Page 56 of Sweet Temptation

“And thanks for talking to me. I know it can’t have been easy.” Having everything out in the open felt cathartic. But it also felt like the end of something. Now I knew the truth about why he had to break up with me, what more was there left for us to say? Any slim hope I’d retained that maybe this was all some big misunderstanding had been thoroughly crushed.

He came to the bed and lightly brushed a hand over my hair. The gesture was gentle and surprisingly intimate. He seemed to realize that at the same time as me because he quickly stole his hand away. “Text me if you need me, and I’ll be here.”

“I know.”

He smiled down at me, and it struck something deep in my soul. Noah and I might not be together, but I felt like he would always be there for me despite that.

“How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard,” he whispered before he turned and walked from the room.

It was only once the door closed behind him that I realized he’d quoted meWinnie-the-Pooh.

CHAPTERFIFTEEN

Our class went to The Met the following morning. I probably should have stayed in my hotel room and continued to rest, but I was far too stubborn and refused to let a slight stomach bug keep me down. I was in New York City, and the last thing I wanted was to let a little food poisoning hold me back.

“It turns out you weren’t the only one who got sick from the food last night,” Wes said as we walked through the museum together. Mr. Wagner had just told us we could take some free time to explore before meeting back at the entrance in an hour. Cress and Anna had practically sprinted off in excitement. There was a special Alexander McQueen exhibit showing, and they felt like an hour wasn’t nearly long enough to take it in. I’d taken one look at their eager faces and told them to run along without me. I was still far too weak to be rushing anywhere and didn’t want them to miss out.

“Oh no, really?” I asked.

“Sawyer was up all night sick,” he said. “He’s still at the hotel recovering now. I heard a few others using the same excuse to stay back too.”

“That’s not good.”

He shook his head in agreement. “So, I’m impressed you’re here. You should probably be tucked up in bed as well.”

“And waste another second of this trip in my room? I don’t think so.”

As much as I was enjoying The Met, my mind kept drifting back to my conversation with Noah last night. I’d struggled to sleep after he left and spent way too many hours thinking over everything he had said about the history between our families. Those thoughts continued to plague me today.

Noah had given me answers, yes, but I wasn’t sure if I had the full story yet. It felt like there had to be more to it. Surely something had happened to start this whole feud. Considering the hatred and anger between our families, my grandfather’s jealously alone just didn’t seem like enough.

Matthew’s role in the whole thing was also playing on my mind. Why was he continuing his father’s vendetta? Was he really the villain Noah made him out to be? I was curious to hear what Matthew had to say, and I wanted to get his side of the story before I decided how to feel about it all.

I let out a sigh as I gazed up at one of the paintings we were passing. The artwork was a beautiful depiction of a ballet class. The painter had really captured the movement of the dancing ballerinas and the controlled chaos of the other girls in the class looking on. It was an impressive piece of work, but just like the rest of our tour of The Met, I wasn’t really appreciating it. My head was somewhere else, and this museum just wasn’t where I wanted to be right now.

“What’s up?” Wes asked. “Are you not feeling well?”

“No, it’s not that,” I murmured. “I was just thinking about my dad."

“Do you still want to go to his office?”

“Yeah, I’d like to,” I admitted. “But I don’t know when I’ll have time. I’ll probably have to wait until after the school trip is over, but then Cress, Anna, and Sawyer are going to have all sorts of stuff planned. I don’t want to bail on them.” It was hard not to sound disappointed at the idea I might not get the chance to find and talk to my father. After everything Noah had revealed last night, I didn’t want to wait until Matthew visited Weybridge to question him.

“Well, we could just sneak off now...” Wes gave me a cheeky smile, and his eyes danced with mischief.

I glanced around nervously, checking there weren’t any teachers nearby. When I saw the coast was clear, I whispered, “Won’t we get in trouble?”

Wes shrugged. “Your father's building isn’t far from here, and it’s not like the teachers are keeping close tabs on us.”

He looked excited by the prospect of sneaking off, and I slowly started to share his smile. “Okay, but if we get caught, I’m telling them it was your idea.”

“Excellent.” He grabbed me by the hand and started to guide me from the museum. We didn’t bump into any teachers as we wound our way back through the building, and when we neared the entrance, Mr. Wagner was in such a deep conversation with one of the museum staff that he didn’t notice us as we passed.

As we stepped outside, I started to laugh. I had no idea how we hadn’t been caught. We’d walked right by Mr. Wagner, and he hadn’t even glanced our way.

Wes didn’t seem nearly as surprised. “I had Mr. Wagner for English last year,” he said. “The guy loves nothing more than to hear himself speak. That poor museum curator was such a captive audience I doubt Mr. Wagner would have noticed if the building was on fire.”

We hurried down the iconic steps in front of the building, and Wes hailed a taxi. He gave the guy directions, and we took off from the curb, our escape complete.

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