All the sculptures are gone now—The Giselle Collection, and the others.
They left yesterday and are enroute to Marseilles.
I’m not sure if they were scheduled to leave so soon, but after what happened last week with Chelle in the workshop, I think Knight wanted them to depart sooner rather than later.
That workspace is clear now, as if he’s going to start something new, but to me, the ghost of each sculpture of Giselle still haunts the place.
Her presence is still there, along with Chelle’s haunting words of not being able to compete with Knight’s dead girlfriend.
Worrying about things you can’t control has never helped anybody. I know that all too well, especially when it comes to Knight and me, but I can’t shake the sadness of our upcoming end from my heart.
It makes me want to pull back, fall back, and protect my heart from the grief of what I know will break me, but I know I can’t do that either.
I just have to go with the motions like I’m trapped in a losing game.
We’re supposed to be going out for dinner tonight. Knight is meeting me in an hour, but I’m not in the mood to do anything.
I’ve been working late at Sunset Cove every night this week, and I’m here again tonight trying to get all the bookings arranged for the next few weeks.
This month has been particularly busy because of the time of year, but the resort has also garnered more attention because of the renovations, and the forties theme people are now talking about.
I’m sure Mom is smiling somewhere in heaven to see how much people are raving about her ideas. Knowing her, she probably threw a party with the rest of the angels.
Everything is pretty much done now. By the end of the month, the interior design will be completed, then all that will be left is the structural work on some of the buildings outside and the grounds.
I just hope I don’t wither away by then.
I’m exhausted, and quite honestly, I just want to go home and sleep. I don’t know if I have the strength to stay out late.
But when have I ever said no to Knight?
I won’t start now, knowing this could be one of the last few times we do this in the months to come.
Stifling a yawn, I down the rest of my espresso and focus on the spreadsheet I have open on my computer screen.
I get lost in my work until I feel a presence at the door. When I lift my head and find Nathan standing there watching me, I gasp, stifling a scream.
He looks absolutely terrible, and I have to admit I’m uncomfortable for seeing him.
Dad hasn’t mentioned him in months, and I haven’t seen him either, so why is he here again?
And at this time?
“Hi, Nathan,” I greet him with care.
‘Hello, beautiful.’ He walks in and closes the door behind him.
I always keep that door open, so it makes my skin crawl that he’s just closed it on me, locking me in here with him.
“I’m really busy at the moment, Nathan. Now isn’t a good time.” I look him over, assessing the sway in his next step when he moves even closer.
He’s drunk. He looks it, smells it, and is acting like it.
“You’re always dismissing me now that I’m broke.” He laughs as off-balanced as he looks. “Everything has gone to hell, and everybody screwed me over, even my own father. Now yours.”
God, what’s happened now?
“What do you mean?” I think I have an idea, but it’s best I don’t say anything and play ignorant.
This could only be about the job he wanted with my father. Dad said he was going to come to a decision this week after he’d finished one of his contracts.
I’m guessing from what Nathan is saying and how he’s acting, Dad turned him down.
“For all the years I’ve known your father, he couldn’t even give me a job when I needed it most.” Pain presses into his features as if he’s physically hurt. “Your asshole of a father knows my situation and that everything I’ve set out to do has failed like fuck, but he couldn’t help me.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” I can’t think of anything else to say, but it’s clearly the wrong thing because his face contorts with the same kind of rage you’d expect to see if I’d attacked him.
“Sorry? You little bitch, you’re just as bad as he is. How fucking dare you say sorry to me when you feel no such thing?”
The increase in his anger heightens my senses, and suddenly, I feel very afraid. I’ve never been around him when he’s been drunk before, and I doubt he had reason to be an angry drunk before now when he had everything.
I wish he would either leave or that Knight would come soon. But Nathan doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere fast, and Knight isn’t supposed to get here for at least another half an hour.
“I am sorry for all that happened to you—”
“Shut the fuck up. You’re not sorry one bit. Marrying Knight Grayson ensured that things worked out for you better than you could have ever imagined. You had no loyalty to me whatsoever, just the man with the deepest pockets.”
“That’s not true. You know what happened.”
“I do, but the two of you look so cushy to me, I can’t see you parting ways in the next few months.”
This discussion is not something I want to have with him when the end of my marriage is all I’ve been worrying about for the last few weeks.
“Nathan, you’re drunk. I think you should go home.” I try to sound calm, but the tremble in my voice gives me away.
My nerves spike when he rushes up to my desk and slams his fist into it, making my documents tumble to the floor.
“Fuck you.”
I jump up and back away. I need to call security or get to the panic button, but he’s right there in front of me. My cell phone is in my bag, the office phone is on the desk, and the panic button is under it.
And Nathan is coming toward me.
