“You have that look in your eyes. I had the same; nothing in this world would have stopped me,” Chiara adds. “Do what you think you need to do. If not, you will question everything.”
“Really? You want her to go through the same things we did?” Aurora raises her voice.
“I need to clear my head. It’s too much,” I whisper.
“Fine, do it. It’s not as if we ever learn from each other,” she sighs.
We change the subject, and Chiara says, “Who wants to come to Paris with me? I’m going to present my new collection, and I would love to have you all there.”
We all nod, our excitement dissipating the gloomy atmosphere. That’s how Cameron finds us.
“What are you scheming?”
“We’re going to Paris after you finally eliminate the threat. I don’t like the caged life.” Chiara huffs.
“Then you should have married someone else.”
He has absolutely no sympathy.
Chiara waves him off. “Caring, as always.”
“That doesn’t change anything.”
“Consider yourself uninvited.”
He laughs until his entire body rocks. Aurora must see my confusion.
“Until now, whenever we planned to go on a trip, just us girls, the guys always showed up.”
“Neither of us was surprised though,” Chiara says.
“It’s not like we didn’t enjoy it,” says Alessandra, her face beaming.
Since he showed up, Cameron’s eyes have never left me. My skin heats at his proximity. The girls hug me, then him, as they say their goodbyes. They leave, and it’s just the two of us.
I swallow thickly at something shimmering just below the surface of Cameron’s somber expression.
“Glad you’re feeling better. You could have waited for me to finish my phone call to say goodbye or texted me or anything.”
With that, he leaves. I can’t believe him. I bolt from the yard into the house, bypassing Cameron’s office and locking myself in my gaming room.
Once logged in, I slip on my headset.
“We have this,” Noah says. His excitement is almost tangible.
“This will be the first time we’ll be together, in person,” Marcus says.
As they keep chatting, my thoughts circle back to Cameron. The man has the power to hold me in his grasp even from afar.
“See you in a few,” Kendrick adds.
“Bye.”
Before I close the video chat, Noah rushes to say, “Violet, wait.”
“Yes?”
“You haven’t said anything about, you know, him cheating.”