Page 42 of Forbidden Fiancé

“He could be bluffing. I know he is,” I said.

“Are you sure? Can you be one-hundred percent sure? I can’t and I’m not going to risk all that you’ve worked for over this. It isn’t worth it,” she said.

“No. don’t let him do this to us. You are worth it. He’s bluffing.”

“I can’t do that to you. I won’t do that to you. It’ll be okay,” Natalie said and then turned to look back at Ethan. “You win. I’ll go with you. But you must promise not to ever release that video.”

“Don’t give me a reason to,” Ethan said.

Natalie looked over her shoulder at me and I could see how much she loved me, how much she was willing to sacrifice for me. “Don’t do this Natalie. Don’t let him win,” I begged her.

“It’s going to be okay; I promise.” She turned back around and walked towards Ethan.

I wanted to call back to her; I wanted to tell her she was wrong but as I looked at Ethan, I could tell he was deadly serious. As much as I didn’t want to, I had to make him think he had won. I had to hope that Natalie had a plan and she wasn’t lying when she said that everything was going to be okay.

As much as it hurt, as hard as it was, I knew the only way to truly have Natalie in my life forever was to get Ethan out of ours for good. I couldn’t do that tonight. But I would find a way to have Natalie back, I wasn’t going to lose her.

She would be mine.

Chapter 23

Natalie

I couldn’t look at Luke as I walked out of the house and went with Ethan back to the boat. I didn’t need to see his face to know the hurt, the confusion, the anger he must be feeling. We had what could have been a perfect happily ever after and because of me, I had ruined it all.

If I had just told Ethan how I really felt. If I had broken it off with him when I had the chance, he wouldn’t have been so upset about seeing me with his father. I can’t imagine how shocking that was for him. Of course, he lashed out. Of course he was upset. I didn’t think he needed to go as far as he did. I had wanted to think I hadn’t strung Ethan along. I had told him there was no chance for us to get back together. He just hadn’t wanted to listen.

For some reason, he felt like we still had a future. He thought we were still together and I was going to be his wife. Even if I hadn’t been with Luke, even if I had never known how wonderful he was, and how better my life was with him in it, I don’t think I would have married Ethan. I was already seeing his flaws before I met Luke. Being on vacation with Ethan, seeing how he was with his family, how he had treated me when I disagreed with him, showed me his true nature.

Ethan was a man I didn’t want in my life but unfortunately was stuck with. I knew it was the right decision for Luke, for his future and livelihood. I wanted to be with him but not at the risk of him losing everything he had worked for. I loved and cared about Luke too much to let him throw it all away.

I could tell he was ready to do that. I could see it in his stance, in how he looked at me, how he tried to call Ethan’s bluff. He loved me that much. I wasn’t sure that Ethan was bluffing and I didn’t want to risk it. It was going to be hard enough for me to be with Luke considering our age difference. I didn’t want the accusation of rape to hang between us, even if it was completely unfounded.

Once Ethan was away from his father and the situation he would hopefully think more clearly. I would find a way to convince him that he didn’t want to hurt his father. He would hopefully see that we don’t belong together and he was only hurting himself by even saying he would do anything against his father. Hopefully, then I can convince him to understand what I have with Luke and accept that we will be together.

For now, I had to do what Ethan wanted. I needed to make him think he had won. If I could, I wanted to get to his phone and delete any incriminating evidence he might have on me and Luke. Then, I had to find a way to get back to Luke. I just needed time to figure out how to do all of it.

I was quiet as Ethan took me back to the boat. We packed up our stuff and then went to the airport and he chartered a flight out of the Bahamas. I wondered where his mother and stepfather were, but didn’t care enough to ask. I could only assume they were under the weather and unable to leave the boat.

Ethan, on the other hand, chatted non-stop. He felt the overwhelming need to tell me how bad he had felt, how often he had gotten sick, where he had, and how he had recovered.

“You’ll need to take care of me next time. It wasn’t right that you weren’t there. A wife needs to take care of her husband,” Ethan said.

We were on the plane and had a little over an hour left in our flight and all I wanted to do was curl up into a ball and sleep. I certainly didn’t want to talk to Ethan, or hear chapter and verse about his illness.

I tried to ignore him. I hoped that if I didn’t say anything he would get the hint and leave me alone. Unfortunately, I wasn’t going to get that lucky.

“Mom is super excited about going dress shopping with you. She wants to do that next Saturday,” Ethan said.

I turned to look at him and said, “I’m not going dress shopping with your mother on Saturday.”

“Yes, you are. She set it up,” Ethan said as if that explained everything.

He was going along as if we were back together, and the wedding was on. It was like any conversations we had, he had forgotten. I wasn’t sure what was going on in his head but I didn’t like where he was going.

“Ethan, why do you want to marry me?”

He looked at me as if he was shocked that I was speaking. He didn’t say anything for a moment. He opened and closed his mouth as if he was going to say something and thought better of it. I wondered if he saw how telling that was as I did.

---