“Nathan, go home!” I cry, moving toward the door, but he grabs me, holding on to my arm so tightly it feels like he might break the bone and keep going.
“I’m not going anywhere until I’ve had my fill.” The dark look in his eyes tells me I need to get the hell away from him right now, before it’s too late.
With that fear, I pull against his vice-like grip, but I’m too weak, and all he does is laugh at my fruitless attempt to escape him.
“Let go of me!” I scream in hopes that anyone nearby, inside the building or out, will hear, but no one comes.
In my panic, I dig my nails into Nathan’s knuckles. He releases me momentarily, but only to backhand me right across my face. The impact and effect are so intense and painful I fall straight to the ground, hitting my head on the edge of the flowerpot.
The room spins, and I feel like I might be sick, but that’s the least of my worries because Nathan jumps on top of me and pins me down with his body weight.
When he tears off my top in one swift move and covers my mouth to muffle my screams, I know I’m in so much more trouble than I could ever imagine.
I can’t believe this is the man who only months ago professed to have my best interests at heart. This was also the man I was least worried about because I thought I knew him.
But what was that thing people say?
It’s the ones you know who surprise you the most and hurt you the deepest. In any crime of passion, the law always looks to the people who are close to the victim.
The people they thought they knew and could trust.
“You fucking bitch.” Nathan wedges his knee between my thighs and rips at my skirt and my panties. His roughness and unwanted touch make tears pour out of my eyes like a broken tap that can’t be fixed. “You act so fucking perfect, but I know all your dirty secrets. I know how you fucked your college professor and wrecked his home.”
My God. He knew? How did he know about that?
How the hell did he find out? I know for a fact Madison would never have told him.
So, how?
But maybe … it wasn’t that hard to find out if you were looking for something or keeping tabs on me.
“Seriously, Aurora. What a whore you are.” His harsh voice grates over my skin, along with the strong scent of rum on his breath. “You didn’t think to check up on a man like that? If you had, you would have known about his wife and kids long before his wife threatened to destroy you. You spread your legs for him. Now it’s my turn, you whore, whore, whore you–”
Suddenly, Nathan is yanked off me and is flying back into the wall.
Like an angry god, Knight flashes before me in the sliver of my tears, and then he’s on Nathan, punching the life out of him.
“Motherfucker!” Knight shouts into the flow of punches he delivers to Nathan’s face. “How dare you hurt her. I’ll kill you. I’ll fucking kill you.”
Terror has me crippled, but I manage to push through it just enough to sit up and see that Knight is battering Nathan.
Those words he said months ago come rushing back to my mind—I’ll kill for you.
He meant it. In all the time I’ve known him, he’s never said anything he didn’t mean.
Those words are the only thing that snap me into focus because I can’t allow him to do that. Even if Nathan deserves it.
“Knight, no, stop.” I rush toward him and wrap my arms around his back in an attempt to stop him.
It works, but Nathan looks like he’s been beaten to a bloody pulp.
He’s barely moving his head from side to side and groaning with pain, but at least he’s moving.
“Knight, please,” I stutter through my tears. “I need you.”
Those words loosen the tension in his shoulders like a magic spell. Knight moves away from Nathan and shuffles to face me, pulling me into the safety of his arms.
“Are you okay?” he mutters, cupping my face to inspect it for damage. “He hurt you.”
I taste blood on my lips, and my face is so swollen from where Nathan hit me, I can’t even lie. I’m hurt and in pain.
My lips part to answer, but all I can do is cry.
Knight insists on taking me to the hospital after the police arrive to take Nathan away.
Apart from the massive shiner over my eye and the black and blue bruises on my cheek, I’m okay physically. Emotionally and mentally, no.
The last time I had such a horrible experience was the night so long ago when I nearly died, and Dad saved Mom and me. It’s the kind of thing you try to forget, but from time to time, the memory resurfaces.
Tonight stirred the dark remnants of that experience in my soul and created its own wretchedness.
Knight happened to get to Sunset Cove early because he had a cancellation. Such a thing rarely happens in his schedule. Maybe Mom was looking out for me again.
If Knight had been a minute later … well, Nathan would have raped me, then I don’t know what I would have done.
He did enough damage by hitting me and practically tearing my clothes off my body.
I can still feel him on me with his horrible breath and venomous words.
He called me a whore repeatedly. No one knows just how damn much I loathe that word.
I know Knight heard that part, but I’m not sure if he heard the reasons for it.
I think he might have, but he’s being careful with me because he can see I’m a mess.
He takes care of me for the rest of the evening, and I cling to him, barely allowing him to leave my side.
The next morning, we wake at sunrise and head out to the wicker chairs on the terrace. He makes me tea and cookies, but I have no appetite, and everything tastes like soap.
