Page 89 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 3
A Whirlwind of Color - Chapter 30
Monday
“I’m sorry, James.” I had listened to his retelling of his childhood. And the few funny stories scattered throughout didn’t change the fact that it sounded miserable. His parents were God-awful. How had they not seen that he was so unhappy? I barely knew Scarlett and I could tell when she was angry with me. Which was most of the time, but I was improving. I wanted to improve. His parents? They didn’t care enough about him to even try. It was heartbreaking.
“It’s okay. I met you. I found my love of teaching. I love the life we’ve made together. Besides, nothing heals the past like time.”
“So you’re on good terms with both your parents now? I know your father visited me in the hospital. But your mother? How is she?”
“We haven’t spoken since everything that happened with Isabella.”
“You mean her forcing you to marry Isabella?”
“Well, that and the fact that my mom was trying to help Isabella break you and me up before our wedding. She sided with a monster instead of her own son. I don’t know how to forgive her for that.”
“Isn’t forgiveness the key to happiness, or something like that?”
“Maybe. But I almost died. She almost prevented me from ever being a father.”
I nodded. I wasn’t an expert on forgiveness. If I ever saw the doctor who had poisoned me I was worried I’d try to stab him or something. He had taken away all my most wonderful memories. Of James, of Scarlett, of Liam. “Then screw her.”
He laughed.
I took the pause in the conversation to help myself to another serving of the delicious penne noodles with chicken and vodka sauce. “Don’t let me forget to tell Ellen how delicious this is. She’s a great cook.”
“I actually made it.”
I looked up from my fork. “Really? James, it’s so good. I didn’t know you could cook.”
“I can’t. Not really. It’s one of the only things I know how to make. And in the interest of full disclosure, I made this for you on one of our first dates. I already had the whole night planned before you called me out on my games.”
I smiled. He had planned to spend the whole night trying to win me over? How could I not swoon over that? “What else did you have planned?”
“Do you really want to know, or do you want to just play along?” His dark brown eyes were so mischievous.
I laughed. “That convinced it’ll work, huh?”
“I just know I can’t stop trying. Even when you call me out on it. I tried the whole not touching you thing. And the not sleeping next to you thing. I can say with full confidence that it wasn’t for me.”
“I’m trying my best to remember. Just, take things slowly with me. I’ve only ever dated one guy. And I don’t know if you can even really call it that. We were never actually exclusive.”
“I know.”
Of course he knew.
“I believe in us. And I don’t care if it takes me the rest of my life to convince you to love me again,” he said. “I’ll never stop trying.”
I’m pretty sure I sighed out loud from how romantic that was. But instead of telling him that, I took another huge bite of food. I still had a lot of questions for him and no good segue. The note I had found in the trash was burning a hole in my pocket. And his scars were still staring back at me.
“How did you get your scars?” For some reason, that question seemed like the easier of the two.
“From when I got shot on our wedding night. Three times.” He gestured to his bicep, his stomach, and his ribcage. “My lung collapsed and I had my spleen removed, but I’ve made a full recovery.”
“And the new one? You told me you took some of the poisoned pills too. What happened?”
He immediately looked more tense. “I had a cardiac episode.”
“Like a heart attack?”
