Page 102 of Black Ties and White Lies

“You didn’t do anything.”

“You looked so young. So carefree. Like someone who was just starting college and having fun. I didn’t have the nerve to speak to you while knowing our lives were vastly different.”

“So then you just got angry because Carter got to me?”

“I was fucking furious when I learned of the two of you. I don’t think I’ve ever been as upset as when he’d called me to let me know you’d slept together. That you were his girlfriend.”

"Well congratulations, you got your revenge. You put a ring on my finger.” She looks down at the ring sadly. She obliterates my aching heart when she slips the ring off her finger. Her eyes are filled with tears as she inspects the ring her grasp. “You beat him. You won.”

I shake my head at her, closing her fingers around the ring before she even gets the idea to try and give it back to me. Our grasped hands shake. I don’t know if it’s hers or mine that tremble. Maybe it’s both of ours. “I don’t give a damn about winning. It wasn’t about that. It wasneverabout that. When he brought you home to The Hamptons, when we finally spoke for the first time, I knew I’d do anything to have you. I’d never once cared what my brother had, yet in that moment I wanted everything he had. I wanted you. When I found you drawing me, when you almost kissed me on that beach, I realized I’d spent my whole life saying I’d never fall in love, only to fall in love in an instant with a woman who wasn’t mine.”

“You didn’t,” she breathes, her breath hitching.

“I did. I’ve been in love with you ever since. Fuck, Margo, I might’ve fallen in love with you from the moment you walked into that bar. I just didn’t know what it was.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I knew Carter was cheating on you that weekend. I wanted to tell you so bad, but I didn’t want to hurt you. So I kept my mouth shut.”

“Beck…”

“But I knew that weekend that eventually, you’d be mine. That you were never supposed to be his, and if I waited long enough, we’d happen.”

“So, you realized you were my new boss and thought hey what the hell, I should tell her I need a fake fiancée?”

“No. I told you I bought the company to have an excuse to talk to you. I didn’t lie about that.”

Her mouth pops open. She watches me carefully, trying to fit the puzzle pieces together in her mind.

“I tried getting you the old fashioned way. I contacted you for months and you never answered, so I came up with another way to get your attention. That started with Ruby. I knew if something ran on me being some kind of womanizer instead of attention being me and how I run my company, that it’d sound logical that my board threatened me.”

“So even that was a lie?”

I nod. “The board saw it. They told me to be careful, but they never threatened me with investors or anything like that. They just told me to be careful of too much negative attention. I spun it to my advantage, which I know was wrong, but I was forced to do something dramatic to get you to even speak with me. If I came to you asking for help, I put my money on that I thought you wouldn’t say no.”

“So you manipulated me?”

“Yes,” I answer sadly. “I guess you could say I did. At the time, I hadn’t thought of it that way. I was so hellbent on getting you in my life that I didn’t think of it as manipulation. Every feeling, every moment between us was real. It was for me and I’m pretty fucking convinced it was all real for you too. I didn’t see the harm in the way we came together being a lie if it meant everything else was real.”

“So the article, the board story, everything was all just some massive scheme made by you so you could corner me into being your fiancée? I can’t even leave you right now. Not after all of New York attending our engagement party. You were trying to trap me, Beck.”

“No.Never.I was just trying to have a shot with you. That’s all this was ever supposed to be.”

“It doesn’t feel like that. It feels wrong and fucked up.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes for you to trust me. I love you, Margo. I love you so much that I would ruin everything I’ve ever created just to call you mine. I’m so fucking in love with you.”

She sobs. Mascara smudges her face, ruining the makeup that’d been meticulously painted on her skin. I feel like I can’t fucking breathe when she pulls her hand from mine. In one gentle motion, she pries my fingers open and sets my grandmother’s ring in my palm.

“Please don’t,” I beg, my voice going hoarse. “Please don’t do this.”

She closes my fingers around the ring. “This isn’t love, Beck. Love shouldn’t feel like this. It shouldn’t be based on a lie.”

“Don’t give up on me.” My fingers tighten around the ring in my grasp. “Let me fix this, baby.Please.”

Her eyes are red from crying so hard. “I should’veneveragreed to being your fiancée. I should’ve never had anything to do with you after everything happened with Carter.”

“Don’t bring him into this.”

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