Chapter 20 Unfinished Business
Felix's hand still extends in the direction of Zephyra. Ready. Expecting.
She does not take it.
"Hey, Felix."
Her voice is steadier than she feels. Kairo's presence beside her is an anchor. Solid. Real.
Felix's smile falters. Just slightly. He drops his hand.
"Zephyra." He says her name like a prayer. Like an apology. "I'm so glad you came."
His eyes travel over her face. searching. Searching out the lady he left behind.
She's no longer there anymore.
"This is my husband, Kairo." Zephyra's hand finds Kairo's. Threads their palms together. "Kairo, this is Felix Gray."
The introduction is deliberate. A line drawn in sand.
Felix's gaze finally shifts to Kairo. actually looked at him this time. She watches him assess. Calculate. See the danger status beside her.
"Congratulations on your marriage." Felix extends his hand. Professional. Polite. "Zephyra merits happiness."
Kairo shakes it. His grip was possibly too firm. His smile does not reach his eyes.
"She does."
The testosterone inside the air is thick enough to choke on.
Felix gestures in the direction of the gallery. "Would you like to see the exhibition? My new series is—"
"It's not why we're here right now." Zephyra cuts him off. "You said you had something to tell me."
Felix's appeal cracks. Something raw shows through. "Sure. I do. However, possibly someplace extra non-public?"
He glances at Kairo. The request is clean.
Kairo's jaw clenches. "No."
"I just want an hour—"
"I said no." Kairo's voice is steel wrapped in silk. "Whatever you want to say, you can say it with me present."
Felix looks at Zephyra. Pleading. "Please. This is personal. Between us."
The old Zephyra may have agreed. May have desired to spare his pride. Might have prioritized his consolation over her own barriers.
However she's no longer that lady anymore.
"There's no 'us' anymore, Felix." Her voice is mild but firm. "There is me and my husband. If you want to speak, we can do it in public. A café. Not alone."
Felix's expression shifts. Disappointment. Frustration. Then resignation.
"Alright." He nods slowly. "There's a café around the nook. Quiet. We can talk there."
They stroll in tense silence. Felix leads. Kairo and Zephyra follow hand in hand.
The café is small. Intimate. Precisely the form of the area she and Felix used to spend hours in. About designs. Desires. Their destiny that never came.
The reminiscence stirs something in her chest. Not love. But the ghost of it. The echo of what used to be.
They sit down at a corner table. Felix across from them. Kairo beside her, close enough that their thighs touch. Protecting. Territorial.
The waiter comes. Takes orders. Leaves them in uncomfortable silence.
Felix stares at his hands. "I do not know where to begin."
"The beginning." Zephyra's voice is harder than she intends. "Why did you leave without a word? Why did you disappear like I didn't mean anything?"
He flinches. "You mean everything. This is why I left."
"That makes no sense."
"I know." Felix looks up. His eyes are tortured. Real. "God, I understand how it sounds. But I need you to understand—leaving you becomes the toughest thing I've ever achieved."
Kairo's hand tightens on her knee beneath the desk. Warning. Supporting.
"Then why did you?" Zephyra needs. "We have been planning everything. The design residence. Our life. One day you were there. Next you are gone."
Felix takes a shaky breath. "Because someone found out about us. A powerful person."
"What are you speaking about?"
"There was an investor. Jean-Marc Laurent. Do you bear him in mind?"
Zephyra does. Vaguely. Old money. Connections everywhere. He'd attended a few of their student exhibitions.
"He offered to fund me after graduation. Connections. Gallery area. The whole thing I wished for." Felix's voice drops. "but there has been a condition."
The café all at once feels too warm. Too close.
"What situation?" Kairo asks. His voice is dangerous.
Felix won't meet his eyes. Looks only at Zephyra. "He desired me. Romantically. He'd been... watching me for months. Obsessed."
Zephyra's belly turns. "And?"
"I refused. I informed him I was with you. That I cherished you. That not anything could trade that." Felix's hands shake round his espresso cup. "He said if I did not end matters with you and accept his offer, he'd ruin your career before it started out."
"That's insane." but at the same time as Zephyra says it, she knows it is not. She is aware of how the fashion world works. How power works.
"He had connections everywhere. Each major residence. Each critical buyer. He could blacklist you from European fashion completely." Felix's eyes plead for understanding. "I was twenty-five. Terrified. I didn't know what to do."
"You should have informed me." Zephyra's voice cracks. "We would have fought it collectively."
"I thought I used to be shielding you." Felix reaches throughout the table. Stops whilst Kairo's glare freezes him. "I thought if I simply disappeared, you'd move on. Build your profession. Be safe."
"So you chose for me." the belief hits like a slap. "Just like everybody else in my existence has chosen for me. You decided my career mattered greater than my choice. My voice. My business enterprise."
Kairo speaks before Felix can reply. "This is not protection now. That is control dressed up as sacrifice."
Felix's face crumbles. "I was young. Silly. I thought I was doing the right thing."
"You were not." Zephyra's voice is stable now. Cold. "You have been a coward. You took the clean manner out and let me assume I wasn't enough. That I might have carried out something incorrectly. Do you have any idea what that did to me?"
"I'm sorry." Felix's eyes fill with tears. "God, Zephyra, I am so sorry. No longer a day has gone by that I have not regretted it."
The apology hangs inside the air. Too little. Too past due.
However there's something else in his expression. Something that makes Zephyra's belly clench.
"There's greater, isn't there?" she asks. "It is not the only reason you requested me to come back to Paris."
Felix nods slowly. Wipes his eyes. Take a breath.
"I need you to understand the reality. All of it." His voice drops to slightly a whisper. "which includes the reality that I never stopped loving you. After I heard you got married, I needed to see you one more time. To give an explanation for what happened. To apologize. To tell you what I should have said five years ago."
He looks directly at her. Past Kairo. Like they're the only two people in the world.
"I love you, Zephyra. I have always cherished you. And if there is any threat—any opportunity that you still feel something for me—I'm asking you to give me another chance"
The words detonate like bombs. Kair
o is going rigid beside her. The café spins.
Is Felix seriously asking her to leave her husband for him after five years of silence?