Page 87 of Shattered Crown
Every time I caught myself thinking about it, I wanted to give myself a good kick in the head. How could I have been so stupid? How could I have looked at Sebastian Dubois, of all people, and thought he was different?
I'd handed him my trust on a silver platter. He'd used it to beat me.
At least I had the foundation.
I threw myself into work with a ferocity that bordered on obsession. We had a major initiative launching, a women's health education program expanding into three new communities. There were meetings to attend, donors to court, logistics to manage. I filled every minute of every day, and when the days ended, I filled the nights with paperwork and planning and anything that kept my mind occupied.
My mother called. Texted. Called again. Even my father, who usually communicated through assistants and brief emails, had reached out directly. They wanted to know about the hotel. They wanted to hear the good news.
I couldn't face them. Couldn't explain that I'd been deceived. Cheated. That I'd let a man distract me from everything that mattered and lost the hotel that had meant so much to our family.
So I dodged their calls. Sent vague texts about being busy. Promised myself I'd tell them eventually, when the humiliation had faded enough that I could say the words without crying.
The distraction almost worked.
Then Evie showed up.
I was in my office, buried in spreadsheets, when I heard the commotion in the main room. Voices. Footsteps. And then Priya's head poked around my doorframe.
"You have a visitor."
I looked up. Evie stood in the doorway behind Priya, looking small and uncertain. Her hair was in a messy ponytail, like she'd done it herself. Her backpack hung off one shoulder. Her eyes were red-rimmed.
I froze.
I hadn't expected her. Had assumed Sebastian would keep her away, now that whatever we'd had was over. The fact that she was here, that she'd come on her own, that she looked so young and scared standing in my doorway...
"Hi." Her voice was barely above a whisper. "I wasn't sure if I should come."
I was on my feet before I knew I was moving. "Of course you should come. This is your place too."
Her face crumpled. Not crying, exactly, but close. The kind of expression that comes right before the dam breaks. She crossed the room in three quick steps and threw her arms around me, hugging me tight.
"I'm so glad," she said into my shoulder. "I thought you wouldn't want me here anymore."
I held her. Stroked her hair. Breathed through the ache in my chest.
"Why would you think that?"
She pulled back, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "Because Dad came home and he wouldn't talk about you. Not once. He'd told me about dating you before, and then he came back and it was like you didn't exist. So I figured something went wrong."
Something went wrong. Such a simple way to describe it.
"It's complicated," I said.
"That's what he keeps saying." Evie's voice was frustrated now, the fear giving way to something sharper. "He won't tell me anything. But he's been really sad. Like, really sad." She looked at me. "He barely talks. He doesn't eat. He just sits in his study and stares at nothing."
The image hit me harder than I wanted it to. Sebastian in his study, alone, not eating, staring at walls. I'd seen him vulnerable exactly once, in that dusty room in Maui, and even then he'dbeen fighting it. The idea of him giving in to grief, letting it consume him...
No. I wasn't going to feel sorry for him. He'd done this to himself.
"I'm sorry you're caught in the middle of this," I said.
"I'm not caught." Evie's chin lifted, a flash of the stubbornness I'd come to know so well. "I'm choosing. I'm choosing you. Because you've always been nice to me. And because I don't want to lose you just because my dad is an idiot."
I laughed despite myself. It came out watery, more sob than sound.
"You're not going to lose me." I cupped her face in my hands, made sure she was looking at me. "Whatever happens with your father, you and I are separate. I promise."
