Page 41 of Alpha-Ex Wedding Ruse
“Wow, what are you doing here? Where have you been? What have you been up to? God, Leila, you look—” Victor stopped himself. Then grinned. “Beautiful. As ever.”
He pulled me into another hug before I could respond. Okay. Now this was veering into weird.
When he let go, I glanced over his shoulder and met Luca’s stare. Stone-faced. Granite hard. Watching us like a predator who’d just smelled blood.
I gently stepped back. “Victor—”
“Sorry,” he said quickly. “Was that inappropriate? Are you—uh—married?” His eyebrows lifted like a hopeful teenager.
Despite everything, I let out a laugh. “No, I’m not.”
I hadn’t thought about marriage once in the last five years. I’d closed that door completely. It was just me and my son—and that was enough.
“Great.” His smile stretched wider.
Before he could speak any further, I cut in. “I can’t chat right now. I’m in the middle of a meeting.”
I gestured behind him toward the booth. Victor turned…and froze. His jaw clenched.
“You’re meeting with him?” His voice sharpened like a blade.
I blinked. “Yes. I’m planning his wedding. To Elena Moreau.”
Victor’s mouth literally fell open. Yeah. It sounded worse out loud. Every. Single. Time.
“I really have to go,” I added.
As I moved past him, he caught my wrist gently. When I turned back, his expression had softened.
“For what it’s worth,” he said quietly, “I never believed what they said about you. Not for a second.”
The knot in my throat swelled. He was the first person—the only person—who’d ever said that to my face.
I smiled. It wobbled, but I smiled. “Thank you, Victor. That…means more than you know.”
I walked back to the booth feeling marginally steadier. Briefly.
Then Luca opened his mouth. “Why the hell were you talking to him?”
I froze.
If I didn’t know Luca, I might have mistaken the tone for irritation. Maybe professional impatience. But I did know him. That voice—low, clipped, guttural—was something else entirely.
It was jealousy. And that confused the hell out of me.
“Excuse me?”
“So, you can chat and laugh with Victor, but you sit here acting like you don’t even know me?”
Before I got a chance to respond, the doorbell in the café jingled, signaling the entrance of new customers. Their whispers hit me before I even saw their faces.
“Wow, it really is her.”
“I can’t believe she had the guts to show her face.”
“What is Mr. Vaughn still doing with that fraud?”
Heat rushed to my face, crawling down my spine like fire beneath my skin. My grip on the table tightened until my knuckles turned white. I didn’t need to turn around to know who they were talking about—or why.
