Page 28 of The Sin of True Love

“Michelle!” I call out again. “Please?”

“You want me to start screaming that you tried to touch me?” Taylor asks. “Because I fucking will!”

Her eyes are filled with fire. She’s clearly a loyal friend and is just looking out for Michelle. I can appreciate that, but at the same time, I’m dying to talk to the girl I’m in love with. I know that if I can just speak to her, I can make things right.

“There’s no need for that,” I reply calmly, stepping back. “I’m leaving.”

Battery acid pumps through my veins as I storm out of the bar and back out to my truck. She’s right there and I can’t even touch her. I can’t even speak to her because of those friends of hers on bodyguard duty.

“Fuck!” I curse, slamming my fist down on the hood of my truck. Pain sparks through my wrist. I relish in it because for a moment, a split second, it takes my mind off how helpless I feel.

I slump forward, sucking air deep into my lungs. I had this all worked out. We had this all worked out, and somehow everything has fallen apart.

How can I fix this if she won’t even speak to me? How will I be able to go on without her?

“Casey?” Michelle’s voice behind me causes me to whirl around.

I see her standing there at the door to the bar, looking at me like a wounded puppy. It takes all my strength not to rush over to her and wrap her in my arms.

“Michelle, baby, I am so sorry,” I say instantly. I watch her take a deep breath. I don’t know if she’s processing or if she’s preparing herself. Maybe both. “Baby, I should have spoken to you about the story before I took it to the paper.”

She nods. “Yes, Casey, you should have.”

“I never should have said those things I said to you either.”

She looks down and shakes her head. “I said some pretty mean things too.”

I slowly walk toward her. She doesn’t back away. “Well, I think we both got caught up in the moment. Emotions were running hot.”

“You can say that again,” she replies, something close to a smile on her lips.

I’m close enough to her now that I can smell whatever she used for shampoo this morning. Beyond that, I can smell her scent. The scent that reminds me just how madly in love I am with her.

As if I could ever forget.

“If I can even attempt to apologize, Michelle, I guess I thought that you just didn’t want to be the one to expose your father,” I say slowly. “But I thought you understood that what he was doing would get out there one way or another.”

Michelle slowly nods. “I think I did understand that, Casey. But when you didn’t tell me what you were doing, it just felt like you were another man in my life making choices for me without telling me first. You know what I mean?”

“Yeah,” I sigh, feeling ashamed than I’ve ever felt before. “I’m sorry, baby. I love you so much, and I would never want to hurt you.”

I reach out and take her hand. She doesn’t pull away.

This has been one hell of a journey. In the blink of an eye, I fell for this girl and put my entire life as I know it on the line for her. All I want is to be with her. But because of who her father is, because of where she comes from, things could never be that easy.

Life can feel like a cruel joke sometimes, that’s for sure.

“I know it’s easy to look at me and my wealth and think I’ve had it easy, Casey,” Michelle says softly. “But I’ve always lived under the…rule of my father! Always doing what he wants, what he says. My mom used to be a friend to me, but she died two years ago. Since then it’s been just me. Alone.”

My heart nearly leaps from my chest as I watch Michelle wipe a tear from her eyes.

“Your mom died, Michelle?” She nods, clearly doing her best not to cry. “Well, you know what? We may come from opposite ends of life, but we’ve got more in common than we think.”

“What do you mean?”

It’s been fourteen years since my dad’s death. And I thought I had pretty much come to terms with it. But for some reason, standing here now with Michelle, I feel a surge of memories and emotions coming back to me that I haven’t felt since I was just a fifteen-year-old boy.

“I lost my dad too. Heart attack. He was only forty-four.”

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