Page 138 of Dex

“I just need to come up with something.Please trust me, Daniela.”His eyes search mine, like he needs confirmation.

But I know who he is.I’ve seen it with my own eyes.I know the type of monster who raised him after his mom passed away.I’ve met the Knights, and Dexter is a product of a fucked-up family with more money than morals.

Dexter is a man who doesn’t commit.Nothing confirms that more strongly than him telling me that he was going to walk out on this deal.Not seven months, like he originally wanted, but three.

Three.

It hurts more than I can bear.He’s just told me he’d planned to never keep his end of the deal.To make things worse, his father is the one who ruined my father’s business, and possibly his health.I can’t be a part of this anymore.Dexter didn’t care about me.He didn’t care about the alliance.He only agreed to this deal to seek some sort of twisted revenge on his father.I was just collateral, and now he wants me to give him time and space to come up with a plan?

No way.

He clearly wasn’t falling for me, despite his hollow words, because if he was, he wouldn’t have an exit strategy in place.This man is used to hookups, friends-with-benefits.Those types of entanglements.

I’m not, and I’m done with him.And I’m done with his family.

I go back into my room, to read the contract again.We’ll be sleeping in separate rooms again.Our passionate nights together will stop.In their place will be unbearable, slow-burning, maddening tension.

The only thing that matters right now is how I’m going to fix this, because Paul Knight will control my father’s company over my dead body.

I’ll find a way, or make one.

I call Raquel and tell her everything, the state of my father’s company’s, and what my father did.The fact that I didn’t know, and Paul Knight’s ultimate revenge.And then I drop the biggest shock of all.That Dexter and I had a marriage of convenience.It was fake, and we tricked everyone.I tell her I’m sorry, and that I hated lying to her.

Her reaction is everything I expected.She’s shocked, and dramatic, and then calming and strategic.She understands why I did it, and then, dispensing with emotions, she cuts to the chase.Asks me to send her the new contract, as well as the original one, that my father signed before the wedding.The one Dexter and I asked to have a copy of, but which Paul Knight never gave us.

I promise her I’ll get a copy from my father and send it to her tomorrow.I tell her that I love her, that I’m sorry I deceived her, but she cuts me short and tells me the past doesn’t matter, that we need to fix things now.She tells me not to worry, that she will always be there for me.No matter what.

I realize then how it’s the men in my life who have fallen short, but the women?They’ve always been there for me.

After speaking to Raquel, my future path is suddenly clear.Dexter is too complicated and too wounded.I don’t trust Paul Knight and I refuse to be trapped just because he tricked my father.I now realize that the Knights are just as bad as Oscar Ramos.It’s common knowledge that Ramos’s empire is built on questionable business practices, just like the Knights, but with Ramos, I know what I’m getting into.Underneath their veneer of respectability, the Knights are no better.

I don’t need them.

But I do need a billionaire to save my father.

My father was wrong to mislead the Knights, but I will never accept Paul Knight’s trickery, and I can’t let this be the end of my father’s legacy.If it means marrying Oscar Ramos, I’ll do it.

I try to push down the revulsion I feel at the idea of being with him.I’m not in the slightest bit attracted to him, but I have no choice.I’ll do it, because for me, family is everything.Something Dexter doesn’t understand, and maybe never will.

Chapter 35

DEX

I’m sitting at a table at The Oasis, waiting for Rio.I’ve already ordered his bottle of beer.Me?I’m drinking water.

Jett and Zach have texted, asking me if I want to have drinks, but I’ve told them I’m busy.Naturally, they assume I’m busy with my wife.I figure the old man hasn’t told them about the dirty sneaky thing he’s done with Arminio, my father-in-law, because if they knew, they’d be at my door.Jett would storm into the old man’s office, throwing chairs and demanding blood.

As for Zach?He’d find some way to excuse it.Say it was just business.Say that “Dad” had his reasons.

I don’t need to involve them.I’ll tell them when the time is right.When the wrong has been righted.

Rio struts towards me, dark glasses, designer suit, running his hand through his long hair, which falls forward falls into his eyes.He’s wearing that signature lazy grin again.“You look like hell,” he says, slapping me across the back.

“Feel like shit.”

He walks to the edge and looks out over the skyline.“You bring me all the way up here to mope?Thought we were going to get to work?”

“We are.I couldn’t sleep, but I have a plan.Been thinking about it all night.Need to run it by you.”

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