Page 57 of The Runaway Bride and the Billionaire

The man stood up so he could look me in the eye. He was about my height but he was leaner. He adjusted the cuff of what I assumed was a designer shirt. A quick appraisal helped meconclude that Lucas looked exactly like what he was: a spoiled rich kid.

“You must be Matteo Hayes,” he said, his conceited expression never wavering. “I understand that you’ve been housing my wife, but that arrangement comes to an end today.”

My fists tightened when I heard him refer to Amelia as ‘his wife’. She would never be his wife. I splayed my fingers to keep myself from punching him for that statement alone. “You are no one to give me orders,” I said in response to his comment about moving Amelia out of my house. I wondered how he even found out she was living with me. Did he investigate or did Joseph tell him?

Lucas scoffed. “I’m no one? That’s a heavy statement coming from a man who just a few years ago was still dirt poor. You see, Matteo, what you don’t understand is that you can work hard for the rest of your life, but you will always be new money. You cannot be compared to people like me who have had money for generations.”

I knew Lucas Everett pretty well. After Joseph invited me to Amelia’s wedding, I’d taken the time to research the man she was about to marry. Lucas came from a long line of wealthy businessmen. The silver spoon in his mouth was so big, it poked out of his ass.

From my research, I also discovered that the man had a reputation for womanizing. His home was allegedly a revolving door of women from all over the world. He spent more time sleeping around than he ever did working. He wasn’t worthy of being Amelia’s husband and he would never be.

“Your family has money, Lucas, but you don’t. In reality, you are penniless and unemployed. You’ve never known what it is to work because you’d rather just live off your father’s money. You feel no desire to make something of yourself. You’re so attached to your family’s great name but without it you are nothing. Hell,you’re worse than nothing. You have all the resources you need to be someone great you just choose not to. You’re pathetic,” I spat the words out and watched his face contort in vexation.

He balled his fists and I knew what to expect next. Lucas swung at me. Thankfully I was able to dodge it because I’d anticipated he’d do that. Men like him always resorted to fighting when their egos were bruised.

I decided to return the favor but unlike him, I didn’t miss. My punch hit Lucas square in the face. He held his nose as he stumbled backward and then fell to the ground. “You broke my nose!” he yelled.

“Stay away from Amelia or I’ll break a lot more than that.”

I walked over to Amelia and helped her out of her seat. She’d been in shock and hadn’t moved since the moment she saw me. She held on to me as I led her out of the cafe. Amelia absentmindedly rubbed the place where Lucas grabbed her. I felt tempted to go back and hit him again just for touching her.

The walk back to her office was mostly silent. Then she lifted her gaze to me and asked, “How… How did you know where I was?”

“Ivy told me.”

“Of course she did. Matteo, you have to believe me, I only went out with him because I thought I owed it to him after what I did. I—”

I stopped on the sidewalk. We were close to the office building so there weren’t a lot of people in the area. “You don’t have to explain anything to me, Amelia. I understand why you agreed to meet him. You felt guilty and I get that.”

Her eyes watered slightly, and I rubbed her cheeks with my thumbs even though there were no tears. I looked at her arm. There was no bruise, but it was reddish. I clenched my fists. “Are you hurt?”

Amelia shook her head. “No, I’m fine. Thanks to you.”

I took her hand in mine and we walked the rest of the way to Phoenix Consulting. I paused when we passed by my car. “Wait here,” I said. Then I walked over to the car to grab the lemon squares I’d bought for her.

She smiled when she saw the box. I loved seeing her smile. I loved being responsible for her smiles. “Lemon squares?” she asked as she opened the box. She could already smell them. Her bright smile told me she still loved them just as much as she did five years ago. “Thank you! This is so thoughtful. I can’t believe you remembered how much I love lemon squares.”

“Of course, I remember. I love you.”

I loved her so much that everything she loved was ingrained in my brain. Every dream she’d ever shared with me, every dessert she’d ever mentioned liking, every song she ever loved. I remembered it all.

“I love you too,” she said. “Thank you for this and thank you for saving me from Lucas.”

“I’m sorry you went through that.”

She sighed. “To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect when he called. I chose to go because I wanted to apologize for what I did to him. I hoped we could make amends but Lucas wanted us to get married. He said everything had already been set up for the wedding and all I needed to do was show up. It was scary hearing him talk like that. He sounded just as controlling as my parents.”

“That must have been tough,” I said as I stroked her arm comfortingly.

“It was,” she said with a sad smile. “I kept wondering what my life would have been like if you hadn’t come to the wedding. If I didn’t see you sitting in the crowd, I would have married that man. I would have been miserable. Thank you for saving me today and thank you for saving me back then too.”

I planted a gentle kiss on her forehead. Then I stood aside and watched her walk into the building. Every few steps she would turn around to look at me and I’d smile at her. Her smile never left her face.

At that moment, I realized that I wanted to see her smile for the rest of my life. I wanted to wake up to it and I wanted it to be the last thing I saw before I went to bed every night.

I wanted to marry her.

Chapter 29

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