Page 98 of The Bourbon Bet
“What’s wrong?” she asks, her voice high with concern.
“Everything.”
“Did you take the portfolio?”
“No, but I should have. I’m such an idiot.” I shake my head. “Wait, you’re probably busy with Derby Day. I’ll get an Uber.”
“I’m heading to my car. Give me your location.”
“Fine.” I’m too beat down to put up a fight, and I ping her my location.
“You’re less than ten minutes from me. I’ll be there in a few,” she says before hanging up.
I step from the cart as another one screeches to a stop behind me. “Rosalia, wait!” Sebastian shouts, turning my limbs to reluctant marble.
If my world wasn’t falling apart, I might have laughed, picturing his cart behind mine in what must have looked like an odd chase. Hell, I should laugh. It seems my life is one big joke to the Blackstones.
I whirl to face Sebastian. His previously immaculate hair is wild and damp with sweat, his striped shirt torn at the collar with a button missing, a red mark blooming across his cheekbone that will surely darken into a bruise. Blood stains his knuckles and the cuff of his sleeve.
I don’t care. “You’ve won. Go back to your party and celebrate,” I shout.
“If I lose you, I’ve lost,” he says, stepping toward me.
He’s not allowed to say things like that, not after he’d torn my heart to shreds. I move back. “You never had me. You don’t own me like a piece from your favorite chessboard.”
“I never wanted to own you. I was trying to protect you.”
“Protect me,” I scream. “My heart’s bleeding because of you.”
He flinches as if I’ve slapped him. “I fucked up. I let Thorne get in my head, and I’ll never forgive myself. But what I feel for you is genuine—that was never part of the game.”
“The guilt has been eating me alive, and I was... I was a stupid game to you two.” My voice cracks. I can barely breathe. “I’ve been scrambling, trying to find another way, knowing deep down I couldn’t go through with it. And you knew. Youknew!” I cry. “You played me. I’m nothing but a toy to you and Thorne.”
“No, Rosalia. No! I swear, the bet wasn’t my idea,” Sebastian pleads, then shakes his head sharply. “No. That’s… I can’t even do this right.” He steps closer. “It doesn’t matter whose idea it was. I said yes. I participated. I kept it from you even after I knew how I felt about you. Those were my choices and my failures. I won’t insult you by pretending otherwise.”
“And that’s supposed to make all this better? You could have told your brother no! You could have told me!”
He holds out his hands as if in supplication. “I tried.”
“Not that hard. Thorne walked into my bookstore two months ago. Or here’s a wild idea, your damn company could have stuck to the verbal agreement of renewing my lease.” The tears I’d managed to hold in thus far fall. “Instead, you dated me. Slept with me. Made me—”
“And you did the same. You aren’t innocent.” His eyes search mine, not with anger but with a profound sadness that makes my chest tighten. “How was I to know if you were or weren’t doing all the same things to lower my defenses, making it easier to steal from me?”
The truth of his words hits me like a physical blow. A semi roars past us, and the rush of wind nearly knocks my hat off. I watch the truck until it stops at a red light.
Sebastian’s right. I’m not innocent. My desperation to keep Novel Idea has led me here. But I can’t help hating him for pushing me onto this path.
I face him. “We were doomed from the start.”
Paige’s car pulls up next to us. I open the passenger door. The pain in my heart is leaking everywhere.
“Wait!” Sebastian pleads. “Rosalia, don’t go. I know I fucked this up completely, but what I feel for you—it’s real. It’s the only real thing in this whole mess. Please... let me fix this.”
I should leave, but I turn to him. “How can any of this be real? Like you said, we aren’t innocent. We’ve never had trust or truth.”
“We can now.” He comes closer. The desperation in his eyes nearly breaks me. “Let me make it up to you. I’ll buy you a building for your bookstore.”
I still. He’s offering me everything I want. Yet, I can’t accept. I shake my head. “You can’t buy my forgiveness. I’m not for sale.”
