Chapter Thirty-Seven

"Emily, great, you're here," Benjamin said. "Meet Alice, my fiancée, and the reason the sun shines for me."

I nodded, avoiding looking at her at all costs. Everyone was looking at Benjamin, their eyes bright. It was like being with a celebrity, his magnetism taking hold of everyone.

"I was just telling the story about how Alice stumbled upon your app and explained the potential of it to me," he said. "As you may have heard I stepped away from operational management, but she can be persuasive. So, here we are."

I breathed out slowly. Just as I had thought, Alice was the reason we were there. A perfect blow to my ego and belief in my abilities. Bloody hell, as Arthur would've said.

"Here we are," I said and smiled weakly.

"So, I was suggesting doing a small tour through the nearby villages today," Benjamin said. "I would like to show my favorite nooks here and there, quiet and comfy places I like to work at. They built an amazing new coworking center. You'll love it," Benjamin said, scratching his beard.

I had been fascinated by him. I had downed every piece of information I could find before the trip. But right then I was just angry, so damned angry. All my fascination had gone out the window.

Benjamin kept shifting his attention around the group, perfectly blending as a friend, not as a barefoot multimillionaire—our boss.

I put on a fake smile and kept nodding along, looking everywhere but at the blonde fae with eyes like a stormy sky.

It was impossibly distracting to sit there and try to make sense of what everyone was saying.

"Are you okay?" Olga whispered to me when Benjamin was talking to our senior software developer.

"Sure, why?" I replied, my voice more like a squeak.

She looked at my hands that gripped the sides of the stool I was perched on. I was almost hovering above it, the tension in my body trying to protect me from the minefield that surrounded me. My mind was a minefield too. I couldn't escape.

Just seven more days. God, this is a disaster, I thought.

Finally, Benjamin said that we could have a few hours to ourselves, and we should meet at noon at reception for our short tour.

After counting to five in my head, I waited for someone to stand up first. It was Jessica. I followed suit, my chair scraping the floor. The sound was razor-sharp on my nerves.

I nodded to no one in particular and almost ran from the terrace, down the wide stone stairs, toward the sound of the ocean. I almost crashed into a cleaning lady, mumbling apologies and going faster, faster to the stunning blue water. And then I was on the shore, far from the hotel.

There were soft footsteps behind me, of course there were.

A voice behind me said, "Stop running, Emily."

And I stopped, spinning around.

Alice was standing there, and that time I looked at her, truly looked at her. The years that had passed since I had last seen her only made her look more dazzling. The delicate features of her face were coated in sadness, but it was still so alluring. Images of her smiling, our lips pressed to each other, her arms around me, they all crashed into me in one moment.

I cut the distance between us in a few steps.

"How could you?" I said, pointing my finger at her. "How could you?" I said more quietly this time, my finger curling into my palm as I pressed it to my mouth.

I stepped back, our eyes locked. The roar of waves crashed on my left.

"Emily—"

"Don't," I lashed out. "You made it all happen, didn't you? You are the reason we're all here, right? Why?"

"Yes." It was all she said. She watched my face.

"Why?"

"I needed to see you."

I laughed madly. "There were easier ways to see me, easier than making your husband-to-be acquire my project! And what the hell is with the husband thing, Alice?" I walked closer to her. "You are gay! You are a lesbian! Or was it all a lie? Like the rest of the meaningless relationship we had."

It was as though I had slapped her. Alice took a step back.

"Right, so here I am," I said and waved a hand along the length of my body. "Say what you needed to say, why you dragged me here. Let's get it over with."

The anger sizzled in my every word. I was so mad my body trembled.

Alice just stood silent, watching me. I shook my head and turned to the ocean.

"I worked so hard on this project. I poured my soul in it, just to be so fucking used," I said.

"Ben loved it when I showed it to him, he used it for months before making the suggestion to the board about acquiring it. I just showed it to him, he decided on everything himself. You did an amazing job. I saw your ideas in the app. I saw you," Alice said quietly stepping to my side. "I didn't make him buy it, I just showed it to him."

"He said you persuaded him."

"It's impossible to persuade that man on anything. He made his mind up himself, I just nudged him."

"Why?" I asked again.

"You always wanted to work remotely, and in Ben's company it would be possible."

I laughed. "Thank you for your help, but I would have managed myself."

I turned and started walking back to the hotel.

"I knew you would," Alice said quietly.

My feet sunk into the warm sand as I tried to breathe.

I didn't look back.