Page 65 of Forgotten Promise

He’d hurt her all those years ago, his ignorance of just how deep her feelings ran, no excuse. So did he have the right to ask her to reconsider? To give him a second chance?

He was pulled from his musings when he heard Selene snap her fingers. “I’ve got it. It’s been driving me nuts.”

“Excuse me?” Kailani asked.

“How I knew you and Benjamin. You both looked familiar to me, but I couldn’t make the connection. You were friends with my younger sister, Theia, when you were all in college. She used to tell me stories about the parties at the legacy house, and who was there.”

“Ahhh, okay, I thought something about you was familiar when you were excited. I knew Theia had an older sister, but I didn’t realize it was you. Forgive me for saying it, but you don’t look a thing alike,” Kailani said.

“We have different mothers, and while I took after Dad, Theia got her mother’s blonde hair and blue eyes. Just one reason why I’m a theoretical physicist and not a geneticist. The loose mathematical predictability in genetics is brain-breaking.”

“You have different last names as well.”

Selene smiled. “Theia took her mother’s name, while I have our father’s. Theia said fuck the patriarchy and all that jazz.”

Kailani laughed, but Benjamin’s stomach clenched. He and Theia had gone to the same university, and it was Selene’s younger sister who’d told Kailani that Benjamin had moved on too quickly after they broke things off.

He hated that Kailani had interpreted that as him not caring. The truth was, he’d cared too fucking much, and leaving her had hurt like a bitch. He wasn’t proud of it, but his twenty-one-year-old self had determined the best way to get over her was to fuck her out of his system.

Shockingly…it hadn’t worked.

“How is Theia?” Kailani asked. “I’m ashamed to say she and I lost touch over the last few years. I’ve been busy with my family’s hotels, so I don’t get back to Boston as often as I should for galas and meetings.”

“She’s doing well. Anxiously waiting to be called to the altar. To say she’s impatient to meet her trinity would be an understatement.”

Kailani laughed. “As I recall, she’s been ready for her binding ceremony since the first day she officially joined the Trinity Masters.”

“It’s not her being romantic. It’s her being type A,” Selene joked. “Patience is not one of her virtues.”

“I will make a point to call her soon. I’m so sorry I let so much time go by,” Kailani promised.

Selene lowered her voice, leaning forward, and Benjamin tried to subtly shift closer, anxious to hear their conversation.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you and Benjamin date once upon a time?” Selene asked.

The seats in the plane had high, wide backs, so he couldn’t see Kailani at all. Of course, that also meant she couldn’t see more than the side, top part of his head. From her vantage point, he probably looked like he was engrossed in Oscar and John’s conversation.

“We did,” Kailani answered softly.

Selene was quiet for just a moment, and he realized when she spoke, she’d obviously been trying to recall bits and pieces of stories her sister had told her nearly a decade earlier. “Wasn’t it a bad breakup?”

Kailani sighed. “It was.”

“And now you’re in a trinity?”

“Not exactly,” Kailani said.

“Wait, you’re not married? When you showed up together, I thought—”

“We’re…sort of…maybe engaged.”

Benjamin’s heart began to race, and while he knew he should feel guilty for eavesdropping, there was no way he was going to stop now. He never went into a business deal without knowing all the facts. Surprises were a surefire way to lose the upper hand.

He was tired of flying blind in regards to how Kailani felt.

While she’d promised to go through with the marriage if the trinity wasn’t dissolved, she’d also vowed that she wouldn’t share a home, a bed, or a life with him.

After last night and this morning, he couldn’t help but wonder if her feelings were still the same.

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