When we got in last night, he had Denise make me all my favorite things.
I wasn’t in the mood to eat, but I did it to be polite. I’m not sure I can do that again today.
“You don’t have to have it if you don’t want it,” Knight says, taking the teacup from me. He sets it down and returns his gaze to me.
“I’ll have some later.”
“Is there anything else you need me to do?”
I shake my head. “No, I’m just…still shaken.”
“Of course, you are. I wish I’d gotten there sooner. I hate you seeing me fighting, but I feel like I didn’t do enough.”
“You did enough.”
“Not to me. I don’t feel like I dealt with Nathan properly, but I’m not finished with him. He’ll pay for what he did.”
“Please don’t get in any trouble for me, Knight.”
He runs his finger over my knuckles. “There are many ways to make that asshole pay. Prison isn’t enough for him. By the time I’m finished with him, he’ll beg for death. He attacked you physically and verbally. I can’t let him get away with just a mere prison sentence.”
I dip my head and fight more tears, which come anyway. I grab a napkin and dab at the corners of my eyes. When I look at him again, I feel like it’s time I explain myself and clarify that I’m not a whore.
“Did you hear what he was talking about?” I meet his curious gaze.
“The professor and his wife?” Knight asks cautiously, confirming my thoughts.
“Yes.”
“Was any of that true?”
Feeling embarrassed, I look down at my hands, then back to him. “Yes, but I’m not a whore.”
“Of course not.”
“It’s important that you understand that I’ve only ever been with two men in my life. One of them is you.”
On hearing that, his eyes widen slightly, with obvious surprise. “What happened?”
“After my mother died, I had an affair with my college professor. It was so stupid of me, but what was worse was that I never knew he was married. Married with two kids. He had an accident and died. Days before his funeral, his wife paid me a visit with the truth.” It feels so strange to say those words outside my head. I’ve never actually had to say that much to Madison. By the time I found myself in trouble, she already knew ninety percent of the story. “I was so very foolish. That was my biggest mistake.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“It was,” I insist because it’s true, and I have to own my part. “I should have known better. Everything about him was so secretive, more than what we were, but I couldn’t see. I believed him and allowed him to charm me out of my dignity. That wasn’t even the worst part. His wife is Rachel Caseros, daughter of Lachlan Caseros, the media mogul. She threatened to destroy me because of what I did, so every time I apply for a job with a magazine I want to work for, she gets them to reject me. That’s what happened the first night you and I met.”
The light of understanding forms in his eyes.
“How long has this been going on?”
“Years now. That’s why I ended up doing my mother’s job at Sunset Cove and not writing for a magazine. I kept it a secret from everyone except Madison, so I have no idea how Nathan found out. She definitely wouldn’t have told him.”
“There are ways of finding things out if you’re looking in the right places. I suspect he had you checked out to ensure he knew your secrets.”
“I just wish he didn’t know. The whole thing is bad enough as it is. While I was writing my application for People Magazine, I worried Rachel would get to them too, but I didn’t let it stop me from trying. Even if she has the power to stop me from getting my dream job, I at least wanted to try.”
“Listen to me.” He takes my hands into his. “Don’t worry about this anymore. I’ll take care of it.”
I search his eyes, feeling hope in this awkward time. “How will you?”
“Let me worry about that. Try to push last night behind you and the past. That’s all I want you to do. I’ll take care of everything else, and you won’t have to worry about Rachel or anybody else ever again.”
I study his face, checking if he’s serious. As always, he is. “Knight, you don’t know what you’re offering me. This has been a hole in my heart, crushing me for years.”
“I’ll always take care of you, Aurora. Always.” The promise in his eyes warms my heart, healing the scars that have lived on the surface for so long I can’t remember what it’s like to feel normal.
“Always sounds like a long time, Knight. Longer than the next three months.”
“I know, but maybe I stopped thinking about the next three months when I realized I want always with you.” For once, that darkness that always resides in his expression isn’t anywhere to be found. What I see in him is light and hope. It makes me believe we have our own special connection that’s sacred to him and me. It’s something that makes me feel that I never had to compete with Giselle. “We could have always if you want it, too.”
I’m nodding before he can even finish the sentence. “Yes. I do. I absolutely do want always with you too.” It feels like we’re taking our vows again, but unlike on our wedding day, my heart is soaring into the heavens with the joy of loving him.
“Then let’s do always, Aurora Grayson.”
“Let’s do it.”
Knight pulls me into his arms and holds me close to his heart.
Locked in his embrace, I feel love as strong and as tangible as we are, and I contemplate this pivotal moment between us.
There will be no end.
No divorce at the end of our six months of marriage.
I’d already fallen so hard for this man I couldn’t see a future without him, but now I love him even more.
I already know that’s how I’ll feel, always.
