Page 52 of The Runaway Bride and the Billionaire

“Of course not.”

I scoffed at my naivete. I couldn’t believe I actually expected my parents to respect my decision. I didn’t want them to visit Matteo but they didn’t care about what I wanted. My opinion never mattered to them.

I stormed out of the hotel room and took the elevator to the lobby. Throughout my journey, I had to fight the tears that threatened to flow. Everything hurt so much. Thinking about Matteo only added to the pain I felt.

If only I could go back in time and have the fortitude to tell my parents no when they asked me to break up with Matteo. If only I’d done that then things would have been so different today. If only…

I could only hold my tears for so long. Once I got back to the apartment, I crumbled to the ground and cried until there was nothing left.

Thankfully, Lisa wasn’t around to witness my breakdown.

Chapter 26

Matteo

My visit to Amelia’s office had gone poorly. Her reaction when I kissed her forced me to accept the truth; there was no hope for our relationship. It wouldn’t be easy, but I knew I had to let her go.

Unfortunately, it was one thing to know it and a whole other thing to do it. Letting Amelia go felt simply impossible. Not when she was finally back into my life after years of being apart. How could I let her go now when I’d felt her skin against mine again? How could I let her go when I’d tasted her lips and felt what it was like to have her in my arms again?

It didn’t feel possible, but I didn’t have a choice. Amelia was done with me and I had to accept that. The days dragged out in the wake of that realization. I felt miserable. Time moved but Iwasn't moving with it. It was like the world had gone on without me.

I woke up, went to work, ate a meal, and went to sleep but no real thought went into anything I did. It was as if I was moving on autopilot. My brain had taken over because my heart needed time to recover.

I sat through meetings, worked on projects, and did everything else that was expected of me. I was mostly tuned out during all of this but at least I was able to get in done. It was the only way to help take my mind off Amelia. I was making progress. It was small but it was progress all the same.

All my progress evaporated when Nora and Joseph Pierson showed up at my office. For a moment, I thought I was seeing things. I missed Amelia so much that it was manifesting in strange ways.

I massaged my temples and shook my head. When I looked up again, they were still there. Not a hallucination then. I stood up. “Please come in.”

Nora walked into the room with her husband trailing behind her. They took a seat opposite me and I sat down as well. Kayla must be out on her lunch break. That was the only way to explain the lack of warning I received about the presence of Mr. and Mrs. Pierson.

“How can I help you?” I asked, taking extra care to make my voice sound as polite as possible. The last thing I wanted to do was help these people. They were the ones responsible for ruining my relationship with Amelia.

Joseph stared at his wife and Nora stared back. It was as though they both expected the other to say something. Nora made a small gesture with her head and Joseph sighed before saying, “Amelia told us everything.”

Of all the things I expected them to say, this wasn’t one of them. If Amelia told them everything then that meant…

It meant they knew I was the man they made her dump five years ago. My gaze shifted between husband and wife. I could tell from their inability to meet my eye that they did indeed know who I was.

I was surprised by Amelia’s decision to reveal the truth. Why now? Why tell them now when there was nothing between us? I couldn’t make sense of it.

“We know you are the man she was seeing five years ago,” Joseph continued. “The… um… ”

“Construction worker?” I supplied and he nodded. His difficulty saying the word was almost laughable. You would think he was talking about something absolutely deplorable rather than an honest means to make a living.

I would never be ashamed of my humble beginnings. Being a construction worker was the perfect place to start in my journey towards building a successful company.

“Yes. That,” Joseph said. He sucked in a deep breath and sighed deeply. If I didn’t know him any better, I would say he seemed genuinely remorseful. Joseph Pierson didn’t know the meaning of the word.

And yet to my greatest surprise, he said, “We came here to apologize.”

The words sounded strange coming from him. So strange that I turned to his wife, hoping to get an explanation from her. I was shocked to see Joseph’s remorse mirrored on his wife’s features. Had they really come here to make amends?

“What we did all those years ago… ” Nora said, speaking for the first time since she got here. “It was awful. You and Amelia didn’t deserve that.”

I was so shocked by what they were saying that I remained silent as she spoke. “You see we’ve always been overprotective of Amelia. That overprotectiveness doesn’t always manifest itselfin the best way. What I’m trying to say is that we can be… controlling.”

My eyebrows shot up. I never imagined Nora Pierson would ever admit she was controlling. “We only want what’s best for her,” she said. “We want her to be with a man who cares about her. A man who will love her and treat her like the princess that she is.”

---