dance." He whispers and kisses me on the cheek.
God, how will I even survive this night while I'm feeling Black in and around me everywhere with Ben's bleeding eyes. If you had told me a year ago that I would be in this dilemma, I would've never believed it.
My life was calm. Sure, I might have realised that I wasn't as happy as I initially thought, but at least I wasn't this fucking mess that I am now.
I take a huge gulp of my champagne when my mother nudges me in the side conspiratorially. "Oh look, it looks like the other Cargill came in all by himself. Do you think the sibling rivalry is that bad?"
I follow her gaze to where Miguel Cargill enters looking like he just stepped out of a high end men's fashion magazine. Why is the man so infuriatingly hot? My cousins are extremely handsome too, but I don't look at them like a woman looks at a man.
He walks inside with his hands in his tailored black suit as if he owns the place, or as if he regrets taking his time to attend something so trivial like a charity ball. He walks self- assured like a man who could buy everything in site.
"God, that man is fine." My aunt, Farrah whispers from my other side. "Don't tell your uncle I said that."
That makes me chuckle even though my insides feel like lead.
I watch as my uncle approaches him, and how he actually gives my uncle a small smile before pulling his hand out of his pocket to shake my uncle's outstretched hand.
It feels like someone threw ice cold water in my face as all the blood drains from my veins.
It can't be.
It can't fucking be.
But the evidence is three foot in front of me shaking my uncle's hand and listening intently to what he says before he slides the evidence filled hand back into his pocket.
No.
No, no, no.
This is not real.
It just cannot be fucking real.
There has to be another fucking explanation as to why there is a dark purple bruise in the shape of a bite just below the thumb of Miguel's right hand, at the exact place where I bit Black last night.
"Honey, are you okay?" Aunt Farrah looks worriedly from me to Miguel. "You look like you've just seen a ghost. Is something wrong?"
I gulp the spit that has gathered in my mouth down my dry throat to make myself feel better.
But all the signs leads to fucking Miguel Cargill being Black. He was always there where I am. That night Black broke into my apartment was the same night he was at my ballet.
He was in that restaurant on the West Coast and Raul. Fucking Raul was his best friend in high school, the two were practically inseparable. .And I had the audacity to think that Black might be Raul.
And the way he always made sure I never saw his face or spoke in his real voice.
It's because he was my boyfriend's fucking brother.