Page 61 of Hidden Memories

“You were engaged the whole time we were together.”

What?

“Your father tracked me down to tell me since you never thought to mention it.”

Shock hits like a cold slap. My breath stutters. “Engaged? What the hell are you talking about? I wasn’t engaged to Nicholas… wait—you met my father?”

He tells me everything.

The jail cell. The deal. The setup.The fucking Christmas sweaters.

My body goes rigid, blood rushing to my ears.

“No.” I shake my head; the world drops out beneath me. “No, no, no. Santi… I don’t even know where to begin.”

A million emotions slam into me. Anger. Disbelief. Grief.

“My father did this?” War drums pound frantically in my ears. “He never told me. Henevertold me.”

But Santi isn’t looking at me. His gaze is locked on our hands—on the way I’ve grabbed his fingers like a lifeline.

I don’t let go. “I was never engaged to Nic. Not when we were together.”

His nostrils flare. His voice is rough. “The Christmas sweaters?”

Bile rises in my throat.

I grip his hand tighter. “My father was trying to arrange my life like he always has. My only use to him was to marry a good man, and for Dad, that man was Nic. That photo was… it was nothing, just my dad wanting pictures of some corny matching gifts his assistant got us. Nic and I were never together until years after you and I…” My eyes burn with emotion. “Never. Not in any way, shape, or form.”

I’m disgusted. This is the lowest my father ever stooped. Stealing my chance at love. It’s hard for me to even processwhat I’ve just been told. Anxiety races through me, not only with a need to find my father and scream… It’s like losing what I had all over again.

My father ruined my chance for true happiness. He destroyed a good man and led me to an evil one. Did my father ever love me? Does he now? How could he? And all the times he lied to my face when I would tell him about my weekend… he was following me? I feel sick.

I realize now I’ve inched closer, my grip has closed around Santi’s hand. I shouldn’t touch him but I don’t want to let go. I can’t believe this happened to him. This happened to us.

Santi’s fingers squeeze mine. “I should have gone after you.”

He goes quiet but, in the silence, I feel it.

The shift.

The magnetic pull.

I swallow the stone in my throat. “I wish you would have, too… but you didn’t know… and it would have been at the expense of everyone in your life. It was just… impossible.”

We sit in silence as we process the enormity of finally knowing what happened. Why the love affair that was supposed to last forever didn’t. Why two people who were meant to be, weren’t. Scenes flash before my eyes, a vision of how different my life would have been if I’d been the master of my destiny. Maybe I’d have lived at Monarch Hills. Maybe I would have been a horse trainer. Or been a landscape artist and sold my paintings online.

He lets his head fall back against the maroon couch. The only light in the room comes in through a small window behind me, and it casts the most beautiful spotlight on the most beautiful man. Pain sears inside me knowingwhat happened to him. Tears brim in my eyes because I can no longer use anger to push them away.

We’re still holding hands, and he runs his thumb along my skin, electrifying every inch of its surface.

Santi’s voice is low, deep, threaded with something raw. “Maybe it was impossible…” He exhales, his fingers tightening just slightly around mine. “But I still wish I chased you.”

My heart squeezes. God, I wish that, too.

I swallow hard, my mind tumbling through the years we lost, the ways my father twisted my fate into something so ugly.

But then I think of Theo.

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