Page 4 of Heart on Ice

“None of this makes me happy. You broke my friend. She is devastated. I will never forgive you for what you did to her.”

“I don’t need your forgiveness, Harper. I need Issy’s.”

Harper scoffs. “There is no way in hell she is ever going to forgive you. I hope she finds a hot English man who’s happy to heal her broken heart.”

“English man, she’s in England?”

“Shit,” Harper curses, knowing she’s let slip Issy’s secret. “There’s no way you’re ever going to find her, England is a big place.”

“Watch me. I love her. I messed up and I need her to know I will do anything and everything to make it up to her. She’s the only person that I love,” I declare.

“Issy is stubborn, you know once you’ve hurt her, that’s it. There are no second chances,” Harper warns me.

“I will spend eternity making it up to her.”

“Eternity isn’t long enough,” Harper states.

“Issy isn’t as cold-hearted as you are.”

Harper’s eyes narrow on me. “Because she’s never had her heart broken until you. You are the reason she will be foreverchanged, all for a couple of quick meaningless fucks to fuel your ego.”

She’s right, but I’m not about to give her the satisfaction of knowing that she is. “I will get her back. This isn’t the end of us.”

“You’re delusional, Pierre.”

“Maybe, but this isn’t the end of our story.”

“I came after you,” I tell Issy. “I saved up as much as I could to buy a return ticket to London. I spent part of the summer searching for you.” Issy stills as if my revelation is the first time she's hearing this. “No one would help me. I even asked your father.”

She gasps at that.

As another memory flashes before me.

I stare at his office door.Suck it up. You messed up, if you want to fix it, you are going to have to ask him for help.Reluctantly, I knock on his door.

“Come in,” he bellows. My heart beats wildly in my chest as I turn the knob and open the door. “Pierre, this is a surprise.” His eyes narrow on me.

Shit, does he know?

“Do you have a moment?” I ask him timidly.

“I have one,” he answers curtly.

I’m dead, I think as I solemnly walk into his office and take a seat. “Sir, I really need to speak to Issy, and I was wondering if you could tell me where she is.”

He stills as he leans back in his chair and rubs his chin. “Send her a message, I know she has her phone.”

“She’s not responding to me.”

“And why would that be?” he asks, his eyes narrowing on me.

He knows. Now is the time to be a man, Pierre. “Because I broke her heart.”

Alberto stills.

Oh shit. He didn’t know.

He stands up abruptly and slams his hand on his desk. A pile of papers on the left rattle and a couple flutter to the floor. His cup of coffee wobbles, and the contents slosh over the lip and drip down the ceramic mug. “It was you who cheated on my girl. You!” His voice rumbles like a volcano. “I trusted you. I brought you into my home. Treated you like my son, and this is how you repay me, by breaking my little girl’s heart.”

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